The 14,500 sq ft skate park built by the duo near Udaipur

Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 17, 2019)

Arre O Sambha..., the character from Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay, played by the late Mac Mohan, remains memorable even after four decades. Now, Mirror has learnt that his daughters Manjari (writer-director) and Vinati Makijany (co-writer-producer) are all set to make India’s first feature film on skate-boarding, titled Desert Dolphin.

Manjari may be making her B-Town debut with the film, but she is not new to the world of cinema. The LA-based filmmaker has worked for nearly 12 years, directed three short films and won several awards nationally and internationally. She has worked with filmmakers like Christopher Nolan on Dunkirk and The Dark Knight Rises, Patty Jenkins on Wonder Woman and Vishal Bhardwaj on Saat Khoon Maaf, besides other projects like Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Wake Up Sid and Gandhi of the Month.

For her debut, she chose to come back home and make a film with women empowerment at its core. Set in a remote village in Rajasthan, Desert Dolphin is about 16-year-old Prerna, a village girl who finds courage to skate against all odds when her path crosses that of Jessica, 34, a graphic artist from Los Angeles who’s looking for deeper joy in life. For the film, the makers have made India’s largest skatepark, spread across 14,500 square feet with 100 ramps, in the Khempur village near Udaipur with the help of premiere skatepark specialists and the skateboard coaching group HolyStoked Collective.

With skateboarding officially entering the Olympics in 2020 and with no other park of this calibre and design in India, the team hopes that it will serve as a local and international training ground for future champions and add to the growing trend of skate-boarding in the country.

Manjari, who was exposed to the skateboarding culture during her time in LA, says that it was a video of the sport transforming lives in a small Madhya Pradesh village that grabbed her attention. “Upon further research and meeting the skaters there, I realised the concept was inspired by Skateistan in Afghanistan. This led me to dig deeper and I began my research in September 2016, immersing myself in the correlation between skating and social change,” she says.

Vinati, who is producing the film, asserts that the idea was to involve as many real skateboarders as possible in the project. “During auditions, we reached out to the skateboarding communities in India. I travelled to Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, villages in Rajasthan and Mumbai and spent a few days workshopping with over 3000 kids,” she signs off.

Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; August 16, 2015)

Jamie, daughter of veteran comedian Johny Lever, remembers director duo Abbas-Mustan dropping in to their house often. After all, Lever Sr, one India’s best-known funny men, has featured in several of their films. She recalls Abbas-Mustan, in their stark white outfit which got them their Men In White monicker, often lounging around in her living room.

Years later, their spotless white trademark outfits remain, only now Jamie is an actress in their film, not the daughter of an actor. Lever Jr features in their upcoming comic caper, Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon, which marks the debut of the country’s current comic flavour, Kapil Sharma.

Ask her how she bagged the role, and Jamie’s reply is quick. “No,” she drawls. “It is not that dad told them.”


Star value
It’s known that star kids get offers on a platter even before they are ready to act. Not that the opportunities come without pressures. Often, the younger generation is compared to their parents and has to constantly battle expectations. But, it can’t be argued that getting a launchpad for them is a tad easier — if not in a home production, another star will turn mentor as Salman Khan did for two star kids — Athiya Shetty (daughter of Suniel Shetty) and Sooraj Pancholi (son of Aditya Pancholi) in his production Hero. But there are other industry kids looking for a foothold in Bollywood. They are offsprings of character actors, technicians, action directors and writers. Though these roles are integral to the industry, the kids come without the star tag.

Actress Manisha Kelkar (above), daughter of the late writer Ram Kelkar explains, “It is a case of being there, but not yet there.” Her father passed away in 2002, “so I don’t know if things would have been different had he been around,” she points out. Kelkar Sr penned several of Subhash Ghai’s films including Ram Lakhan (1989) and Khalnayak (1993).

Her childhood memories, like Jamie’s, too are replete with faces of big Bollywood names alongside her fathers — producers like J Omprakash and Subhash Ghai among them. “In those days hotel rooms would be booked for story writing sessions. It would invariably be the Fariyas hotel at Lonavla or Sun-n-Sand at Juhu. We, as kids, would tag along.”

In fact, Ghai had told her brother Yogesh that he would launch him in Saudagar (1991), but that never happened and her brother then showed no interest in acting.


Name dropping
Finding themselves at the periphery, these industry offsprings can’t go around dropping names as a sure ticket to land a role. Nor would reams be written about them being tomorrow’s star.

It’s a lesson Vicky Kaushal has learnt. Acclaimed for his role in Neeraj Ghaywan’s critically-acclaimed film Masaan, Kaushal found himself struggling for roles just as any newcomer would do. But, Kaushal is the son of action director Sham Kaushal. Vicky says, “You are just like anyone else. Nobody is going to cast you because your father is part of the industry too. You have to audition and do the rounds like any non-industry person interested in an acting career.”

Jamie adds, “I cannot be going around and saying, ‘Hey, can you launch me? I am Johnny Lever’s daughter’.” Abbas-Mustan saw her in an online spoof which she had done in Gujarati. Her antics in the video fetched her a role. “And guess what?” she drawls. “This is one of those rare films of Abbas-Mustan featuring Jamie, not Johny Lever.”

Jamie has been doing stand-up acts and was part of the comedy television show, Comedy Ka Maha Muqabala. Ironically, on the show she was to team up with Kapil Sharma, who then left the show to do Comedy Nights With Kapil. But as fate would have it, Jamie now features with Kapil in her debut film. “I did not want to be here, there and everywhere. Over-exposure can be dangerous in Bollywood. I stuck to stand-up acts, anchoring and comedy shows. I avoided being part of soaps. Now that I want to act, I am still a relatively fresh face when it comes to Bollywood.”


Reliving tales
Manisha, on the other hand, began with Marathi films and veered towards Bollywood with Lottery (2009) and Bandook (2013), both of which are better forgotten. She says, “I am blessed to be part of the industry, but when I go for auditions, I do not mention my father’s name. When the old-timers get to know, they share anecdotes about him…It is nice to hear others talk fondly about my father, but it need not translate into work.”

Manisha recently featured in an online short film, Friend Request. She still does the rounds of auditions and hopes for that big break.

Veteran actor Mohan Bhandari’s son Dhruv (above) echoes her sentiment. A popular face on the small screen, Mohan has featured in films like Bawandar (2000), Pratighaat (1987) and Paheli (2005). Says Dhruv, “having a father from the same profession makes no difference. I had to struggle. When people come to know who my is father, the expectations rise.”

Ultimately they feel that hard work and luck — the biggest driving force in Bollywood — matters. Who knows who will make it and who will not?

As Dhruv adds, “There is no easy way out. No one gives you work because of your background. There are enough examples of children with famous fathers, who did not make it big.”

A decade ago Dhruv was slated to make his debut along Pulkit Samrat in a television show called Sixerrr. The show failed to take off, Pulkit went on to become a Bollywood actor. Dhruv went on to do television and then did a film that was better forgotten. He now has a fresh lease of life with his ongoing television show Tere Shehar Main.

Making it
Vicky fetched acclaim in his award-winning film Masaan, but he still has to go through the rounds of meeting people, auditioning. His next film Zubaan is slated to release in October. After Masaan, he knows he has to work harder, as expectations are high. According to him, his father did not mix his professional and his personal life. “So, I did not hang around the sets. I have studied engineering, but went on to do theatre and become an assistant director till Masaan made people notice me.”

Wish fulfilled
On the other spectrum, there are stars like Akshay Kumar who go the extra length to help. A couple of years ago when his business manager Vikas Bali passed away he decided to fulfill his wish to make his son Vedant Bali an actor. As Vikas had been associated with the Khiladi ever since he stepped into Bollywood, Akshay took up the responsibility. Vedant featured in I Love Desi which released earlier this year. Akshay’s decision to help his manager’s son find a foothold is an exception rather than a rule in B-Town.


Divine intervention
Manjiri Makhijani, daughter of Mac Mohan (best remembered as Sholay’s Sambha), who passed away in 2010, attributes it to “God’s grace” that she could rope in Tom Alter as well as music composers Salim-Sulaiman for her film, The Corner Table, made for the festival circuit. When she made up her mind to direct film, he gave her tips. Manjari has worked as an assistant director for films like Wake Up Sid (2009) and 7 Khoon Maaf (2011). She began with a short film, The Last Marble, about a street child that fetched her honours on the international film festivals circuit. Directing Bollywood films is top on her to do list.

There are not many from the periphery who have made it to the top of the heap. But then Salman Khan — writer Salim Khan’s son — reigns over Bollywood. As Manisha explains, “You can never know what clicks, if you are lucky and blessed, things just happen.”

As Sholay completes 40 years, we bring you some trivia as well as unforgettable dialogues from the cult classic
MID-DAY (August 10, 2015)

The 1975 cult classic 'Sholay', whose success is cinema folklore, completes 40 years on August 15. Directed by Ramesh Sippy, the film starred Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra in lead roles along with their respective wives, Jaya Bachchan and Hema Malini. Incidentally, the film had bombed on its initial release in India, but went on to become a blockbuster after it was withdrawn and re-released a few weeks later.

hitlist rewinds to 20 iconic dialogues from the film and shares 20 did-you-know trivia associated with it..

20 interesting tidbits
>> Sanjeev Kumar’s character of Thakur Baldev Singh was named after writer Salim Khan’s father-in-law Baldev Singh Charak.

>> Sharman Joshi’s father, Arvind Joshi played one of Sanjeev Kumar’s sons.

>> Dharmendra was keen to play Thakur Baldev Singh, but relented when director Ramesh Sippy informed him that Kumar would play Veeru. As Dharmendra was in love with Hema Malini, he agreed.

>> Before the film’s shoot, Sanjeev Kumar had proposed marriage to Hema Malini and she did not want any scenes with him.

>> Amjad Khan was almost dropped from the project because writer Javed Akhtar found his voice too weak for Gabbar Singh’s role.

>> Gabbar Singh has only nine scenes.

>> Sachin Pilgaonkar received a refrigerator as remuneration for his acting.

>> The train robbery sequence (filmed at a railway line near Panvel) took about 20 days to shoot.

>> Mushtaq Merchant plays two roles — one, as the train driver and the other as a Parsi man whose motorcycle Jai and Veeru steal

>> Shatrughan Sinha was initially cast for Jai’s role, but Amitabh Bachchan convinced the producers that he was ideal for the role.

>> Salim Khan had recommended Amitabh Bachchan for Jai’s character. It met with some opposition, but a trial of Zanjeer convinced them to cast him.

>> A qawwali, Ke Chand Sa Koi Chehra, was recorded but dropped owing to the movie’s length. It was sung by lyricist Anand Bakshi besides Manna Dey, Kishore Kumar and Bhupendra.

>> Javed Akhtar had proposed Amjad Khan’s name after spotting him in the play, Ai Mere Watan Ke Logon.

>> Filmmaker Manmohan Desai was first approached by Salim-Javed for this movie. He was busy with Chacha Bhatija (1977) and could not accept the project.

>> Mac Mohan traveled 27 times from Bombay to Bangalore to shoot for the role of Sambha, who had only three iconic words to say, “Poore pachaas hazaar.”

>> Sholay’s budget was nearly Rs 3 crore.

>> Veteran singer Manna Dey was supposed to sing the Mehbooba Mehbooba track, but when it was recorded in the voice of R D Burman, it sounded so good that Dey requested it to be the way it was.

>> Sholay’s producer G P Sippy gifted all leading stars gold bracelets on the film’s diamond jubilee.

>> Six counterfeit coins with a head on both sides were specially made for the coin tossing sequence.

>> The lighting of the lamp scene by Radha (Jaya Bachchan) after sunset took 20 days to film, but was there for hardly two minutes in the film.

>> Amjad Khan (Gabbar Singh) bought his army fatigues from Chor Bazar.

>> Sholay took nearly two and a half years to complete.

20 unforgettable dialogues
>> Basanti, in kutton ke saamne mat nachna

>> Chal Dhanno, aaj teri Basanti ki izzat ka sawaal hai

>> Arre o Sambha, kitna inaam rakhe hai sarkar hum par

>> Tera kya hoga, kaliya?

>> Aaadhe idhar jao... aadhe udhar jaaoo... baaki hamare peeche aao

>> Bahut yaaraana lagta hai

>> Yeh haath humko de do Thakur

>> Tumhara naam kya hai, Basanti?

>> Jo darr gaya samjho marr gaya

>> Holi kab hai... kab hai holi

>> Suwar ke bachchon

>> Hum Angrezo ke zamane ke jailer hain

>> Itna sannata kyu hain bhai?

>> Yahan se pachas pachas kos door gaon mein jab bachcha raat ko rota hai, toh maa kehti hai bete soo ja, soo ja, nahi toh Gabbar Singh aa jayega

>> Ek ek ko chun chun ke maaronga

>> Kutte... Main tera khoon pi jaunga

>> Yeh Ramgarh waale apni betiyon ko kaun chakki ka pisa aata khilate hai re?

>> Sardar, maine aapka namak khaya hai... ab goli kha

>> Kya samajhkar aaye the? Ki sardar bahut khush hoga, shabashi dega?

>> Yeh haath nahi... phansi ka phanda hai