After assisting producer-director-actor Raj Kapoor for 11 years and working as second unit director to Rahul Rawail, his senior in the RK camp, on films like Betaab and Arjun, Kuku Kohli (below; left) finally landed a break as an independent director when Dinesh Patel agreed to invest in an action-packed love story and a pair of fresh faces. Akshay Kumar had been penciled in as the lead when he landed a big break in Pramod Chakravorty’s Deedar. “Since Pramod da was an established maker while I was a debutant, Akshay understandably gave priority to his film over mine. I was all charged up and my budget was tight, so, I wanted bulk dates. But he could only accommodate me for 2-3 days between Deedar’s shoot. Since, that did not work for me, I started looking around for another new boy,” reminisces Kuku ji.

Action director Veeru Devgan was a friend and he would drop by his office often. One day, a photograph of his son caught his eye and he told Veeru ji that he wanted to audition Ajay. The screen-test went off well, with the boy delivering his dialogue with aplomb and performing the scenes with impressive intensity. “I saw an emotional depth in his eyes that I wanted to bring to the screen and immediately signed him on,” recounts Kuku ji, who subsequently spent hours with a delighted Veeru ji discussing and planning the many fight sequences.

Twenty-nine years later, one still remembers Ajay Devgn’s explosive entry straddling two bikes and Kuku ji applauds the tireless, fearless actor who pulled off not just the most daredevil stunts without duplicates, cables or VFX, but also faced a seasoned performer like Amrish Puri, who played his father, an ageing don, in the film, in the emotionally dramatic scenes without missing a beat. “I knew then itself that he was destined for glory,” asserts the director.

However, since Ajay was still a newcomer then, finding a leading lady proved to be difficult. Undeterred by the many excuses and no-nos, Kuku ji put out an advertisement announcing Phool Aur Kaante with Ajay holding a girl whose face was not visible. “Soon after, Hema ji’s (Malini) niece, Madhoo, sent her photographs across to the office. She looked good and we signed her opposite Ajay. She turned out to be a good actress too,” he smiles.

While they were shooting Ajay’s entry on the bikes, a couple of big producers, friends of Dinesh Patel, had dropped by for a dekko. They would watch Kuku ji run, from left to right, and back, and wonder aloud what he was doing. But despite their misgivings, the film shaped up to everyone’s satisfaction and the response from the aam janta to the trailer also was phenomenal. Encouraged, a confident Kuku ji took another gamble, announcing that they would be releasing it on November 22, 1991, coming up against Yash Chopra’s Lamhe which featured Sridevi in a double role and Anil Kapoor, whom Kuku ji knew from his RK days. “Yash ji was a big filmmaker, Anil and Sridevi were superstars and Lamhe was an eagerly awaited film. Our film had only debutants and everyone laughed at our audacity, calling us mad,” narrates Kuku ji.

He admits that they were equally sure that Lamhe would run to full houses and were only hoping that the audience overflow would come to them. “No one had ever imagined that the reverse would happen. Phool Aur Kaante packed in the crowds for 74 straight weeks and would have easily celebrated a platinum jubilee had it not been pulled out to save on doling out bonuses. However, in its 76th week, it returned to the theatres and continued its triumphant run till the 81st week,” Kuku ji guffaws.

What’s more, despite all the maar-dhaad and rona-dhona, Nadeem-Shravan’s music was a rage, with romantic songs like “Tumse Milne Ko Dil Karta Hai”, “Dheere Dheere Pyaar Ko Badhana Hai” and “Maine Pyaar Tumhi Se Kiya Hai,” continuing to resonate even after almost three decades. So, is a sequel on the way? “I have a beautiful script ready with me. I have still to narrate it to him but if Ajay is interested and has the dates, I would love to return to Phool Aur Kaante,” Kuku ji signs off on an ebullient note.