Subhash Ghai Reveals How He Ended 30 Years Of Enmity Between Dilip Kumar, Raaj Kumar In Saudagar

With great friendships and ugliest rifts, Bollywood holds a plethora of equations among actors off-camera. The one fight which lasted for over 30 years was between veteran stars Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar. The duo had a fallout that lasted between the shoot of two films 1959’s Paigham and 1991’s Saudagar.

What was the fallout between Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar?

For more than three decades, Raaj and Dilip harboured enmity towards each other. Dilip made a firm resolution to never collaborate with Raaj after the latter delivered an excessively forceful slap during the shooting of a scene in Ramanand Sagar’s Paigham. While the script called for Raaj to slap Dilip on the face, the intensity of the slap left Dilip displeased.

Subhash Ghai opens up on how he reunited the arch-enemies for Saudagar

In a recent interview with ANI, Ghai was asked what went behind casting Raaj and Dilip for his movie Saudagar. Detailing the same, the filmmaker shared, “First I wrote the story. Then I thought that Amrish Puri and Anupam Kher should be with Dilip Kumar and Raj Kumar. I told them that this is a story and I can guarantee you that both the roles will be equal.”

Ghai shared his mantra of approaching actors and added, “You have to be mother to actors. Don't be bossy.” Subhash further shared that the unit had a unique name for the veteran stars after their reunion. “Dilip Kumar's name was Chunnu and Raaj Kumar’s name was Munnu”, shared Subhash.

The choreography of ‘My name is Lakhan’ was improvised on spot

Sharing the anecdote in the same interview, Subhash shared, “Anil improvised there. That was the first day of our shooting of Ram Lakhan. So, Saroj Khan was my choreographer. So, I hummed for her rum pum pum, rum pum pum and explained to her the shot that the hero stands up, shows an attitude, takes out a scarf and says 1, 2 ka 4, 4, 2 ka 1. My name is Lakhan. So, Saroj made that hand gesture on-spot for them.”