All the best heroes were in the 70's - Farah Khan

Excerpts from ‘The Making of Om Shanti Om’“I remember we used to stand in line to go and get tickets, we would stand on Monday to get tickets for a Friday show. The entire family would go; my mother, my brother and half the building! I was growing up then, between ages of 5 and 15, I was in the 70’s-the biggest influences of life come at that age,” says Farah. All the best and commercial movies of Indian cinema were made in the 70’s, whether it was Sholay or Deewar or Trishul or Don or Bobby. You had great music with R.D. Burman and Laxmikant Pyarelal. All the best heroes were in the 70’s points out Farah- Dharmendra, Shashi Kapoor, Jeetendra, Rishi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, even the heroines, you can’t beat a Rekha or a Hema Malini or Parveen Babi or a Neetu Singh… (Page 08) “Think about it,” urges Farah. “If 30 years from now, you want to make a period film about Bollywood, a film about the 90’s or the 2000’s, you will find it very difficult. The 70’s had distinct villains Ajit or Gabbar Singh, you had vamps like Mona darling and the villainous sidekick Mac, the dens with the crocodiles, the Mere Paas Ma Hai dialogues… there are characteristics that just scream 70’s at you, you recognize them instantly. The 80’s still had disco and Mithunda clothes, the 90’s might be known for Shah Rukh or Karan’s colours but the current crop of movies, we don’t have this anymore.” “Besides in every reincarnation movie they never ever show the period before, if you see Karan Arjun or Karz, the world looks the same now and 30 years back, everything looks the same. I thought that reincarnation would be a really good idea because the first half is set 30 years earlier and we could base it in the 70’s so that it would have to be a period film in the first half,” says Farah. “Frankly the movie is about what we like about the 70s” Shah Rukh tells me… (Page 09) Most people in the film industry have such big dreams that one lifetime is not enough. Thus spoke Farah Khan. I cannot think of a better line that sums up her vision of Om Shanti Om… (page 12) Let’s check in with Mayur again. “In the opening scene of the film,” he says, “the shooting of the famous song ‘Om Shanti Om’ is in progress. The moment you see the set with the turn table, you immediately connect it with reality. That really happened, in the movie Karz that is, there’s Rishi Kapoor on stage, lip-synching the song. That really happened. We see Subhash Ghai, the director, famous for cameos in his own films, in his trademark hat yelling ‘action’! Yes, all of this actually happened, a couple of decades back. Then the hero throws his jacket on to the crowd of junior artistes jumping and cheering. The jacket falls on one junior artiste. Now, this didn’t happen in the original but what if it had? Then this is the story of that junior artiste. Om. Played by Shah Rukh Khan.” …… (page 12) The above excerpts are taken from the book –'The Making of Om Shanti Om' written by Mushtaq Shiekh and published by Om Books International

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