40 years of Meri Jung: “It was released on Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday and would have starred him,” reveals Pravesh Sippy

By Rajiv Vijayakar -

October 14, 2024 - 1:15 PM IST

On October 11, 2024, Meri Jung enters its 40^th year. Coincidentally, it is Amitabh Bachchan’s birth-date, and the story was originally conceived with him in mind. Producer Pravesh Sippy, de facto producer of the (officially) N.N. Sippy Production, opens up on his debut film’s secrets.

40 years of Meri Jung: “It was released on Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday and would have starred him,” reveals Pravesh Sippy

“I was assisting master-editors Waman Bhosle-Guru Dutt for 18 months. They were our regular scissor-hands and I was interested in editing, as it was my Major subject in San Francisco Art Institute, my film school. The maestros were editing Hero, which was being made by Subhash Ghai, who had begun his directorial innings with my dad with Kalicharan, and I was impressed with the film’s overall scale and potential. I told my father about it, and over dinner with Ghai at our house, it was decided that he would make a second film for us, almost a decade after his debut, and he had become a big name now,” he said.

Sippy added, “And so, it was a big-scale project and Subhash-ji and we reached out to the top-rung Javed Akhtar, whose fees then were a hefty Rs. 15 lakh a film. He had this subject that he had written with Amitabh Bachchan in mind, and so this was to be a N.N. Sippy-Subhash Ghai-Amitabh film as well, well before Devaa! But Amitabh Bachchan was caught up in his political career as well as his health scare after his accident.”

The filmmaker, however, wanted to make the film soon. “Ghai was unwilling to wait as he had already begun finalizing the dates of Dilip Kumar and others for his next mammoth production, Karma. And Javed and he unanimously decided on Anil Kapoor for the role. The muhurat was done in June 1984,” he said.

Speaking about the relationships they formed through the movie, Sippy said, “We, as distributors, had a long relationship with Amrish Puri-ji as well and as the film was made, we formed a lasting bond not only with Anil but also Meenakshi Seshadri. Of course, Ghai brought in Nutan-ji and Girish Karnad. And it was a mutual decision to bring Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Anand Bakshi. Dad and Ghai insisted on Bakshi-ji as Javed would normally write lyrics for most of his scripts.”

The film also marked the debut of Jaaved Jaaferi. “Actor Jagdeep-ji had an old relationship with us and dad had to convince his son, Jaaved Jaaferi, to make his debut not as a hero but as a villain, though with one song-dance to explore that side of his talent! Dad and Ghai were also quite close to (Sunil) Dutt-saab and I think he must have recommended Khushboo’s name, as she had worked with him in Dard Ka Rishta. Meri Jung was her debut too as the second lead,” he said.

He added, “Ghai was always very close to dad, who he would call to give his views on Karz often while it was being made. Having distributed Ghai’s films like Gautam Govinda, Krodhi and even Khaan Dost, which he had only written, we and his company, Mukta Arts, came together as one, and most of Meri Jung was produced out of Ghai’s office. I was personally thrown right into the battlefield in production, and though Waman-Guru remained the editors, I never worked with them here.”

Sippy revealed that he was billed as Associate Producer, but he was managing everything from actors and their dates, and from shoots to photo-shoots. “I would be interacting even in the making of the music, like going to Bakshi-ji’s house, Laxmi-ji’s sitting room and even to Mehboob Studios for the recordings of the songs and background score,” he said.

The film was one big learning experience for Sippy as he added, “Ghai also taught me all the tricks of the trade, like making a scene look costlier than it actually was! I still remember that, unlike now, when we can employ agencies to do such things for us, I had to personally arrange a hundred Maruti cars for the shoot of ‘Bol baby bol rock and roll’ at Nariman Point!”

Sippy added, “Then there was this unforgettable incident of a huge truck on which a crane was fitted being swept away overnight by the high tide at Manori Beach and getting stuck in water while we were doing our first schedule, which was the shoot of the song ‘Ae mere khwabon ke khayalon ke shehzaade’. In those days, there was nothing known as VFX and we have to show an explosive blast underwater. We also had some in-film branding with Marlex and I had to look after that as well.”

Speaking about the expertise of A.N. Tagore, Sippy said, “The final point I want to mention is that our recoding whizkid, veteran A.N. Tagore of Mehboob Studios, used his magical technical mastery to come up with Stereo recording with the antiquated equipment there! Normally, each song there would take one to two days to be readied, but with us, each song took 7 to 10 days! Laxmikant-Pyarelal really worked hard on the songs, and it is true that Ghai’s choice of the tune for ‘Jeet jayenge hum’ was approved out the three options Laxmikant-ji had given him, though Pyare-bhai had preferred another!”

Looking back at the film’s box office performance, Sippy happily said, “Meri Jung, was a huge hit in Mumbai and in many parts of India, and it remains a high-quality product that I am not only proud of but, for me, it established so many connections on a one-to-one basis. Even today, fans write so many lovely things about it that I really treasure.”