MUMBAI: Since it starred Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar for the first and only time, Subhash Ghai's 1991 film Saudagar was seen as the biggest casting coup at the time. The stars were said to be on bad terms off-screen, so Ghai took credit for bringing them together.
Govind Namdev, who also starred in the movie, thought he was misused in this situation, even though Ghai's ability to bring the actors together was well-received by the public. Govind revealed in a recent interview that he went through a "traumatic time" during the time that Ghai was filming with him before removing his part from the picture entirely.
Govind told, “That was a traumatic time for me. When I got the role, it was quite big and then he later chopped off the entire role in the final edit. By then, I had already told the entire world that I was working with Dilip Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Subhash Ghai. These are big personalities. I had told everybody about it. The shoot was also done.”
According to Govind Namdev, he did not receive a call from the director when the film's dubbing began, but other actors were asked to dub their roles. The actor stated that "the film started with it, and ended with it," making his role crucial to Saudagar. According to him, his character was meant to appear in flashbacks at both the start and the finish of the film, as well as at key points.
According to the actor, Subhash Ghai had to cut parts of his four-and-a-half-hour film to make it shorter. Around that time, someone advised Ghai to drop Namdev's persona and begin the story immediately. “Someone suggested to him that you take this character out and he did that. I was in a lot of trauma then,” he stated.
Namdev claimed that Ghai never discussed it with him and that he made the decision to never collaborate with the filmmaker again. “I never worked with him again. Neither did he call me, nor did I go to him for any work. If he had, then it would have been nice but I understand people’s limitations as well,” he added.
The actor declared that he will never again collaborate with some directors, putting them on his "blacklist." Govind Namdev most recently starred in the film OMG 2, which starred Pankaj Tripathi and Akshay Kumar.
For more news and updates from the world of television and Bollywood, stay tuned to TellyChakkar
Credit- The Indian Express
Add new comment