20 years of Baghban: Here’s why this is Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini’s most influential film

Ravi Chopra’s Baghban, which released on October 3, 2003, is incontrovertibly the most influential film of Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini’s career. It changed the way Indian families looked at the elderly and revised the younger generations’ attitude towards their parents.

 

20 years of Baghban: Here’s why this is Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini’s most influential film

 

Before Ravi Chopra, his father the great B R Chopra lived with the idea of making Baghban for 20 years. The film was planned originally with Dilip Kumar. But by the time Ravi Chopra got down to making it, Dilip saab was too old to play a 60-year-old man.

 

Shah Rukh Khan was supposed to play Mr Bachchan's son in Ravi Chopra's Baghban. When he backed out because of his back problem, Salman Khan sportingly stepped in.

 

During the shooting of Baghban, Bachchan was full of praise for Salman. He said, “Salman is God's child. Very misunderstood, but has a heart of gold. Like Sanju (Sanjay Dutt), Salman has a penchant for getting into trouble. But he means well and is extremely kind- hearted. So, will the real Salman Khan please stand up? Is he an enfant terrible or a restless child with a heart of gold? Salman often says and does things which he doesn't mean. His naked aversion to the press doesn't add to his popularity.”

 

Hema Malini, who turns 75 this month, said about the film, “Baghban was one of the most important films of my career. It addressed the relationship between parents and children. I've seldom received as much feedback and praise for a film as I did for Baghban. It was the kind of rare cinema that changed lives. Even if Ravi ji had not made any other film, he would still be remembered for this one forever. It is sad that he had to go so early. He was very unwell in his last years.”

 

Ravi Chopra, who had done Zameer, Baghban and then Baabul with Mr Bachchan, had planned a fourth film titled Pickpocket where Mr B was to play the victim of a pickpocket's designs.

 

Alas, God had other designs.

 

Also Read: 20 Years of Baghban: Lyricist Sameer reveals he narrated the song ‘Main Yahaan Tu Wahaan’ a few days after the demise of B R Chopra’s wife: “He started crying on hearing the first line. He felt as if I had written the song keeping him and his deceased wife in mind”

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