Filmmaker to take forward Ballu’s story with a younger villain joining in, has also scripted a new version of his directorial debut
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 27, 2020)

The Coronavirus outbreak may have brought the entertainment industry to a standstill, but Subhash Ghai is working eight-10 hours a day. “I talk for an hour each with the students and faculty of my acting school, watch films and shows, then, for three hours a day, work on scripts. For the last six-seven months we have only been creating content and now, I’m ready with two bound scripts—a sequel to Khalnayak and a remake of my first directorial, Kalicharan,” the filmmaker informs.

The 1993 action thriller revolved around a gangster, Balaram Prasad aka Ballu, who escapes from jail and falls in love with an undercover cop, while continuing to elude the force, kills his mentor, then, has a sudden change of heart and appears in the court to absolve his Ganga, the cop. The film ends with him behind the bars again. “Part 2, which took us two years to script, starts with Ballu coming out of prison. It will also feature a younger villain,” reveals Ghai, pointing out that Sanjay Dutt, who played Ballu, was the one who urged him to write a sequel.

He promises a blockbuster cast, like the original, which also featured Jackie Shroff, Madhuri Dixit, Raakhee, Ramya Krishnan, Anupam Kher, Pramod Moutho and Neena Gupta in a special appearance in the chartbuster “Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai”. Interestingly, the controversial song did not feature in the original script. “Khal Nayak was planned as a Hollywood film, with Omar Sharif and Ashok Amritraj as the producer. But I opted out because I didn’t want to make a film in a language I wasn’t too familiar with,” says Ghai, who then decided to make it as a small art house movie with Jackie Shroff and Nana Patekar as cop and criminal. “It eventually rolled out as a mainstream masala movie, with a heroine, love story, a mother track and half-a-dozen songs woven in, as dictated by the formula, and Sanju as the khalnayak,” shares Ghai.

He promises to upgrade his craft so the new Khal Nayak finds a connect with the new generation. Point out that the pandemic has created a fear psychosis and it may be a while before the audience goes back to the theatres, and he retorts, “In that case, we can turn it into a six-hour digital series by developing the characters. A thriller can engage people across mediums.”

He’s equally charged up about the remake of the 1973 action drama, Kalicharan, which was a breakthrough film for Shatrughan Sinha, who had a double role, of a fearless cop and a fearful criminal. Ghai discloses that the actor, who was a busy villain then, had thumbed it down when he’d first narrated the script to him, dismissing it as another cop film. “When N N Sippy decided to produce it, names like Sanjeev Kumar and Rajesh Khanna cropped up. But I pointed out that I’d written the subject with my friend in mind. This time Shatru loved the subject,” he reminisces, admitting that back then, he was just a storyteller and relied on his technical crew to take him to the finish. The film was a huge hit and remade in Tamil (Sangili), Telugu (Kaidi Kalidasu), Kannada (Kaalinga) and Malayalam (Pathamudayam). “Two-three young stars had showed interest in a remake over the last couple of years, given the contrasting characters. It’s a gripping screenplay, the plot will be the same, but the treatment will be very newage,” Ghai concludes, all geared up to get back into action.

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 26, 2019)

“Sara sheher mujhe Loin ke naam se jaanta hai…” The distinctive baritone, with a slight nasal twang, which pronounced these words with a glint of menace in the eyes and much conviction, may have been silenced, but the memory of a suave, soft-spoken gentleman-baddie who, in reel life, never did the dirty work himself, is still vivid.

I met Ajit saab who played 'Loin' of the 1976 action-drama Kalicharan, masquerading as an honest do-gooder Din Dayal, decades later. By then, the cult villain had retired from showbiz. We spent a happy afternoon at his Bandra apartment, going through three dusty, bulky albums, with him explaining the genesis of each photograph. Our conversation revolved around Madhubala, the Venus of Hindi cinema and his muhboli bahen, since I was writing a piece on her. However, with his silver mane and Pathan build, he still looked every inch the ‘Loin’, though a benign one.

“Kalicharan was the first film I directed and the role of Din Dayal aka Lion had been written with Ajit saab in mind,” reminisces Subhash Ghai, 43 years later. “So, when I was narrating the script to my producer, N N Sippy, I unconsciously imitated Ajit saab’s voice and mannerisms while speaking his lines. I was delighted when I got the go ahead to take the role to him.”

The plot with all its ingenious twists and turns appealed to the veteran actor. But after letting him speak without interruption for around 40 minutes, he informed the enthusiastic young director that he wanted to say something. “Ajit saab then went on to tell me that since he was from the stage, his performances tended to get a little theatrical. ‘I will do your film, but you have to make sure I don’t go overboard. Mujhe sambhal lena,’ he said, his modesty touching my heart,” the filmmaker flashbacks.

He assured the senior actor that the character had been penned with him in mind, so it was okay for Ajit saab to get a little dramatic at times. He had full confidence in his acting prowess and knew he would pull off the role with panache. “But all through the shoot, he was like an obedient student, following my instructions, on intonation, voice modulation and histrionics to the T,” Subhash ji marvels.

It was only on one count that he let Ajit saab have his way. “He would pronounce ‘Lion’ as ‘Loin’ and I consciously did not correct him, knowing that his diction would make the word distinctive. And I was right. Four decades later, people still remember him by that dialogue,” he exults, remembering him as a thorough gentleman who was the perfect match for Shatrughan Sinha, fiery in the double role of Inspector Prabhakar and hardened criminal Kalicharan who is sprung out of jail to end the Loin’s reign of terror.

Apart from being Hindi cinema’s unforgettable ‘Loin King’, Ajit saab also spawned a cottage industry of jokes on the eponymous Bass (Boss) to his molls, Mona Darling and Silly Lily, and his henchmen, Mikal (Michael), Raabert (Robert), Tony and Peter. And even though these jokes never got a laugh out of him, I can’t but repeat one of them here.

Raabert has twins and wants the Bass to christen them. He is quick to oblige, “Eka ka naam rakho Peter…”

Raabert beams and urges, “Boss, aur doosre ka?” Pat comes the reply, “Repeater.”

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 23, 2017)

It was classical music that forged a ‘tuning’ between ‘zamindar’ Prem Nath and his on-screen son Subhash Ghai who were cast in the 1973 Punjabi musical Sherni which went on to celebrate a silver jubilee run. “We shot in Punjab for 40 days. He was a big star then while I was just a newcomer but the divide was quickly bridged when he discovered that I could sing and play the tabla. I became his favourite and he’d call me ‘Sonny’ off the sets too,” the ‘showman’ reminisces.

Three years later, ‘Sonny’ went on to direct the veteran actor in his first directorial, Kalicharan, in which Prem Nath played IG PN Khanna to Shatrughan Sinha’s Inspector Prabhakar/Kalicharan. Ghai remembers that Prem Nath was delighted when he learnt that his boy was making the transition to direction and loved the role even suggesting that the film be retitled I G Khanna since it was his story. Ghai told him he’d think about it but the next day was adamant that Kalicharan was an apt title. “I was afraid he might refuse the film, but he not only accepted the offer but enhanced the film with his performance,” exults a still ebullient Ghai.

Next up: Vishwanath in 1978 with the same team of Sahtrughan Sinha, Reena Roy and Prem Nath. This time played a multimillionaire, GNK, who travels with a convoy of 40 cars to show off his money power. He played the role with elan and Vishwanth was a bigger hit than Kalicharan .

Reciting a popular dialogue from the film, “Jali ko aag kehte hain, bhuji ko raakh kehte hain, jis raakh se barood bane, use Vishwanath kehte hain,” Ghai remembers the man he called Swamiji, saying, “Prem Nath ji was a real character who drank five different kinds of liquor with a ‘mala’ in his hand. In our 10 year association through five films— Kalicharan, Vishwanath, Gautam Govinda, Krodhi and Karz—I wrote diversely different characters for him that brought out the best in him.”

His best-remembered role is undoubtedly that of bad man Sir Judah from Karz. Ghai laughingly admits that he has no idea where the name cropped up from, but it suited the godfather Prem Nath played. “When I told him I wanted him to play a mute, he laughed and asked, ‘You are fed up of my vocal power now?’ Actually the reason was that the role wasn’t big in terms of screen time and I wanted to compensate length with strength. I gave him a sidekick to translate his telegram signals into words. It was a gamble making a powerful vocal actor like him speechless but he enjoyed the challenge,” Ghai beams.

He adds that his Swamiji was a musical, spiritual and loving man who was an impulsive philanthropist. He would insist that he be paid a lakh more than the hero and would decide on his remuneration depending on the day a filmmaker approached him. So, if it was December 6, his fee was Rs 6 lakh and if it was 29 th of the month, he asked for Rs 29 lakh. “But if a really needy person approached him on the set, Swamiji would take his instalment from the producer and give it to him to take care of his family,” he informs.

Prem Nath demise on November 3, 1992, broke the ‘tuning’ they shared. “Tuning was a word he used to describe if he was in sync with the director and happy to work with him. Agar tuning na ho to he was not open to a collaboration. It was a word that many others picked up later. As long as he lived, we were on the same page and even today, 25 years later, I miss that tuning,” says Ghai. He would have turned 91 on November 21.