Rishikesh Mukherjee did not give scripts even to veteran actors: if the actor came late on the set, the shooting was cancelled; Rajesh Khanna paid ₹ 1 lakh fee in 'Anand' film

Today is the 18th death anniversary of one of the finest directors of Hindi cinema, Rishikesh Mukherjee. He made great films like 'Guddi', 'Anand', 'Milli', 'Chupke-Chupke', 'Satyakam', 'Golmaal', 'Namak Haram'. In his films, he showed the stories of the middle class very lightly. This is what made him stand out from other film directors.. If a big star was late on set, the shoot would often get cancelled. He did not hesitate to scold stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra on the sets, but still every big star dreamed of working in his film. When he cast Rajesh Khanna in 'Anand', Dharmendra felt so bad that he drank alcohol and harassed Rishi Da by calling him all night. He was awarded with awards like Dadasaheb Phalke and Padma Vibhushan. He directed 42 films in a career spanning four decades. Today, on Rishi Da's death anniversary, let's find out some interesting facts about his life and films… Rishi Da was an editor in Bimal Roy's team. Rishi Da was born on 30 September 1922 in Kolkata. He did his schooling from Kolkata. He did his graduation in Chemistry from Calcutta University. He was also a mathematics and science teacher for some time. He started his film career as a cameraman and then B.N. Worked as a film editor in a government theater in Kolkata. Rishi Da came to Mumbai in the 50s. He was working as an editor in Bimal Roy's team. He worked with Bimal Roy in theaters for about five years. Once during their free time, their team thought let's watch a movie. Arrived to watch Akira Kurosawa's movie 'Rashomon' at Eros Cinema. Everyone was silent when they returned after watching the movie. Then Bimal Da asked who is there in our team who can write such a big story? Rishi Da said, 'Give me a chance to write.' It was from here that the foundation of Bimal Roy Productions was laid and Rishi Da started showing his best work. His directorial debut was 'Musafir', while his second film 'Anaadi' won five Filmfare Awards, but Rishi Da lost the Best Director award to his mentor Bimal Roy. After 'Anaadi' he directed many films. Actors were not given scripts, Amitabh Bachchan considered Rishi Da as his godfather. Remembering him, Big B once wrote in his blog, We have not heard any script or any story. We used to come to the sets. He (Rishi Da) used to tell us, stand here, walk here, speak dialogue like this, speak your words like this in the scene. His directing style was simple. The artists had no input into this. Whatever you saw in his films was only his input. Rishi Da did not allow the actors to enter the editing room Big B narrated another incident related to Rishi Da in his blog, saying that Rishi Da never showed us the shot parts of the film. He always showed the final product. In those days, actors were not allowed to enter the editing room. If someone secretly peeked into the editing room and Rishi Da saw them, a fine had to be paid. There were no video editors then. In such a situation, the best scene came out from the director's vision. If the stars came late, they would cancel the shoot. There is a famous incident connected with the shooting of Rishikesh Mukherjee's films. Once a big star reached his set at around 12:30 pm despite his 9 pm shift. Since Rishi Da doesn't like people coming late to the sets, he didn't say anything when the stars came. When the star got the make-up done and was ready to give the shot, suddenly Rishi Da said that the shooting will not happen today. No one knew when his mood would change. Another story is that once Amol Palekar was shooting with him. He gave a shot that was pretty good but Amol felt he could do it better again. When Amol persisted despite Mukherjee's refusal, Mukherjee took the shot again, but kept the earlier shot in the final film. While playing chess, he would suddenly start shooting. Rishi Da worked with Gulzar in several films. Gulzar himself was going to direct the film 'Guddi', but for some reason Rishi Da had to take the responsibility of directing the film. When he completed the film and it became a hit, Gulzar himself said in an interview that Rishikesh Mukherjee's work was in a completely different genre. He does not believe in extra shots or extra angles and being an editor, he edits many scenes in his head. Sometimes he would play chess on the shooting set and then suddenly stand up and start giving shooting instructions. When Asrani was made to wear suit-boots keeping the scene secret Asrani said in an interview that the shooting of the film 'Chupke Chupke' was going on and there was a scene that Dharmendra was not told about, as Rishi Da kept his scenes secret from the actors. were He made me wear a suit for a scene. Then Dharmendra came there in a driver's clothes and was surprised to see me in a suit and said… 'Have I become your driver? What is the next scene? How did you get the suit?' Rishi Da, sitting far away, said, 'Dharmendra, what are you asking him? If he knew anything, he wouldn't be a director. The only bold film made in the career was a flop. Rishi Da also made an offbeat and bold film called 'Sabse Bada Sukh'. Actors like Asrani and Utpal Dutt have done unbelievable work in it. Film critics even said that it seemed like Rishikesh Mukherjee was trying an experiment in the 70s. He was thinking of doing something revolutionary by making such a film, but he chose the wrong genre. The film was a flop due to the feel of B-grade cinema. Kishore Kumar got angry when his guard stopped him at the gate Rishi Da had first cast Kishore Kumar in the film 'Anand', but in those days Kishore Da had a dispute with a Bengali producer and instructed the guard that any Bengali Send him away who comes to meet him. One day Rishi Da reached his house, but the guard did not let him inside. This made Rishi Da very angry and he dropped his intention to make a film with Kishore Kumar. Dharmendra harassed him with drunken phone calls throughout the night In 1971, when Rishi Da was planning to make the film 'Anand', he first narrated his story to Dharmendra during a flight from Bangalore to Mumbai. Dharmendra was very happy and said that I will do this film. A few days later news came in the newspaper that the film's hero would be Rajesh Khanna. What happened next Dharmendra drank a lot and then called Rishi Da late at night and said how can you do this to me? Rishi Da continued to explain him calmly and said that Dharm, we will talk in the morning, but Dharmendra kept repeating himself. While doing this he did not let Rishi Da sleep for the whole night. Rajesh Khanna reduced the fee of 'Anand' by 7 lakh rupees. When Rishikesh Mukherjee was making the film 'Anand', Rajesh Khanna was earning 8 lakh rupees in those days. When Rajesh Khanna learned that the film 'Anand' had been rejected by many big actors, he hurriedly contacted Rishi Da and told him that he was ready to do the film. Then Rishi Da told him that if you want to work with me, you have to accept my three conditions. Must come on time. More dates have to be allotted and the third condition is that the fee should be Rs 1 lakh. Only you will get it. Rajesh Khanna agreed to all their conditions without saying a word. The climax of the film was changed for Rajesh Khanna. When Rishi Da was making the film 'Namak Haram', he knew that the hero of his film was a superstar. The film was originally supposed to feature Amitabh Bachchan's character dying in the climax, but Rajesh Khanna felt that Amitabh could gain popularity by doing the death scene, so he insisted to Rishi Da that the death scene be filmed on him. He also garlanded his photo. When Amitabh came to know about this, he was disappointed. However, when the film released, the audience liked Amitabh Bachchan's acting more than Rajesh Khanna's. Seeing the reaction of the audience, Rajesh Khanna never did any film with Amitabh again. Died 2006 Rishi Da died on August 27, 2006 in Mumbai at the age of 83. He was admitted to Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai due to kidney disease. Only his caregivers were with him at the time of death. His wife died a long time ago. He had three daughters and two sons who visited him from time to time during his illness. Amitabh Bachchan wrote in his blog – He was in ICU during his last days. I visited him at the hospital several times, but I did not have the courage to see him in that condition. One day I gathered courage and went to see him. His entire body was wrapped in wire. Several types of machines were installed, his eyes were closed and he was breathing through a ventilator. Then they suddenly woke up and opened their eyes. He saw me and his face lit up. Then with great difficulty I took his hand out from between the pipe and the tube and held it. He stared at me for a long time and then turned his head and motioned for me to leave. He died the next day.

Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).