Anees Bazmee, writer-director of the 2005 cult film, No Entry, said in a recent interview that every film has its own kundali (horoscope, as per which it performs at the crucial box-office). Films expected to be blockbusters topple and the vice-versa has also been seen.
Today, we look at five films that no one expected would do wonders. But they did in a standout way.
Zanjeer / 1973
Producer-director: Prakash Mehra; Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, Pran, Ajit, Bindu
The film was originally planned with bigger heroes like Dev Anand or Raaj Kumar, who turned it down for specific reasons. Finally, writers Salim-Javed recommended till-then ‘flop’ hero Amitabh Bachchan to Prakash Mehra and Jaya, his girlfriend and already a star, agreed to do a small role to support him.
When complete, no distributor wanted to touch the film and debutant producer Mehra, with three hits and one flop as a director as his track-record, had to release it himself. Salim and Javed were so confident that they hired a painter to stencil their names on posters outside movie theatres. The music was a hit, and composer Anandji of the Kalyanji-Anandji team claimed to have unofficially edited the film with Mehra.
Zanjeer became a blockbuster Golden Jubilee (a 50-week run in cinemas) and the biggest hit of 1973 after Bobby. And set multiple trends: male bonding (Amitabh-Pran), the Angry Young Man (Amitabh’s dominant image since), the qawwali as a compulsion and the revenge drama. And Amitabh, who had decided to wed Jaya only after he became successful, married her that year.
The film finally earned a fortune for Mehra since he did not have to share the moneys with any distributor! It was remade by his sons as Zanjeer 2.0 after his death, which was a disaster!
Noorie / 1979
Producer: Yash Chopra Director: Manmohan Krishna; Starring: Poonam Dhillon, Farouque Shaikh
This was a shocker for producer Yash Chopra and his financier-distributor-partner Gulshan Rai! After joint blockbusters like Daag and Kabhi Kabhie and also Deewaar and Trishul (under Rai’s banner of Trimurti Films), they had planned yet another biggie, Kaala Patthar.
To offset Income-Tax (revenue) hassles, they decided to produce a small-budget non-star-cast love story that also centered around a murder avenged by a dog with a new face (Dhillon had done a small role in Trishul) and television and theater actor Farouque Shaikh who had done a role in the 1974 Garm Hawa. They expected to show losses here!
To their astonishment, the film became a Golden Jubilee and ranked among the highest grossers of 1979, while Kaala Patthar, released later in the year, was a flop and did not recover its investment!
Ek Duuje Ke Liye / 1981
Producer: L.V. Prasad Director: K. Balachander; Starring: Kamal Haasan, Rati Agnihotri, Madhavi
The remake of the hit Tamil, Maro Charitra, was similarly finding no buyers. South star Kamal Haasan was an unknown entity. Rati Agnihotri, though a Punjabi, was a South star, the South-acclaimed director had just given a flop in Hindi, Aaina seven years earlier, in which Kamal Haasan had a walk-on cameo.
Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Anand Bakshi had composed superb songs, but the male voice was of S.P. Balasubramaniam from the South as the hero was a South Indian. That, seemingly, was a no-no!
The film broke all records and emerged as the biggest hit of the year, beating Laawaris, Love Story, Krantiand Naseeb with Mumbai heavyweights and trendy action and multi-star subjects.
With the profits earned from the film, L.V. Prasad earned money enough to conceive and build the Prasad VFX, now a top Special Effects studio, and among their other achievements in technology, the first DI (Digital Intermediate) work in Hindi cinema, was done by them for Khakee (2004).
Khosla Ka Ghosla / 2006
Produced by: Savita Raj Hiremath Directed by: Dibakar Banerjee; Starring: Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Tara Sharma, Parvin Dabas
The story of a man who invests his life savings and is cheated by a crooked builder was languishing without buyers for two years. When it released, it proved a bumper hit, showing that the audience is above pre-conceived industry notions.
The film ultimately won both critical and audience acclaim, was shown at festivals and won the National award for Best Film in Hindi.
A Wednesday! / 2008
Producers: Ronnie Screwvala, Shital Bhatia & Anjum Rizvi Director: Neeraj Pandey Starring: Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Sheirgill
Also held back before UTV Motion Pictures released it (their other film inspired by the Mumbai train blasts, Mumbai Meri Jaan, got precedence), the film about how a common Indian man could swat terrorism like a pestilential insect when the authorities fail to do so did a record Rs. 12 crore business though shot in 28 days on a very paltry budget.
The film was remade in Tamil and Telugu with big stars Mohanlal, Kamal Haasan and Venkatesh and even in English as The Common Man, starring Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross.
