Youtube is the favourite source of entertainment for the younger generation today where they spend a lot of time in leisure. My son recently happened to show me some of the video clips from Shehanshah, which according to him belonged to the tag “funny videos from Bollywood”. It shattered my ego because this film meant standing outside the video parlour for more than 14 hours to acquire a copy of the video cassette for my brother & father. My favourite cousin arrived at his farewell in front of the Principle of a reputed Institute dressed as Shehanshah. And I was amidst all this mania enjoying every moment of the hysteria that a Typical Filmi Family was a part of every time an AMITABH BACHCHAN film released.
Shehanshah arrived at a time when Amitabh Bachchan was facing enormous issues regarding his health & was facing a turmoil regarding the “Bofors Scandal” personally. Playing a buffoonish Cop who could get bullied easily but turned up as a vigilante during night to fight crime, seemed like a tailor made role for the superhero.
Very few of us, who are tagged as Bollywood fanatics are aware about “Supremo Comics” in which Amitabh Bachchan featured in the 80s. Supremo was a comic book character in the series “किस्से अमिताभ के” which ran for 2 years. This series carried messages from AB to his fans in which “S” was an alter ego of Amitabh. He concealed his identity by wearing large glasses, a skin tight costume with a fisherman’s wrap & a Chakra pendant. Supremo carries a walkman, loves peanuts, has a pet dolphin names Sonali and a falcon scout known as Shaheen. Pam Bakshi, who was the editor of the magazine developed and named the series Supremo after Randhir Kapoor’s tag for Amitabh Bachchan.
Tinnu Anand needed a Hit after his previous film “Yeh Ishq Nahin Asaan” flopped so he approached AB’s brother Ajitabh to speak with AB to provide him with dates for a new project. The script was narrated to AB on the sets of Coolie in 1983 and he approved to play the lead. Tinnu Anand met with Sridevi to make her agree to play the female lead but for obvious reasons her mother refused the offer as a heroine would have nothing much to do in a project titled “Shehanshah” so he went to Dimple Kapadia who enthusiastically accepted the offer. Jaya Bachchan began to design her costumes after she was paid the signing amount and the preparations for most of the songs was finalised; Tinnu spent a heavy amount for all of this when suddenly AB disclosed that he was diagnosed with “Myasthenis Gravis” and would not be able to shoot. In desperation, Tinnu approached Jeetendra who refused as well stating that he would be unable to provide justice to a role tailor made for Big B. The distributers wanted their money back so Tinnu had to begin shooting for which he approached Jackie Shroff. Haphazardly the project was finalised but then Ajitabh Bachchan informed Tinnu that AB could do the film in the year 1985. The ecstatic Tinnu reached out to Dimple asking her to return the signing amount because he wanted a fresh approach for his dream project and wished to cast Meenakshi Seshadri but Dimple refused. A media war broke out between the two before Tinnu promised her that he will soon announce 2 projects with her AB (he did announce “Mahakaal” & “Alishaan” with both stars but later shelved them) for which she agreed.
The costume designed by “Kachins”, a famous brand in those days, had been given to Jeetendra for his film “Aag Our Shola” so Tinnu approached Kishore Bajaj who was the owner of “Bada Saheb” to design a fresh costume. The dress was finalised after going through hundreds of magazines, which was all of 28 kgs. including a 14 kg arm accessory. Interestingly the idea for the arm accessory came after Tinnu saw an advertisement by a fencing company.
Tinnu Anand’s father India Raj Anand was handed over the charge for composing the dialogues for the film. He was a great Urdu writer who used the flamboyant language with flair but Tinnu requested him to use simple lines so that his new generation fans could relate with them but he replied ““You have a lion as an actor. Give him mutton to eat. Do not give him vegetarian food.”
Being from Allahabad, AB could easily speak in the style rooted in his hometown, which he cleverly added to his character, the pean-chewing Vijay. He also insisted that since Shehanshah has all the heavy dialogues, the alter-ego should have a different “Lahja” of speaking so it was ensured that both characters have a different body language and style.
Very interesting stories go behind the dialogues; infact the famous lines “Rishtey mein to hum tumhare bap..” became a part of the film while Inder Raj Anand & Tinnu were having an argument over one of the dialogues which according to Tinnu wouldn’t suit Ab and his father uttered these lines to prove his point. He composed the climax scene on his death bed and passed away while Amitabh and Tinnu were shooting the scene where Vijay drives his car through the courtroom.
Tinnu was so involved with the project that he provided the voice over for various characters simultaneously; a CBI officer, a Truck driver, Mahesh Anand, a henchman & a gun man.
The challenge was not over for the team as many political parties demanded a ban on the release after the rumours of AB’s involvement in the Bofors scam. The Shiv Sean Icon “Bala Saaheb Thackey” met Amitabh personally over the issue and after being convinced of his uninvolvement, promised to get it released in Bombay and other regions. The film got a spectacular opening; the innumerable people who showed up at the theatres was absolutely unbelievable. If you see video footage from the time, you will know that the mania was spectacular all across India. In fact, in Uttar Pradesh, at four o clock in the morning, people were carrying their lotas and standing in the queue for Shahenshah’s tickets. That was the magic of Amitabh returning to the screen. The video cassette was released in 2 parts as the length of the film was bigger than the standard one in those years.
Meenakshi changed her looks, thanks to Jaya Bachchan, and people all over India were fascinated with silver around their arms imitating Shehanshah. The look of the film gathered popularity on large scales.
It may sound ridiculous today to the younger generation which belongs to IRON MAN & THE AVENGERS but for us, Shehanshah was our ultimate Super Hero.
Personal Notes from an Amitabh Bachchan fan.
Hi pooja. Again a gr8 blog as a common man I would not have been able to know all the facts. But I admit that he was superhero for all children . And loved his famous dialogue. Keep going dear