Bappi Lahiri realised disco was a winning ticket and escalated his game with several more dancefloor perennials. Soon, every film producer and music director in town was down with disco fever. On what would have been Bappi Lahiri's 73rd birthday this November 27, Dinesh Raheja rewinds to the late music composer's halcyon days.
Singer-actress Sulakshana Pandit, 71, passed into the ages on November 6 after a prolonged illness. Besides her acting roles, she leaves behind some beautiful songs to remember her by.
After spinning into the spotlight with the hit song-and-dance number Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu in Howrah Bridge (1958), Helen signed scores of films as a dancer. But Helen was raring to step out of her dancing shoes, and play heroine instead.
The song that best encapsulates Geeta Dutt's unfairly abbreviated life would probably be: Yaad Karoge, Yaad Karoge, Ek Din Humko Yaad Karoge. On her 95th birth anniversary on November 23, Dinesh Raheja pieces together the life of this talented singer.
Asrani may have never been a marquee name up in sparkling lights or on outsized posters but the sheer proficiency with which he realised his characters has unleashed gales of laughter over five decades and made a significant contribution to several landmark films. Dinesh Raheja salutes the iconic actor.
'You have become a big star. How can you play a secondary role to Meena Kumari?'
'One is not allowed to smoke on the sets of a Hollywood film even during a break.' 'When I asked an assistant to suggest some place where I could light a cigarette, he recommended the bad boys' corner -- where Jack Nicholson smoked.' 'However, I hesitated.' 'But when I was heading back to my chair after the shot, Jack Nicholson asked me if I wanted to join him for a smoke. We had a long conversation over cups of cappuccino.'
While Amitabh Bachchan's chemistry with his heroines -- from Jaya Bhaduri to Rekha to Hema Malini -- brought sizzle to his films, many of his biggest blockbusters have been powered by his combustible combination with male co-stars.
Dinesh Raheja salutes Sandhya, the acclaimed dancer who passed into the ages on October 4.
'I always considered him as a director, never an actor. Do you know he always considered other actors for his films first?' 'For Pyaasa, he wanted to cast Dilip saab; only when Dilip saab refused did Guru Duttji decide to do the role himself.'
As the digital age turns children into informed, opinionated little adults, what guardrails should parents employ? Parents with new-age sensibilities admit to oftentimes feeling stumped. A psychologist, a principal and an eye doctor suggest how they can navigate this new parental landscape.
Dinesh Raheja charts the highs and lows of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's creative association with five megastars -- Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dharmendra.
'Everyone at Guru Dutt Productions would get monthly salaries. Waheeda didi would get Rs 2,500 per month. And that was the reason why she left.'
'On the set, he was this big personality, the great Om Puri. But at home, he was like a fluffy teddy bear.'
Dinesh Raheja celebrates Lata's 96th birth anniversary on September 28 by picking some choice examples of her non-typical songs that are tinged with a rare eroticism.
'I fell in love with Suraiya and that was my first real gafla. The more I couldn't get her, the more I wanted her. When I couldn't marry her because the world didn't want it, I cried for the first time.'
'If I'm playing Shah Rukh Khan's role, then of course, I would have loved to do it.'
'Abrar uncle said he had started drinking from the afternoon on that fateful day. And he continued drinking till late at night.' 'Thereafter, he must have consumed some sleeping pills, as was his habit.' 'I think that combination went fatally wrong.'
'Pahlaj Nihalani came to my rescue. There was no Instagram in those days so I didn't recognise him.' 'I almost fainted when he told me he was Pahlaj Nihalani, the producer of Ilzaam, the hit film that had just made Govinda a star.' 'I told him I was a model and an aspiring actor, and he responded, "You have an interesting face. Come and meet me in the office tomorrow".'
Raakhee, who turns 77 on August 15, remains an enigma wrapped in a riddle. Dinesh Raheja remembers Raakhee telling him how she loves the rains and how she would drive down to Tulsi Lake in the 1970s and float paper boats in the water. He would like to imagine that Raakhee still does that at her farmhouse.
'I played five different versions of Woh Subah Kabhie Toh Aayegi for Raj Kapoor, only to be greeted with a totally blank reaction.' 'Thereafter, for 40 minutes, he disappeared, leaving us baffled.' 'But when he emerged, he couldn't stop appreciating our efforts!' 'He said Sahir Ludhianvi's writing was sheer poetry and since all my five tunes were equally wonderful, he would leave it to my discretion to chose the final tune.' 'What could be greater appreciation for an artiste?'
'I make films which I think have the possibility of being liked by a majority of people, and you present it with the right emotions.'
Kareena has been a leading lady now for 25 years, Deepika for almost two decades and Alia for over a decade. Dinesh Raheja chronicles the changing ways Bollywood has treated actor-moms.
Because of Mukesh's much-hailed association with Raj Kapoor, it is often overlooked that the singer has also scored hits with almost all major heroes. On Mukesh's 102nd birth anniversary on July 22, Dinesh Raheja recalls some of his classic songs.
'Bappi Lahiri was looking for a break so he and his father would meet me.' 'I told Director Bhisham Kohli about this promising young boy from Kolkata, and Bappi came over with his harmonium.' 'Bappi played this composition and Bhisham liked it immediately.' 'As we were discussing, I said I would give the words, and that's how I wrote this song.'
'The industry has never accepted me.' 'When I was shooting Aashiqui, I would hear comments like, "Yeh toh bahut lambi hai. Heroine nahin dikhti hai".' 'Aashiqui became such a big hit, and you know how the industry is.' 'You have success, then you have everything.'
'My trajectory right now is five steps forward, two steps backwards.'
'Being signed on as the leading man of Hero came to me like a bolt out of the blue.'
'Alaya has kept her career disconnected from me in every way.' 'She wanted to achieve success by herself without any help or interference.'
'Shreya (Ghoshal) ma'am said she hasn't heard a voice like mine before, and added that even in the future, there won't be another voice like mine.'
'Those were not kind days for a woman with a break-up. The world has changed; today, nobody cares.'
'Dharmendra was paying a little extra attention to me and she didn't like it.'
'At the age of 68, I am in the best phase of my life.' 'What I have left of my life, I want to live with dignity.'
'My mom had told me a great deal about Meena Kumari and how she could make a tear drop at the right moment. A legend who was in total control. But when I finally met her, I saw a frail, shrivelled and petite woman -- just a bag of bones. Very tiny. She was dying.'
'I saw Bimal Roy's Devdas again a few years ago, almost 50 years after it had been made.' 'I found it very intelligently made; the scenes flowed so beautifully.' 'There is just one scene with both Suchitra Sen and me in the film, and it's beautiful.'
'Even today, though my hair looks different, people recognise me wherever I go. They come up and say 'Aap Maine Pyar Kiya mein thi, na?' I think it's going to follow me to the grave.'
The Bachchan family have this knack of going out of their way to make you feel extremely comfortable.
Today's Hindi film mothers are younger, trendier, more mischievous. But, truth be told, says Dinesh Raheja, I still do miss sometimes the comforting presence of the trad mother.
Dinesh Raheja looks back at Manoj Kumar's brilliant 1964 thriller Woh Kaun Thi, and explains just what made it an audio-visual treat.
'K Asifsaab was very definite that 'woh Hindustan ka honewala Badshah hai -- woh gana nahin gayega.'
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