Little Known Facts About Mughal-E-Azam

Directed by K. Asif and released on August 5, 1960, Mughal-E-Azam is one of the biggest Bollywood movies of all time. The film is widely considered to be a milestone of its genre, earning praise from critics for its grandeur and attention to detail.

Set in the 16th century AD, Mughal-E-Azam brought to life the tale of the doomed love affair between the Mughal Crown Prince Saleem and the beautiful, ill-fated court dancer, whose fervor and intensity perpetrates a war between the prince and his father, the great Mughal Emperor Akbar, and threatens to bring an empire to its knees. here are some interesting but little known facts about Mughal-E-Azam:

• At the 1961 National Film Awards, Mughal-e-Azam won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.
   
• In the 1961 Filmfare Awards, Mughal-e-Azam was nominated in seven categories: Best Film, Best Director (Asif), Best Actress (Madhubala), Best Playback Singer (Mangeshkar), Best Music (Naushad), Best Cinematography (Mathur), and Best Dialogue (Aman, Wajahat Mirza, Kamaal Amrohi, and Ehsan Rizvi). In spite of being nominated for a Filmfare Award under the best actress category, Madhubala did not walk away with the award. In fact, it was given to Bina Rai for Ghunghat. What was shocking and rather surprising was that Dilip Kumar and Prthiviraj Kapoor were not even nominated for their performance. Even Naushad was nominated for a Filmfare under the music category but he lost out to Shanker Jaikishen for Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai. It won only 3 Filmfare Awards and they were for Best Film, Best Cinematography, and Best Dialogue.
   
• For the battle sequence, 2,000 camels, 4,000 horses and 8,000 troops were used. Many of them soldiers on loan from the Indian Army.
   
• Mughal-e-Azam's original cast featured Sapru, Chandramohan and Nargis. The film was shelved for five years when Chandramohan died, halfway through shooting, and then recast with Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Madhubala.
   
• When the advance booking of Mughal-E-Azam opened, there was chaos and near-riots at Bombay's famous Maratha Mandir. Fans reportedly waited in queue for days. The tickets were dockets containing photographs and trivia about the film and are now considered collector's items.
   
• In the movie Kala Baazar, the premiere of "Mughal E Azam" was shown as a live event where Dev Anand does blackmarketing of the premiere shows tickets.
   
• Dilip Kumar was not the first choice for K Asif's magnum opus but the actor is said to have been convinced by the film's producer. The role of Anarkali was also allegedly offered to Suraiya but later went to Madhubala. It is said that the latter was suffering from a congenital heart disease at that time but continued shooting for the film. Prithiviraj Kapoor, who essayed the role of Emperor Akbar, took 19 retakes to get one scene right and he was even asked by the director to regain the weight he had lost to play Akbar's role.