When Manoj Kumar said, “To call Kranti a multi-star film is an insult to my product because…”

By Jyothi Venkatesh

Today happens to be the 86th birthday of Mr Bharat Manoj Kumar. To pay tribute to the great thespian, we at Cine Blitz are reproducing an interview taken by Senior Journalist Jyothi Venkatesh exactly 43 years ago for the now-defunct women’s weekly Eve’s Weekly (4th October 1980).

“Times have changed. Filmmaking has undergone rapid changes. I waited for nearly two years after Roti Kapada Aur Makan was released before I launched Kranti. But today I cannot afford to idle away my time after Kranti is released, because I have got to feed my staff. I just cannot think of lazing around scouting for ideas after Kranti is made. In fact, right now I am toying with a couple of ideas which may take concrete shape when I am free enough to devote my time to the new project”, said Manoj Kumar walking across his lawns clad in a colorful lungi and kurta, with a file in his hands scribbling notes about Kranti being readied for an early release.

“There is a belief in the industry that I am the pioneer of the trend of multi-star films. I do not subscribe to this view. When I launched Roti Kapada Aur Makan, Zeenat, and Moushumi had not become the stars to reckon with as they are today. Shashi Kapoor was at the lowest ebb of his career, while Amitabh had only a couple of films to his credit since Zanjeer had not been released. However, by the time RKM was released, all of them had become stars and hence my film was hailed as a multi-star film. While some accuse me of having started the trend, some compliment me on my achievement. To call Kranti a multi-star film is an insult to my product because it is basically an artiste-oriented project, where the star has absolutely no role to play. I signed Dilip Kumar, Hema, Shashi, etc for what they are worth as artists and not with the intention of cashing in on their star status.”

Also read: Privacy director Sudeep Kanwal: “Privacy is not talked about much in India for some reason”

“I need a change very desperately now after involving myself behind the camera for three years as a producer, writer, director, and actor in Kranti. I have decided to allot my dates as an actor after Kranti is released to producer Balbir’s Santosh in which I have been cast along with both Hema and Raakhee and Sohanlal Kanwar’s Papi Pet Ka Sawaal in which I will be leading the cast. A new film of mine will be launched by Mushir and Riyaz. I do not want to grab each and every assignment that I am offered. I want to do a few select outside films before I ready myself for my next directorial assignment, which I promise you will really be BIG.

“I am planning to launch not one but two films after Kranti. I will not be directing both because I am keen on launching the careers of my assistants Ashok Bhushan and Veeru Devgun. Both of them deserve a big break as independent directors. I do not know whether they will be multi-starrers or new star-cast films. The directors will have to decide on that because as a producer I don’t think I have any right to impose my personal preferences on my directors just because I am giving them a break.

“Salim and Javed wrote the script of Kranti and I wrote the dialogues. I suggested the idea of Kranti to them and they worked on it to give me the complete script. I am a slave to my script and I respect my script writers. Though Salim and Javed had given me the full liberty to change the script if the film demanded it, I did not want to misuse the liberty they had given me. I did change here and there but before I went on the floors I would ring them up and ask them for their permission. They told me not to embarrass them by asking them their permission. Go ahead with the necessary changes and inform us after the day’s shooting is over, they used to tell me.

Also read: The Trial actress Sheena Chohan: “I try to be like a blank page for my directors”

“Though it is almost 22 years since I had started acting by making my debut at the age of just 19, with the film Sahara, I have acted till date in only 38 films. It has not been a very easy climb for me as far as stardom is concerned. I had to struggle a lot in the initial stage of my career. In the film Fashion, though I was just 19, I played the role of a 40-year-old beggar. In films like Picnic, Naqli Nawab, and Reshmi Roomal, I was nothing but a glorious junior artiste. It was not until I started acting in films like Anita, Do Badan, and Grahasti that I noticed. Though till then success eluded me and I had to my credit a lot of flops, I can without any hesitation state that my success ratio is as good as that of Don Bradman.

“I never condemned the West in my film Upkar though I had set out to show the contrast between India and the West in it. How can we forget that it was the British who had given us railways? We say everything is there in our Vedas but why are Vedas not taught in schools today? To date, though it is true that I have acted in roles that have had gray shades in some of my films, not even a single producer has offered me a negative role, thanks to my clean and pure image as Mr. Bharat.

“I remember I used to fight in the crowds by braving the heavy rains just to buy a ticket to watch Dilip Kumar’s films. Mera Naam Joker, Kagaz Ke Phool etc did not click at the box office but no one said that Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor are cheats. If you make your film with great conviction, even if you fail, it’s okay. If you don’t, then you can’t make your mark as a filmmaker.

Also read: Remembering thespian of Tamil cinema Sivaji Ganesan on his 23rd death anniversary

“I was not keen on taking up direction and was quite content with my job of acting in films as a leading man. It was only when Sitaram Sharma, who was directing Shaheed with me in the lead, started asking me what he should do next as a director, I decided to direct the film unofficially because the producer Kewal Kashyap was my friend and I did not want him to suffer. The day I started dabbling in direction, I gave away my wristwatch to my wife because wristwatch and filmmaking do not gel at all.

“When I was acting in Grahasti with S.S. Vasan, he was so impressed with my approach to filmmaking even as an actor that he predicted that one day I would become a great director. Vasan also asked me to direct a film if at all I decided to direct a film officially in my career. Eventually, I did become a director but I did not go to S.S. Vasan to offer my services as a director and once when I was seated with Indira Gandhi and S.S. Vasan at a function in Delhi, Vasan told Indiraji that I was a rascal since I did not direct a film for his banner Gemini, though he had predicted that I would become a great director.

Also read: Remembering Rajendra Kumar aka Jubilee Kumar on his 94th birth anniversary

“Greed has absolutely no end to it at all. When I came to Bombay, in 1956, I wanted to be a hero and earn three lakhs- one for myself, one for my parents, and one for my brothers and sisters. In 1954, I started courting my wife and married her after seven years but was so bashful that I did not even talk to her for a year and a half. Thanks to God’s grace, by the time I married when Haryali Aur Raasta was released in 1962, I managed to get more than five lakhs of rupees.

Manoj signs off. “It is not important that I shoot. What is important is what I am setting out to shoot. It is my duty as a filmmaker to entertain the audience. Both Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor were brilliant filmmakers but never wrote scripts for their own films, though I have written and directed all my films. I was just 10 when I saw Dilip Kumar’s film, Jugnu. After I became a director, I got the good fortune of directing Dilip Saab in my film Kranti. What more could I have asked for, as a boon from God?