Bombay to Goa is one of the most beautiful routes for driving your car - and perhaps with lesser vehicular traffic and more patience, in late 60s could have been more safe also.
Bombay To Goa, made in 1972, was a comic caper centered around the journey through this route. However, unintentionally & unknowingly, the movie changed the route of Hindi Cinema – to some extent. Actually, it could also have been a route changer for the entire country as a whole. Why? Read on.
It is said that originally Mehmood wanted to caste a particular person for the role of the hero in this movie. However, the intended choice was not an actor at all. He was also not interested in acting career & turned down the offer, as his choice of career at that time rather was something more high flying - literally.
Amitabh was the next choice, who had already made a guest appearance as a fight master & trainer in Mehmood’s previous movie – Garam Masala. For Amitabh, who had not been able to deliver a single solo hit till then, this turned out to be a movie which at least did better than average business.
More important, this was the same time when Prakash Mehra, having been rejected by all top heroes for his next movie based on Salim-Javed’s script, was looking for a hero. Apparently, Javed Akhtar, after seeing this movie recommended Amitabh for the hero’s role in Zanjeer – and rest is history. Zanjeer actually set the trend of Hindi Cinema as the movies went from soft & mushy hero to someone who could take the villains & establishment head-on – The Angry Young Man.
And yes, if the talk about Mehmood’s original choice is true, then while I am not sure about the fate of the movie with that person as a hero, there surely could have been a twist in the nation’s history, because that person was Rajiv Gandhi - the elder son of then Prime Minister of India – Mrs. Indira Gandhi.
With this small prelude, let me give you the most popular number of Bombay to Goa – another chart topper created by Pancham - popular then and popular now, even in the remix format - always getting the guys rocking on the dance floor:
No comments:
Post a Comment