10 Things About Bollywood You Didn't Know - And Did Not Want To Ask Anybody Either!

[Guest guest]

Friends and fans of bollywood

this was one of the forwards I received today... and I could not

control my urge to pass it on to you guys.... so, here are more

Bollywood fundas for you...

Enjoy

Ameet 1993

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10 Things About Bollywood You Didn't Know - And Did Not Want To Ask

Anybody Either!

1. Famous Bollywood choreographer P.L. Raj's full (real?) name is

. He adopted the name Raj to avoid the minority tag.

Remember, even Yusuf Khan had to adopt a more audience-friendly name!

Also, P.L. Raj is the father of (Lezz of Colonial

Cousins).(PL Raj is the " guru " to today's famous choreographer Saroj

Khan and PL Raj had choreographed hits like " Hoton pe aisi baat " from

Jewel Thief and songs from old Don)

2. In the film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, the names of the two main

protagonists are Sudhir Mishra and Vinod Chopra - after the two

filmmakers. They were classmates with Kundan Shah at the FTII and the

trio had a pact that whoever got the first break would name characters

in his film after the other two!

3. Product placements have almost become the norm nowadays. But when

the trend was still in its infancy, there came a movie called English

Babu Desi Mem (1996) - starring Shahrukh Khan and Sonali Bendre. It

had the most audacious product placement by Bhilwara Suitings. They

sponsored the hero's name. Yes, Shahrukh's name was Mayur in the film.

(He was also endorsing the brand at that time.) Pity, not more than a

hundred people saw the film!

4. In the film Khoon Bhari Maang, Rekha is shown to have gone abroad

for cosmetic surgery after a murder attempt invloving a crocodile!

When she lands back in India, she takes a cab at the airport and gives

her home address. The address is " 10th North South Road Juhu " .

Incidentally, the most famous house on that road is named Prateeksha!

Coincidence?

5. Amitabh Bachchan's voice over for the introduction scene of

Shatranj Ke Khiladi is quite well-known. However, his first ever

cinematic assignment was also a voice over... in Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan

Shome (1969). And he is duly credited as 'Amitabh'. This was probably

before he left his job in Calcutta.

6. Karz is the one film which has the highest number of song mukhdas

that have been made into films. It had four - Main Solah Baras Ki (Dev

Anand, though not in the title role!), Paisa Yeh Paisa (Jackie Shroff

and Meenakshi, I think), Ek Haseena Thi (Urmila Matondkar, Saif Ali

Khan) and Dard-e-Dil (no details known).

Now the fifth has been announced - Om Shanti Om (Farah Khan's next

starring SRK as Om and Deepika Padukone as Shanti)!

7. All the major stars of the day have acted in their debut films as

child artistes. Aamir Khan as the child Tarique Hussain in Yaadon ki

Baaraat. Hrithik Roshan as a super precocious kid in Bhagwaan Dada.

Bobby Deol as the young Dharmendra in Dharam Veer. Karan Johar in a TV

serial called Indradhanush (which had a very interesting plot about a

time machine) - as a goofy friend of the hero. And if you are going to

let me go even deeper, then I can include Shweta Bachchan whose mother

was pregnant with her during the filming of Sholay.

8. A common misconception is that Nargis was the first Indian actress

to appear in a swimsuit on scree. Actually, the first ever swimsuit

scene in Hindi cinema was in a film called Brahmachari (not to be

confused with the Shammi Kapoor one) - and it was done by an actress

called Meenakshi. Boldness clearly runs in the blood as she has two

grand-daughters - Shilpa and Namrata Shirodkar!

9. MBAs are extremely under-represented in the professions of Hindi

film heroes. Probably the earliest was Jeetendra - in a film called

Sharda - where he joins a company and then marries his boss' daughter!

The great Mithunda was asked to get a diploma from Ahmedabad (by his

wife - Moonmoon Sen) before he landed a high paying job in the film

Sheesha. He molested his secretary immediately afterwards.

Incidentally, his secretary was Mallika Sarabhai - a real-life

graduate of IIM-A! Atul Agnihotri (Veergati) and Anil Kapoor (Hum Aap

ke Dil mein Rehte Hain) are other self-confessed MBAs. The last one I

can think of is Hrithik Roshan (in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Ghum) cons his

dad to finance a MBA in London - but sings songs with Kareena at a

thong-prom instead!

10. RD Burman probably has the highest number of uncredited hits - as

per industry folklore. A large number of 'fast tracks' credited to SD

Burman is rumoured to have been composed by RD, because of the elder

Burman's distaste for western music. Starting from Sar jo tera

chakraaye (Pyaasa) right down to Roop Tera Mastana (Aradhana) are

attributed to RD.

Another apocryphal story is of the first break he got. His friend,

Mehmood was about to produce a film and RD assured that he would

convince SD to compose the music. Buoyed by RD's confidence, Mehmood

had already drawn up the contract (on stamp paper) when he landed up

at the Burman residence. Hearing the 'modern' story, SD chucked both

of them out. Mehmood did not have the money - either to get another

stamp paper neither or any other music director. So, he just crossed

out the Sachin in the contract and wrote out Rahul instead!

I hate using this cliche - but, the rest is history!