Lata Didi’s cricket connect;Happy birthday to the Nightingale of India.

The Nightingale of India, Lata Mangeshkar, popularly called Lata Didi turns 92 today. Didi said that she will celebrate her birthday with a family dinner and respecting COVID norms and restrictions, only close relatives will attend the dinner. She said that it is due to God’s grace and her parents blessings that she reached 92, and she also sought the Almighty’s blessings for India during these horrific COVID times.

On her birthday Didi has been flooded by birthday greetings including from the Hon’ble PM, who prayed for her long and healthy life.

India has two passions, movies and cricket, and Lata didi has a very close association with cricket as well.

On her birthday, I bring to you some trivia on her great love for the game of cricket.

India 1st won the world Cup in 1983. Urban legend has it that before the final, Lata didi hosted a dinner for the Indian team, who were popularly called Kapil’s devils. Reportedly she watched the finals at Lords, which was won by India stunning the Clive Lloyd led West Indian team who were overwhelming favorites and captain Kapil Dev also invited her to have a dinner at the team hotel.

While the above is anecdotal and may not have happened, it is certainly a fact that BCCI wanted to honor the cricketers but those days was short of money. It was Lata didi who performed free at a concert and 20 Lakhs was raised and every team member was given 1 Lakh each. Those days there was not much money in cricket and 1 Lakh was a big sum of money. In contrast, the players of Dhoni’s 2011 World Cup winning team got 2 crores each.

Didi, and her illustrious sister, Asha Tai had shown her interest in cricket so many times, earlier as well. Didi and Asha Tai visited Mumbai’s iconic Taj hotel after India’s historic 1978-79 win versus Pakistan and gave goodies to the Indian team led by Sunil Gavaskar. Both sisters had also hosted the Indian team at her residence earlier too in the 1960’s when Pakistan had visited Mumbai, and yesteryear cricketers fondly remember the two legendary singers serving the food themselves. Didi was also a regular for India’s matches at Brabourne.

Didi has a special relationship with Sachin Tendulkar whom she considers her son and he also calls her mother. To quote Lata didi “Sachin treats me like his mother and I always pray for her like a mother. I can never forget the day when he called me ‘aai’ (mother) for the first time. I had never imagined that. It was pleasant surprise for me and I feel blessed to have a son like him,” 

Much before the cricketer got a Bharat Ratna (in 2014) which she had got in 2002, she used to publicly always say that he deserved one. Sachin’s birthday, on 24th April is on her dad’s death anniversary and hence it is always a sadness for her that on Sachin’s special day of  happiness, she cant meet him.

The 2018 IPL Final was held at Mumbai but Sachin was missing in the stadium. Later he revealed in his tweet on May 28 that he and his wife Anjali watched it with Lata didi at her residence, Prabhukunj.

As MP, Didi did not take a single rupee as salary or a house in New Delhi. Similarly Sachin too did not take a house in New Delhi and donated his entire MP Salary of 90 Lakhs to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.

The pic above in this blog is of Lata didi presenting Sachin with a photo frame with lyrics of two of her best songs , “Tu jahaan, jahaan chalega” and “Piya tose naina laage re”. (Pic courtesy NDTV Sports). Sachin said on the occasion that he was moving into a new house and and wanted for his music room to have some kind of article which Didi had used, and that she was always his silent companion, especially abroad as he always used to listen to music in his playing days. Sachin presented Didi with a signed tee shirt. This was at a function hosted in political leader Raj Thackeray’s house and he said that he was fortunate to have hosted the two Bharat Ratna’s together.

There is another common connect between Lata didi and Sachin. While Didi was a very close friend of Raj Singh Dungarpur, he also played an important role in Sachin’s career as well.

Not just Sachin, Didi has always, through her twitter handle encouraged match winning performances of Indian stars, such as VVS Laxman and current captain Virat Kohli. She has praised Virat for his brilliant test ton versus England in England. Earlier she had praised Rahul Dravid, blessed Yuvraj Singh when he was unwell with the dreaded disease and congratulated him on his return to the Indian team.  She has also praised the batting of Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma. Her special affection is of course for Sachin.

Happy Birthday Lata Didi.

Romantic Dev Anand. Happy birthday, Sir

Dev Anand, popularly called Dev saab, is one of the most popular romantic heroes in the history of the Indian film industry. He was born as Dharam Dev Anand in Shakargarh tehsil of Gurdaspur district in Punjab. Dev Saab, after his graduation in English literature from Lahore briefly worked in a military censors office and also as a clerk in an accounting firm before entering films.

His 1st film Hum Ek Hain was as a hero in 1946. He was just 23. Dev Saab acted in a total of 114 movies and was hero in a record 104 films. This record was later broken by Rajesh Khanna who acted in 106 movies as a hero. At 26, he launched Navketan films. Navketan means Newness in Sanskrit, and throughout his career he discovered various actors who went on to become established stars.

Today on his 100th birthday let us reminiscence some rare trivia about this lovable romantic hero, two of the top heroines whom he had launched, namely Zeenat Aman and Tina Munim, his great love of his life Suraiya and how he married his wife Kalpana Kartik.

Zeenat Aman’s 1st film was technically OP Ralhan’s Hulchul, but it was Dev Saab who launched her to super-stardom with the role of Janice in “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” and the iconic RD Burman song “Dum maaro Dum“. Dev Saab during the shooting of his film Prem Pujari in Nepal had seen a hippie girl puffing a cigarette and this gave him the inspiration for the role of Janice. Dev originally wanted Zaheeda (niece of Nargis) who was his heroine in Prem Pujari and in Gambler,to play the role but she refused as she found it too westernised. This was Zeenat’s luck and destiny. Sadly, Zaheeda’s career went nowhere after this.

Later Zeenat kept getting sister roles as she was Dev’s sister in Hare Rama Hare Krishna. Dev asked her to be patient and later gave her a heroine’s role in Heera Panna and also Ishq Ishq Ishq, which was also one of the earliest movies of Shabana Azmi in her 1st year in films. Zeenat never looked back and stepped on the escalator to success.

Tina Munim was introduced by Dev saab in Des Pardes. This movie also introduced music director Rajesh Roshan with Amit Khanna as lyricist. The team was repeated in Man Pasand, a film dedicated to George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, though Dev Saab said it was inspired by My Fair Lady. Lootmaar was another movie where the successful team of Dev Saab, Tina Munim, Rajesh Roshan and Amit Khanna were together. Lootmaar was inspired by Dev Anand reading news of frequent theft, dacoity and crimes in newspapers and getting an idea to make a movie on it.  Urban legend has it that Tina Munim had a Mujra dance in the movie which was edited and left her fuming as she had worked very hard for it and in anger she walked out of Swami Dada. 

Zeenat and Tina Munim were not his only discoveries and there were many more like Richa Sharma, Tabu and Mink.

Suraiya, who was called the Mallika-e-tarannum was a superstar in her own right. In an era where male actors used to charge Rs 75000/- per movie, as a playback singer and actor she used to charge Rs 1.5 to 2 lakh per movie.

Dev Saab and Suraiya fell in love when on the sets of the film Vidya , during the shooting of the song  “Kinaare kinaare chale jayenge” in a boat, the boat overturned and Dev Saab rescued her. However they could not get married due to opposition from her orthodox family. He had even given her a diamond ring worth Rs 3000/- which was a huge sum of money in 1950, and she accepted it happily but later her grandmother threw the ring into the sea. Dev Saab and Suraiya acted in several movies together and she was so much in love with him that she allowed some of her songs to be sung by Lata didi so that she could spend some more time with him. Suraiya was a big fan of Gregory Peck and Dev Saab used to copy Peck to make her happy. Sadly, due to her grandmother’s opposition they could not get married. In her sadness she never married and even quit singing and acting, except for a solitary return to films for Mirza Ghalib. 

Dev Saab too was very sad and Chetan Anand counselled him and asked him to move on in life. Dev Saab later got married to Kalpna Kartik in 1954 while shooting for the film Taxi Driver. Her real name was Mona Singha and the name Kalpna Kartik was given to her by Chetan Anand. It was a simple ceremony and they slipped away in lunch time  of a shoot-day to get married.  Dev Saab told her that his idea of a romantic holiday was that they will be alone, with no one near them and even the cooking will be done by him.

Readers may be thinking why so much discussion on his heroines and not on the hero itself. It is because the theme of this article is “Romantic Dev Anand”.

Happy 100th Birthday Dev Saab.

Pic credit Times of India

Do you know everything about Bishan Singh Bedi. Happy Birthday Sir

A fond and early memory of the great Bishan Singh Bedi was my cricketing friends recollecting their Under-19 camp at Srinagar where the legendary spinner made them run and run in the bitter cold, to make them fit and strong.

Today, 25th September is his birthday. The great man turns 75, and his friends have compiled a book which is a collection of articles about him by greats from the world of cricket and journalism. Looking forward to read the book, which has a foreword by Kapil Dev.

Let us explore some relatively unknown trivia about the legendary spinner, for whom Jim Laker had once said, “My idea of paradise is Lord’s in the sunshine, with Ray Lindwall bowling from one end and Bishan Bedi from the other”.

Recently in a cricketing ceremony , the western stand of Ferozshah Kotla stadium was named after Bedi (and the eastern stand after Jimmy Amarnath). Indian Skipper Virat Kohli spoke on the occasion about the legend. Virat said that currently he was extremely fit, but earlier in his U-15, U-17 and U-19 cricket days he did not understand the importance of fitness and used to run away from Bedi Sir since he made them train very hard. Virat thanked Bedi and said that because of this strict attitude of Bedi, so many have succeeded in life.

In response, Bedi said that he wished other Indian cricketers followed their captain’s example and concentrated on fitness as he felt sad that on TV itself he could see the bulges in the stomachs of some of the Indian cricketers. Bedi also expressed sadness at deterioration of Ferozeshah Kotla which he had wanted to be a tourist spot like Lords but had not improved. He reminisced about a funny instance in his cricketing career. As Captain in an India-England Test match at the Kotla, as Captain, he had stationed a security guard outside the dressing room so that fans could not get in. To their surprise however the Hon’ble President of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed came there as there were no proper toilet facilities in the stadium and he wanted to use the bathroom of the dressing room. Bedi said sadly that situation had not changed even now with facilities still remaining abysmal.

This outspokenness has been a hallmark of Bedi. Whether calling Murali a javelin thrower and labelling his 800 wickets as 800 run-outs, painting Harbhajan with the same brush or coming down heavily on T20 Cricket for spoiling technique of youngsters, Bedi Saab has never held back. As per him T20 cricket was not only suffocating but the most vulgar expression of cricket and he went to the extent of calling IPL as a platform for money laundering. Indeed, the feisty Sardarji has never minced his words and once after a disappointing loss he said that “the entire Indian team should be dumped into the Pacific”. He was one of the most active twitter celebrities and continues to remain outspoken and blunt. Recently he was unwell, and the entire country was praying for him, and heaved a sigh of relief when he was out of danger.

For Bedi,  Ranji trophy and 1st class cricket has no substitute. He himself as Ranji Skipper had taken Delhi to its 1st 2 Ranji trophy titles and as many as 4 Ranji Finals in the 1st 5 years of his captaincy. Bedi was also an English 1st class giant and only the 2nd Indian to play over 100 first class games in England. Only Farrokh Engineer has played more matches there.

In test cricket, Bedi took 266 wickets in his 67 Test matches. He had 5 wickets in an innings 14 times and 10 wickets in a match once. He played only 10 ODI’s and also had an extraordinary 1st class career in which he took over 1500 wickets. Statistics can however do no justice to him as a bowler, and his flight, guile and deception are spoken of with not just joy but with reverence as well. So was his action, which was relaxed and unhurried, allowing him to bowl long spells.

A relatively unknown information about Bedi is that while playing cricket for an International XI on a tour to Pakistan he came to know that a young girl in a Karachi hospital needed blood and the blood group being extremely rare ( RH-O negative) the situation was very critical. Bedi, who had the same rare blood group, immediately went to the hospital to donate blood to the young girl who was saved. Pakistan TV covered the gesture and President Zia-ul-Haq saw the news on TV and gifted Bedi an expensive carpet.

Bedi’s son Angad was also a young cricketer but has chosen films as a career. He was seen in Tiger Zinda hai, Soorma, Gunjan Saxena, the Kargil girl and many other movies. In the web-series MumBhai by Apoorva Lakhia, he was terrific as encounter specialist Bhaskar Shetty. In the web series Inside Edge he played the captain of a T20 team and does a super job. Both seasons were great and Season 3 has already been announced and is expected soon.

For quite some time now, it has been heard that Angad is planning a bio pic named Bish on his legendary dad which will focus on Bedi the cricketer and Bedi the person. Angad is supposed to be the writer and director and will also play the role of Bishan Ji. Looking forward to it and learning more about our legend.

Happy 75th birthday Bishan Singh Bedi Sir

Happy Birthday, Jimmy Amarnath.

Mohinder Amarnath, popularly called Jimmy Amarnath is one of the most enigmatic cricketers in the history of Indian cricket. Today, September 24th, on his birthday, let us go on a nostalgic journey about the man who Sunny Gavaskar called the best batsman in the world. Imran Khan agreed to this and added that Jimmy should have been permanently in the Indian team right from his debut in December 1969 to his last match for India in October 1989.

Jimmy Bhai’s father, Lala Amarnath was captain of India and had a century on debut. His brother Surinder also played for India and had a ton on debut while another brother Rajinder played first class cricket as well.

Overseas success.

Jimmy is a rarity among Indian batsmen that he performed far successfully abroad than on Indian pitches. 9 of his 11 test centuries were abroad. His overall test average in 69 Tests was 42.5. However abroad this increases to 51.8, while it is just over 30 at home. His Test tons abroad were at Australia, Pakistan (versus Imran at peak), West Indies and Sri Lanka. In 1982-83, he played 11 tests abroad in Pakistan and West Indies and scored around 1000 runs against deadly attacks. He was the Wisden cricketer of the year in 1984. Most of his test tons were in adverse circumstances and after coming back to the Indian team. He has so many comebacks that he was called the “Comeback man of Indian Cricket”.

Unmatched bravery

His comebacks from injury were also remarkable. Richard Hadlee, Imran Khan, Malcolm Marshall and Jeff Thomson all gave him frightening injuries but yet his bravery was unaffected and he was amongst the best to play fast bowling. As Professor Joy Bhattacharya has tweeted 2 years back on his birthday, “Richard Hadlee broke his head, Malcolm Marshall knocked out his teeth, Imran Khan knocked him unconscious, and Michael Holding sent him to hospital. And yet, Mohinder Amarnath got three centuries in Pakistan, two in the west Indies, and one against Thommo in Australia. They don’t come any braver. Happy 69th birthday Jimmy”.

When this brave batsman walked out to bat with his red handkerchief visible in his trouser pocket, his captain, teammates and indeed fans in the entire country felt secure and stable. An elder brother of mine, the talented film director and cinematographer, Vijay Khambati Bhai puts is across so well. To quote him,

“I for one,a teenager in love with cricket, always felt reassured when he walked out to the crease.And his red handkerchief was actually a carry-over superstition from his father who did the same.”

World Cup Success.  

In 1983, Clive Lloyd’s West Indies team was expected to win their 3rd ODI world Cup in a row. However much to the surprise of the cricket world, Kapil’s Devils not only entered the final but shocked the giants to become World Champions. Jimmy Amarnath was man of the match in both the semi-finals and the finals for his crucial contributions with both bat and ball. Versus England he scored 46 and got the wickets of Mike Gatting and David Gower in a miserly spell of 12 overs for 27 runs. In the low scoring final, he scored 26 and took 3 for 12 in 7 overs. Jimmy Bhai also took the last wicket of Holding, sparking a lifetime memory for millions of Indians.

High point of Test career 

Jimmy Amarnath played crucial knocks throughout his career. However the high point was the Imran Khan dominated 1982-83 test series where Imran took 40 wickets and helped Pakistan to a 3-0 series win. Jimmy scored 3 centuries and crucial 50’s as well. This series possibly hastened the end of the great Gundappa Vishwanath’s career. However for Jimmy it was a great series and he started the series batting at Number 5, and was elevated to Number 3 midway which shows his captain’s trust and faith in him, which he paid off in full.

Low point of career  

This has to be the West Indies tour of India where inexplicably Jimmy could score just 1 run in 6 test innings. The lethal attack of Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Winston Davis and Wayne Daniel got the better of Jimmy in this particular series.

His Last Test and ODI series 

Fittingly for someone who had fought so courageously against the dreaded West Indian quicks, Jimmy’s last test series was against West Indies and his last ODI too was against West Indies. His last test match was the one in which Narendra Hirwani, WV Raman Ajay Sharma made their debuts and Hirwani had a world-record breaking performance. His last ODI series  was the Nehru Cup where India bowed out in the semi-finals versus West Indies. In the same tournament Jimmy was out obstructing the field for 28 vs Sri Lanka. Interestingly, he has also featured as the 1st batsman to be out “handling the ball” which was versus Australia in the WSC final in 1985-96. He remains, till date the 1st and only Indian to be out in such a manner. Amarnath after pushing away the Greg Matthews spinning delivery from the wickets with his hand realized his mistake and walked back to the dressing room with his hands behind his back. The umpire did not even need to signal him out.

Coaching, Selection, Analyst and Columnist

Jimmy was the coach of the Bangladesh cricket team but after the team failed to qualify for the 1996 World Cup his contract was not renewed.

Jimmy himself had once called the selectors a “Bunch of jokers”. He got a chance to be National selector itself but his contract was not renewed when it was speculated that he would become Chairman, Selection committee. Later Jimmy said that the Committee had selected 17 players and no captain and BCCI President Srinivasan vetoed the sacking of Dhoni. Jimmy said that he had not known of the rule that the President’s approval is required and that no selector knows of such rules. According to him, the committee was looking forward to a young player like Virat as captain.

As an analyst and columnist, Jimmy is often seen on national visual and print media. His views are widely followed.

Happy Birthday Jimmy Bhai.

Learn time-management from Akshay Kumar. Happy Birthday Akshay.

Akshay Kumar is one of the busiest stars in the Hindi film industry. He is also one of the most successful stars as well with most of his movies being blockbuster hits.

Mega stars Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan prefer to release one or maximum two movies a year. Aamir Khan often prefers one movie in two years. However Akshay consistently does three and sometimes even four movies a year. As an illustration, lets see how many movies the actor has done in the last 5 years;

2013- Special 26, Once upon a time in Mumbai Dobaara and Boss. Also a Punjabi film Bhaji in problem and a Marathi film (as producer) 72 miles-ek pravas. 

2014-Holiday, Entertainment and The Shaukeens.

2015-Baby, Gabbar is back, Brothers, Singh is bling.

2016-Airlift, Housefull 3, Rustom. 

2017-Jolly LLB 2, Naam Shabana, Toilet-ek prem katha. 

In the current year, he already has 2 releases, Pad-man and Gold. 

Today, on 9th September, on his birthday , lets discuss as to how the superstar manages to do so much, consistently year after year.

The answer is time management. Akshay also says that the secret lies in his always being ready to move on from playing one character to another, and from acting one role to another one. Akshay also says that the simple trick of time management is sleep 8 hours a day, exercise 2 hours a day and you are still left with 14 hours a day to do whatever you want. He is particular about both exercise and sleep as it keeps a man fit – to achieve what he wants.

If one sees his movies, while there are many hits, some have flopped as well, though of course in recent times the hits easily outnumber those who did not do well. Yet Akshay moves on, and one reason for that is as he has himself said ‘I d’ont wallow in self-pity when my films flop”. Hence he can move on and concentrate on the next movie, and more often than not comes out much stronger.

Akshay also takes time out for other pursuits as well. He is very particular about vacationing with family and goes for at least 3 to 4 vacations a year. One of the vacations is a long one and Akshay says he and family sit with a globe, spin it and touch a place at random, and go there for a holiday. Others are short ones.

Akshay strongly suggests regular vacations for all, and says that it need not be a costly one. A simple change of place and routine is enough to get one rejuvenated and back to work – with renewed spirit and vigour.

Happy birthday Akshay, and hope your time management skills continue to give us 3-4 movies a year.

Versatile Asha Tai; Happy Birthday Asha Bhosle

While Lata Mangeshkar is popularly called as Lata didi, her talented playback singer sister Asha Bhosle is popularly called Asha Tai.

Today, 8th September is her Birthday. To celebrate the birthday of the legend let us discuss the significant high points and milestones of her illustrious career.

Asha Tai is from Sangli and her dad is the famous Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar. She is known as Asha Bhosle as she took the surname of her 1st husband, Ganpatrao Bhosle. She went back to her home with her children and took up the challenge of a singing career as a single woman with kids , which is tough even now, and must have been incredibly tough 60-65  years back.

The 1st milestone of Asha Tai’s career was her association with OP Nayyar. Till then Asha was under the shadow of her illustrious sister, Lata didi. OP Nayyar gave her an individuality of her own. He also gave her lots and lots of work. Asha tai sang 324 songs for him followed by Geeta Dutt with just 64. Some of the best movies in which Asha sang for him were Naya Daur, Tumsa nahin Dekha, Howrah Bridge, Phir vohi dil laya hoon, Kismat, Ek musafir ek haseena, Mere Sanam and kashmir ki kali. In 1972 they fell apart, though ironically in 1973 , she won the Filmfare best singer award for “Chain se kabhi” for the movie Pran jaaye par vachan naa jaaye. However they never worked together again.

The 2nd milestone of Asha Tai’s career is working with RD Burman , whom she used to call Bubs. Pancham introduced a westernised style of singing and Asha fit into it perfectly. Hare rama hare Krishna, Caravan, Yaadon ki baaraat, Anamika, Kaalia, Kasme Vaade are some of the biggest hits of Pancham where Asha Tai had super hit songs. Pancham and Asha Tai got married in 1980 and they were together till he passed away in 1994.

Interestingly, for OP Nayyar, Asha had huge hits with Rafi Saab , while for Pancham, she had huge hits with Kishore da.

The 3rd milestone was singing Ghazals for Khayyam in Umrao Jaan while the 4th milestone was singing for AR Rehman in Rangeela. Tanha tanha and Rangeela re made Urmila an overnight sensation, and the movie was also an important milestone in Aamir Khan’s career.

All milestones put together symbolise Asha tai’s greatest asset- her versatility. She could sing any type of songs, sad, peppy, romantic, ghazal, cabaret numbers and more. The American string quartet named Kronos Quartet in 2005 used a number of Pancham tunes in their album, “You’ve stolen my heart”. Asha tai sang for them and the album was nominated for the 2006 Grammy awards.

It is not well known that apart from being a terrific singer, she is a wonderful cook as well. Her interest in cooking has led to a chain of Indian cuisine restaurants named Asha’s throughout the world in places such as Dubai, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Birmingham and Manchester.  She says that if she would not have been a singer she would have been a full-time chef.

Asha Tai’s enthusiasm is legendary. Happy birthday to this young singer who is just 85 today.

Remembering Rishi Kapoor on his 2nd anniversary with a trivia journey of his solo hero movies

@chintskap was his Twitter handle and he probably was the most active filmstar on twitter. Unlike others, he did not prefer to be diplomatic and non-controversial on social media and rather took on others headlong. He made his debut with a national award as a child actor in his Dad’s Mera Naam Joker. He also got the Filmfare award for his debut as an actor with Bobby and the Filmfare Lifetime achievement award in 2008. He is none other than Rishi Kapoor.

Rishi Ji was suddenly admitted to the HN Reliance Foundation Hospital late on 29th April, 2020 and passed away a few hours later, sending shock waves throughout as in a period of 24 hours, the film industry had lost two of its much loved actors, Irrfan and Rishi. Both were different from each other but had one strong similarity- ability to connect. They have done just one movie together and that eerily was named D-Day.

From 1973 when Bobby was released, right upto Karobaar, the business of Love in the year 2000 , he acted as a hero and then shifted to character roles. To remember Rishi ji on his second death anniversary, let us take a trivia journey of his super hit films as a solo hero.

Bobby (1973). This is an epic movie, one of the best romances ever. Interestingly the movie was made to recover the debts of Mera Naam Joker and as his Dad had no money to afford superstar Rajesh Khanna, hence he went in for a teen-romance. Neetu Singh too auditioned for Dimple’s role. The famous scene where Rishi and Dimple meet for the 1st time is inspired by the 1st meeting of Raj Kapoor and Nargis. ( pics credit- India Today)

Rafoo-Chakkar (1975) starring Rishi and Neetu is inspired by  the Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmom starrer, Some Like it hot, considered one of the greatest movies of the 20th century. It was one of the 1st movies which showed cross-dressing. Rishi recently while wishing Asha Bhosle on her birthday revealed a rare trivia on her by stating that few know Asha ji has sung for Rishi in the movie Rafoo Chakkar. ( pics credit- Pinterest )

Laila-Majnu (1976) stars Rishi and Ranjeeta. This was Ranjeeta’s debut film. This hit movie had terrific music and had 9 sings, with Rafi Saab, on a comeback trail at his best. Composer Madan Mohan passed away during the making of the film after completing 6 sings. Composer Jaidev then completed 3 songs. ( Pics credit Youtube)

Sargam (1979) starred Rishi and Jayaprada in her Hindi debut. She was already an established star in the South and had acted in the original Telugu version Siri Siri Muvva. Rafi Saab’s comeback continued. The song Dafli Wale Dafli baja debuted as Number 1 on the Binaca Geetmala and continued as Number 1 for 25 weeks, till it was retired. This is the only song to have this rare honour. ( pics credit youtube)

Karz (1980) starring Rishi, Tina Munim and Simi Grewal was a movie based on reincarnation. It had brilliant songs. All the songs were sung by Kishore Kumar barring one, by Rafi, the melodious ‘Dar de Dil“, a trademark Rafi song and one of the best of his career. Subhash Ghai says that he made the movie as a Karz to himself, to prove that he could make successful films wihout Shatrughan Sinha, with whom he had made successful films earlier. Interestingly when Karz did not do well Rishi went into a deep depression.He could not even face the camera . Those days he was shooting for four movies, Naseeb, Deedar-e-yaar, Zamaane ko dikhaana hai and Prem Rog, but he could not shoot. He even had one day shooting left for Naseeb which had big stars Amitabh and Shotgun but still he could not shoot. However, he bravely picked himself up and resumed his career. (pics credit Times of India)

Prem Rog (1982) had the bold theme of a man’s love for a widow in a conservative society. This movie was the turning point of Suresh Wadkar’s career and gave him 4 blockbuster songs, “Bhanware Ne Khilaya Phool”, “Main Hoon Prem Rogi”, “Meri Qismat Men Tu Nahin Shayad” and “Mohabbat Hai Kya Cheez”. which will be hummed even in 2082, 100 years after Prem Rog’s release. Rishi would certainly have won the Filmfare best actor award , but lost out to none other than the great Dilip Kumar for Shakti. That year all the nominations were amazing. Dilip kumar and Amitabh for Shakti, Amitabh also for Namak Halaal and Bemisaal, Sanjeeev Kumar for Angoor, Rishi for Prem Rog and Naseer for Bazaar. (Pics credit Indian express)

Nagina (1986) was a heroine centric film with Sridevi at her best, but Rishi’s role was well appreciated. Nagina is popularly but wrongly known as the 1st Indian movie to have a sequel.  However, Mithun’s Suraksha and Wardaat in which Mithun played the role of Gunmaster G-9, and Videsh and Agent Vinod, starring Mahendra Sandhu were actually made as sequels earlier. While Nagina was a high point of Sridevi’s career, a rare trivia is that the 1st choice for the role was Jayaprada who refused as she was afraid of snakes. It turned out to be one of Sridevi’s biggest hits. (Pics credit Facebook)

Chandni (1989) once again saw Rishi with Sridevi. Rishi had seen a movie “Whose life is it anyway” and recommended Yash Chopra to make a similar movie. The result was Chandni, a movie which saw  romantic musicals becoming popular. Aditya Chopra was an Assistant Director and later he would have his own romantic musical blockbuster DDLJ. Neetu Singh has said Chandni was her all time favorite movie and it was a movie which brought back romance in the life of so many. ( Pics credit- Hindustan Times)

Heena starring Rishi with Pakistani beauty Zeba and Ashwini Bhave is the last movie  of the great Raj Kapoor who passed away during its making, and Randhir Kapoor completed the filming. In the movie there is a lovely song ‘Mein der karta nahin, der ho jaati hai” sung by Suresh Wadkar and picturised on Rishi. In real life Randhir never wore watches and used to give this excuse to Raj ji whenever he was late. Genius to make it a song. (Pics credit Youtube)

Bol Radha Bol saw Rishi in a double role in which he plays the hero as well as a villain. Juhi is opposite him. 11 years back, in Chandni many established actresses refused to do a minor role which Juhi had agreed as she adored Sridevi. That was a turning point of her career and she later got Darr directly as a result of this minor role. Now she was to act opposite Rishi in Bol Radha Bol which was one of the biggest hits of her career, and his too. The song Tu tu tu, tu tu tara was a mega hit. (Pics credit New Indian express)

(Pics credit Economic times)

Rishi has lot of other hits in other movies as well. About them, another day.

You will be in our hearts forever Rishi Ji.