Fascinating Unheard Facts About Bollywood

Being one of the largest film industries across the world, Bollywood has also set several world records and there are other crazy facts too that leave you stunned. For all the Bollywood buffs in you, here’s some enlightenment on the facts that will, for sure, blow your mind.

#Comedy Of Errors Multiple Adaptations In Bollywood Movies: Gulzar conceived the idea of Angoor while he was working with Bimal Roy in Do Dooni Chaar, another adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Comedy Of Errors. Film Do Dooni Char which was a remake of 1963 Bengali language comedy film Bhrantibilas, that is based on Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's Bengali novel by the same name, which itself is based on Shakespeare's play The Comedy of Errors. All characters are innocent and destiny plays the main role in bringing all characters to one place.

#Guide Movie In Hindi and English Version: How different directors interpreted the real story in different manners. One of them was a known Hollywood name Ted Danielewski. Guide was first actually made as a 120 minute English film for the western audiences in collaboration with writer Pearl S. Buck (of The Good Earth (1937) fame) and director Tad Danielewski. So it was not a dubbed film as many might be thinking but was shot as a complete English movie with all the dialogues spoken by the entire Indian cast in the foreign language itself in an impressive manner. Dev Anand began both the English and Hindi version together to be shot simultaneously directed by two different directors (Tad Danielewski and Chetan Anand). But things didn’t work out well as both had distinctive visions of the script and wished to shoot it in their own individual way. So a quick decision was taken to finish the English version first and then take on the Hindi one later as per Chetan Anand’s vision with a re-written script. Unfortunately the English version flopped badly and didn’t work despite being a big collaboration with many renowned names.

#Ek Chatur Naar Sung By Ashok Kumar: Did you know that Ek Chatur Naar (Padosan) was originally from a 1941 film Jhoola and was voiced by Ashok Kumar?  ‘Ek Chatur Naar’, was actually not from Padosan. And it was originally not sung by Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey. Or that it was originally not picturised on those lovable goofballs — Kishore and Sunil Dutt on one side and Mehmood on the other. The song actually was sung by Ashok Kumar, Kishore Kumar’s elder brother. What’s more, Ashok also sang the original song. The song was a part of 1941 film Jhoola, a hit of its time.

#Phantom Character From Comic: Did you know that Rajesh Khanna was so impressed with the character of Phantom that he designed an entire sequence in his film Bundal Baaz around it, and who directed the film? None other than the ever joyful Shammi Kapoor.

#Komagata Maru Recreated in Bollywood Film:  It was the ship which was not allowed to enter in Canada due to harsh immigration laws.White villains. Brown heroes and victims. Evil spies. The Komagata Maru story provided fodder for many artistic projects, including a little known, rarely seen Bollywood film in the 70s. The ship had more than 375 people who were forced to return to India where the passengers were gunned down by the British police force. Recently, the Canada government has issued a stamp regretting their lack of vision in 1914. This incident became the backbone of 1974 film Jeevan Sangram. When the Komagata Maru arrived in Budge Budge, India. Through a series of drawings and live action, we see and hear about the riots that broke out when the ship arrived in India, and how many of the passengers were killed by the British Indian police. Baba Gurdit Singh, Arjun (Shashi Kapoor), and others escape.

#Gulzar's Film Libaas Which Never Released: Sili Hawa Chu Gayi and Khamosh Sa Afsana are still the favourites with RJs and listeners, especially during the late night shows. But, have you seen the film? These are from Gulzar's film Libaas which was never released.  Libaas is based on Gulzar’s short story Seema from the Raavi Paar collection. Theatre director Sudhir, played by Naseeruddin Shah, and his actor wife Seema, portrayed by Shabana Azmi, seem to be the picture of married bliss, but appearances are deceptive – this is, after all, show business. Sudhir’s childhood friend, TK (Raj Babbar) enters their lives, the inevitable happens.

#Longest Kiss In Bollywood: The longest ever kiss in a Bollywood film stands at four minutes. Devika Rani and her real-life husband Himanshu Rai shared the embrace in the 1933 film Karma. The movie is also credited as having Bollywood's first song in English.

#Record Of Most Filmfare Awards: Dilip Kumar and Shahrukh Khan have both won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor a record eight times. Both played the iconic Saratchandra Chatterjee hero Devdas in different eras and with different directors.  Interestingly they both live in bungalows that are controversial and disputed. Dilip Saab’s bungalow in Pali Hill is even now in the news for being coveted by a builder. As for SRK’s bungalow Mannat it is always in the news. Amitabh Bachchan has the record for most nominations, with 30.

Shah Rukh Khan, Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna