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Bollywood Superhit Movie: There have been some directors-producers in Bollywood who were deeply interested in songs and music. He used to write the screenplay himself. Used to write some songs also. A Bollywood director-producer even put his life on screen in the 80s. Wrote the song myself. The most interesting thing was that the hero wore sixteen make-up in the film. The film created a stir in theaters as soon as it was released.
Many director-producers in Bollywood have been known for making masala films. Manmohan Desai was at the forefront in this matter. He made many films with Amitabh Bachchan in his career. Prakash Mehra was also one such director-producer who used to make films on the hit formula. In 1981, he made a film in which the hero wore sixteen make-up. Wore a saree and danced like a woman. Prakash Mehra had written one song of the film. This movie was: Laawaris. The film Laawaris was inspired by the personal life of Prakash Mehra. He often called himself abandoned. He used to have a character of an abandoned person in every film.
Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Rakhi Gulzar, Amjad Khan were seen in lead roles in ‘Laawaris’, released on 22 May 1981. The story of the film was written by Shashi Bhushan, Kader Khan and Prakash Mehra. Dialogues were written by Kader Khan. Music was by Kalyan ji-Anand ji. The screenplay was written by Deen Dayal Sharma.
All the songs of the film ‘Laawaris’ were superhit. A song from the film ‘Mere Angne Mein Tumhaara Kya Kaam Hai’ became very popular. Two versions of this song were seen in the film. The male version had the voice of Amitabh Bachchan. This song was filmed on him only. For this song, Amitabh Bachchan probably wore a saree for the first time and wore sixteen makeups. The female version was voiced by Alka Yagnik. She was nominated for Best Female Playback Singer.
Amitabh Bachchan had shared a funny incident related to the song ‘Mere Angne Mein Tumhara Kya Kaam Hai’ on the sets of KBC. He had told, ‘There was a song in the film Laawaris. ‘What business do you have in my courtyard?’ Don’t know why I felt that since the song is about different wives, I should also become that kind of wife. So whether she was black, fat, tall, short or short, I took all those forms and shot them. When his trial took place and as soon as this song happened, my wife Jaya got hurt. She walked out of there angrily. Then she asked me how can you do such an act? Scolded me a lot. I said that the song was very good. After 10-15 years, when we used to go to international shows and this song was played, different types of girls were called. As soon as someone came who had a younger wife, I used to say that I have a younger wife.
The story of making the film Laawaris is very interesting. After ‘Mukandar Ka Sikandar’, Prakash Mehra wanted to make ‘Jadugar’. Due to some reason that film could not be made so the script of ‘Laawaris’ was finalized. Magician was made after many years. The initial scenes of the film Laawaris were first shot with Parveen Babi but due to her mental condition, Prakash Mehra took Zeenat Aman in the film.
Laawaris was the first film in which Rakhi played the role of Amitabh Bachchan’s mother. Although there were no scenes of both of them together in the film. After this, in 1982, Rakhi played the role of Amitabh’s mother in Ramesh Sippy’s film ‘Shakti’. There was a rift between Prakash Mehra and Rakhi during the shooting of the film.
There was a figure of 36 between Prakash Mehra and Manmohad Desai. Prakash Mehra often used to make fun of Manmohan Desai’s films. He also used to make fun of the ‘meeting-parting’ formula shown in films. The interesting thing is that the film Laawaris was also based on the same formula. Then Manmohan Desai had said in one of his interviews that why did Prakash Mehra use my nonsense formula?
Another song from the film Laawaris, ‘Apni To Jaise Taise Kat Jayegi’ was very popular. This song was written by Prakash Mehra only. The remaining songs of the film were written by lyricist Anjaan. When Prakash Mehra fell ill during the outdoor shooting, Ram Sethi and Amjad Khan continued shooting the film.