Mumbai: One afternoon in 1988, young actor Surendra Pal Singh reached producer-director B R Chopra’s Juhu office. Chopra wanted to cast him as Dronacharya in his soon-to-be-launched television serial Mahabharat.

Singh, however, did not want to play the “boodha” (old man) Dronacharya and walked out of the office. Chopra called him back. Sitting in a corner of the office was veteran novelist, poet and scriptwriter Rahi Masoom Raza (1927-1992), chewing paan.

“When I said I wouldn’t play the old man Dronacharya, Rahi sahab flared up. Clearing his throat after spitting out the juicy paan, he said in a commanding voice: ‘Young man, Dronacharya is an army general and you will not regret playing him.’”

Singh never regretted taking up the role. Mahabharat went on to capture India’s imagination, earning millions for Chopra and turning Raza and several actors into household names.

“Even today at airports, people call me Mahabharat’s Dronacharya. Rahi sahab was a great writer and a nice human being,” said Singh, now a popular actor.

As Rahi’s centenary begins, admirers from the worlds of literature and entertainment are planning a series of commemorative programmes.

The celebrations will also correct a major error in Raza’s biography. “Some people wrongly wrote Rahi’s birthday as September 1, 1927, and it stuck. Research shows Aug 1, 1927, was his birthday. Through our year-long programmes, we are also rectifying this mistake,” said Ather Farouqui, general secretary of Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind), Delhi.

The organization plans to publish Raza’s major works, including his landmark novel Adha Gaon (Half Village), originally written in Urdu. Due to the politics of the time, Raza’s friend Kunwar Pal Singh published Adha Gaon in Nagari (also called Devanagari) in 1966.

Set in Gangauli village of Ghazipur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the novel was among the first Urdu works to explore the lives of Shia Muslims during the tumultuous period of Partition in 1947.

An ad hoc Urdu lecturer at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Raza was forced to leave Aligarh after he married the wife of an army officer related to the Nawab of Rampur. Using his influence in AMU’s Urdu department, the Nawab ensured that Raza left Aligarh. AMU’s loss was Mumbai’s gain.

Besides Mahabharat, Jagjit Singh’s composition and rendition 'Hum To Hain Pardes Mein, Desh Mein Nikla Hoga Chand' remains among Raza’s many memorable songs and ghazals.

“If Mahabharat became an integral part of our lives, ‘Hum To Hain Pardes Mein...’ is a popular idiom,” said Asif Azmi of Maati, a cultural organisation that is also beginning Raza’s year-long centenary celebrations today.