Two of the tallest personalities, in the history of Indian cinema, Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar, shared a healthy rivalry over films they made. Both started their career in mid - 1940’s. In a matter of a decade, it became clear they would be stars for a long time to come.
Pretty soon they were in tough competition, with each other. There movies often released in the same year, and most open would end up being the top two films of the year. It must be noted, here at that time there was a strong communal tension in the country. So eventually division of fans became stronger, to some fans they seemed to be represent both communities.
At the height of this debate, came Mehboob Khan's Andaz (1949), with both actors starring in a love triangle plot with Nargis playing the common love interest. Much as fans wanted, both stars had on screen confrontations in the film. The competition resulted superb performances from both the actors.
Unlike today, when rivalry between actors gets down to extent of naming dogs after the other, back then things were cordial. They both never got into public spat, they would often meet at parties award functions and would be amicable.
This competition continued for decades. 1960 saw the release of ‘Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai’ on theme of reformation amongst dacoits. It was very well received. Dilip Kumar followed it up with 'Ganga Jamuna' in 1961, which became a bigger hit and was critically more acclaimed than JDMGBH.
Decades of competition turned to admiration when both of them got elderly. It is said that after watching Dilip Sahab’s ‘Shakti’, Raj Kapoor called up and said, “Today I saw your film Shakti and now one thing is clear to me, that there is one and only one actor like Dilip Kumar.”
As of today both have a lasting impression on Indian Cinema, Raj Kapoor as the Showman and Dilip Kumar for his excellent acting
But as a film buff there rivalry resulted in both trying to do better work and in process made excellent films.
Written By Ali Naqvi
Pretty soon they were in tough competition, with each other. There movies often released in the same year, and most open would end up being the top two films of the year. It must be noted, here at that time there was a strong communal tension in the country. So eventually division of fans became stronger, to some fans they seemed to be represent both communities.
At the height of this debate, came Mehboob Khan's Andaz (1949), with both actors starring in a love triangle plot with Nargis playing the common love interest. Much as fans wanted, both stars had on screen confrontations in the film. The competition resulted superb performances from both the actors.
In one of the scenes in Andaz, RK’s character slaps DK’s character. For that shot, RK landed an actual heavy slap on DK’s face. So much so it startled the crew who were present during shooting. The chemistry of both rocked the film, and Andaz became Super Hit.
Unlike today, when rivalry between actors gets down to extent of naming dogs after the other, back then things were cordial. They both never got into public spat, they would often meet at parties award functions and would be amicable.
This competition continued for decades. 1960 saw the release of ‘Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai’ on theme of reformation amongst dacoits. It was very well received. Dilip Kumar followed it up with 'Ganga Jamuna' in 1961, which became a bigger hit and was critically more acclaimed than JDMGBH.
Decades of competition turned to admiration when both of them got elderly. It is said that after watching Dilip Sahab’s ‘Shakti’, Raj Kapoor called up and said, “Today I saw your film Shakti and now one thing is clear to me, that there is one and only one actor like Dilip Kumar.”
As of today both have a lasting impression on Indian Cinema, Raj Kapoor as the Showman and Dilip Kumar for his excellent acting
But as a film buff there rivalry resulted in both trying to do better work and in process made excellent films.
Written By Ali Naqvi
3 comments:
great work ali!..gud facts...both the actors are legends
good work ali... but how cud yu miss dev anand sa'b too... he was a contempoprary of the two legends yu just talked about...
while raj kapoor ji nd dileep sa'b very busy donning the rusty villager look, dev sa'b had a class of his own.. he sort of brought that touch of west into his films back then.. raj kapoor and dileep sa'b bonded great on the lines of common punjabi tradition too... i read it somewhere, ke while these two stalwarts used to joke around the unit in punjabi- dev sa'b kept a aura of englishmen around him...
even the dressing in the party scenes of that time had difference.. while dev sa'b donned custom made london suits.. diliip sa'b and raj kapoor ji usually sticked to bandgalas and all that...
Would have loved to get more information on how these two legends were convinced to come together in 'SAUDAGAR'
Regards,
Deepak
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