Chhaayaageet #265 - “Agar maine yeh film ki, toh mera career khatam ho jayega.”
If I do this film, my career will be over.
The year is 1970, and the lead actor is the one every filmmaker in the film industry wants to hire. He is a budding star with a string of hits. He also has a personal dream to fulfill now. He needs to buy a big house.
A filmmaker from South India travels to Bombay with a script and a briefcase.
He meets the lead actor and makes him an offer that he can’t refuse. “Main aapko is film ke liye dhai lakh rupaye dena chahta hoon. Ye aapka signing amount hai.” I want to give you 2.5 lakh rupees as a signing amount for this film.
The lead actor is stunned. It is a massive amount of money. He feels good about his stardom. That dream house seems a lot closer now. Without reading a single page of the script, he takes the cash and pays the down payment for his dream home.
A few days later, the lead actor finds the script still sitting on the coffee table and finally decides to read it. His heart sinks. What are these animals doing? The plot feels outdated and totally out of sync for his Hindi film fan audience. Since this is a remake of a Tamil movie, they have hired this young duo writer team to write the screenplay. They are just starting their career. The lead actor immediately reaches out to them.
“Agar maine yeh film ki, toh mera career khatam ho jayega.” If I do this film, my career will be over. He almost pleads with the writer team.
“Aur agar maine paise waapas kiye to ghar haath se nikal jayega.” And if I return the signing amount then I lose my dream house. He continues pleading.
The writers decide to give it a read. How bad can it be? They both read the script and they can’t believe it. It is awful. This will be a suicide for the lead actor’s career. They all decide to go and meet the filmmaker.
The filmmaker loves animals and they were in the original Tamil version. He insists that the animals have to stay in the movie. The writing team stand their ground and want to get rid of the animals in order to write a story for the budding superstar. The filmmaker shoots it down. That is a non-starter. The writers go back and start whispering their counter offer.
“Humein hero ke saath chaar haathi manzoor hain, lekin baki sab badalna hoga.” We accept your hero and four elephants, but everything else must change. The writers put down their offer firmly.
The filmmaker agrees. The writers go back and rewrite the entire screenplay to make it emotional and modern for the Hindi-speaking audience. They make room for the elephants too. Now, the film needs a soul. It needs music.
The lead actor goes to the studio to meet the duo composers and the lyricist. They need a title song that captures the friendship between a man and his elephants.
The lead actor tells the lyricist. “Gana aisa hona chahiye jo sabko jhumne par majboor kar de.” The song should be such that it forces everyone to dance.
The lyricist writes simple but catchy words. The composers create a rhythm that matches the heavy, rhythmic footsteps of an elephant.
The singer is brought in to give the song its playful energy. He adds his signature style, making the song feel like a conversation between friends. Except the friends are animals here.
You can watch the actual video the song here on YouTube.
Rajesh Khanna played the lead actor role in the film Haathi Mere Saathi. Anand Bakshi wrote the lyrics of the song Chal Chal Mere Saathi, Laxmikant Pyarelal composed the music and Kishore Kumar provided the playback. Chinnappa Thevar wrote the story for the Tamil version of the film, Deiva Cheyal and also produced the Hindi version of the film. Salim-Javed were the screenplay writers. This was their debut film.
Rajesh Khanna had quickly climbed the ladder of stardom with hits such as Aradhana and Do Raaste. As a result all producers were reaching out to him including the ones from South. In order to entice him in their movies, they were offering large signing amounts to lock him in their films.
Chinnappa Thevar, a producer from South did the same and gave Rajesh Khanna 2.5 lakh rupees as signing amount. Rajesh Khanna had his eye on Rajendra Kumar’s bungalow that was up for sale but did not have sufficient cash on hand. This signing amount helped him to close on that house. Unfortunately he did not read the script prior to doing this. Once he read the script, he realized how awful it was and did not match his persona as a romantic superstar. But it was too late since he had used up all the money and had no other option.
He reached out to Salim-Javed who were starting their writing career with this film. They both agreed with Rajesh Khanna on the quality of the script. They were able to negotiate most parts with the Chinnappa Thevar except a few elephants. They decided to make it a movie about friendship between the lead actor and his elephants. Based on this concept Laxmikant Pyarelal worked with Anand Bakshi to create the title song.
The film’s music on HMV won a Silver Disc for its sales, making it the first-ever Indian gramophone record to do so.
Singer: Kishore Kumar
Music: Laxmikant Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
*ing: Rajesh Khanna, Tanuja
Producer: Chinnappa Thevar
Screenplay: Salim-Javed
Film: Haathi Mere Saathi (1971)