Throwback: When Manoj Kumar spills secrets of Woh Kaun Thi

Not too many fans of Lata Mangeshkar, Madan Mohan, and Manoj Kumar know that one of Lataji’s most iconic songs, Lag Ja Gale Se, was almost dropped from its parent film Woh Kaun Thi by director Raj Khosla. Recalling the experience of shooting for Woh Kaun Thi, Manoj Kumar once revealed, “I remember the music composer Madan Mohan Saab, a very sensitive artiste, was shattered. He came to complain, ‘Manoj Bhai, look at the composition that your director has rejected.’ I heard the song and immediately knew its potential. I took it back to Raj Khosla and made him hear it with me. At the end of the song, he got up quietly, went out of the room to get his chappals, came back inside, and began hitting himself with them. Madan Mohan and I were aghast. ‘Yeh aap kya kar rahe hain?’ Raj said he was hitting himself for being such a fool to reject a composition like Lag Ja Gale Se.”

Manoj Kumar was in an unusually confessional mood. He even revealed that the dialogues and scenes in Woh Kaun Thi were actually written by him. “Yes, I admit I wrote many of the scenes and dialogues. I’ll tell you how it happened. I had reached Shimla for the shoot. The song Shokh Nazar Ki Bijliyan was filmed on Helenji and me. I felt something was missing. After the shoot, I went to director Raj Khosla’s room. My leading lady Sadhanaji and the producer N. N. Sippy were also present. I told Raj, ‘Kuch jam nahin raha (something is off). The lines need to be changed.’ And I handed over some papers with the revised dialogues I had written. Raj Khosla read them, quietly tore up the original dialogues, and threw them into the fireplace, saying, ‘From tomorrow, we’ll be using Manoj’s lines.’ That’s how I ghost-wrote the scenes and dialogues in this ghost story.”

Why didn’t Manoj Kumar take credit for his contribution? “Arrey yaar, it didn’t matter. I didn’t do it for the name. I did it to improve the film. During those days, we worked on every film like a family. Sadhana, Raj Khosla, Madan Mohan, and I were one family during Woh Kaun Thi. We didn’t think about who should get credit. We worked like a team of cooks in a kitchen, putting together the best meal possible.”

Also Read: “Manoj Kumar portrayed India’s pride in an impactful manner”: Prime Minister Narendra Modi pens letter to late actor’s wife Shashi Goswami

from Featured Movie News | Featured Bollywood News - Bollywood Hungama https://ift.tt/0J4cXAz
via IFTTT