35 Years of Shahenshah: Tinnu Anand reveals he had apprehensions about the film’s dialogues: “My father told me, ‘Amitabh Bachchan sher hai. Usko ghaas puus mat do. Usko maas waale dialogues do’” – Tinnu Anand

By Fenil Seta -

August 29, 2023 - 7:31 PM IST

This year marked the 35th anniversary of Shahenshah (1988). It is considered to be one of the iconic films of mega star Amitabh Bachchan and his dialogues and getup are memorable even today. Some days back, Radio Nasha held a session with actor-director Tinnu Anand wherein he revealed fascinating trivia about the film and a lot more.

35 Years of Shahenshah: Tinnu Anand reveals he had apprehensions about the film’s dialogues: “My father told me, ‘Amitabh Bachchan sher hai. Usko ghaas puus mat do. Usko maas waale dialogues do’” – Tinnu Anand

At the very beginning, Tinnu Anand told the host, RJ Divya Solgama, about the clap-wrothy dialogues of the film. He said, “My father (Inder Raj Anand), was the writer of Shahenshah and Kaalia (1981). His dialogues used to be Urdu-heavy. This is a language which we had never learnt. Also, the film was going to cater to the youth and college-going students. They had never studied Urdu. Hence, I argued how will they understand the flowery language that he used in his dialogues?”

Tinnu Anand continued, “He had a very good answer to my argument. He asked me, ‘Bete, jungle ka raja kaun hai?’. I replied, ‘Sher’. Then he asked, ‘Tumhare paas actor kaun hai?’. I said, ‘Amitabh Bachchan’. To which he said, ‘Amitabh Bachchan, jo sher hai, usko ghaas puus mat do. Usko vegan dishes mat dena. Usko mutton do khaane ke liye. Sher maas khaata hai’. Mere dialogues jo hai, woh maas waale hai!”

Tinnu Anand then muttered Shahenshah’s famous dialogue, “Rishte mein toh hum tumhare baap hote hai. Naam hai Shahenshah.” As expected, there was applause and hooting from the crowd.

Tinnu Anand continued, “My father told me, ‘I’ve worked with several actors and written dialogues for them. Lekin yeh dialogues kisi ke munh se acche nahin lagenge (laughs). Yeh dialogues jab sirf Amitabh Bachchan kahega, only then (it will have the desired effect)’. And, as you can see, his name became associated with Shahenshah. Today, he’s not known as Amitabh Bachchan. He’s known as Shahenshah.”

He added, “Even today, whenever Amitabh and I have a conversation, he always asks me, ‘Tinnu, 35 years ago, koi keh sakta tha ki yeh dialogue aaj bhi bole jaayenge?’!”

Before ending this topic, Tinnu Anand reminded, “The other iconic dialogue that my father wrote (in Kaalia) is used even today, especially when someone breaks into a queue – ‘Hum jahaan khade hote hai, line wahin se shuru hoti hai’!”

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