Why Mahesh Bhatt wept bitterly after the release of Do Raaste

NEW DELHI: In the winter of 1969, a tornado named Rajesh Khanna barrelled through India. Two films created Hindi cinema's first superstar: Shakti Samanta’s Aradhana, shortly followed by Raj Khosla’s Do Raaste.

But the first few days of Do Raaste were uncertain at the box-office. Mahesh Bhatt, a young “production hand” in the film, wept bitterly over the film’s grim prognosis, says a forthcoming biography of Raj Khosla, whose 100 th birth anniversary falls on May 31.

Khosla had already delivered superhits in a variety of genres: thriller CID (1956), suspenseful Woh Kaun Thi? (1964) and romantic drama Do Badan (1966) underlining his ability as an all-rounder. But his last two ventures, Anita (1967) and Chirag (1969), hadn’t fared well. Debtors were at the door.

Do Raaste, which he produced and directed, was based on Marathi writer Chandrakant Kakodkar’s novel, Nilambari. When the film opened at Bombay’s Royal Opera House on Dec 5, 1969, editor Waman Bhonsle and Bhatt were at the theatre.

Biographer Amborish Roychoudhury writes in the book, “A manager by the name of Desai, came to Bhatt and Bhonsle and said, “Saamne woh Shakti ki picture chal rahi hai Aradhana, woh advance mein housefull hai. Yahan par log nahin aate. Picture doobegi.” (Shakti’s film Aradhana, playing across the road, is running to full house in advance booking. No one is coming here. This film will flop.)

“When he heard this, Bhatt broke down. Bhonsle had seen it all before, but the young Bhatt, all of 20, was emotionally attached to the film,” says the book, co-authored by Anita Khosla and Uma Khosla Kapur, both director’s daughters.

The crisply-written book titled, "Raj Khosla: The Authorized Biography,” also says that the film originally ended with some “touching lines about mother-son relationship” which wasn’t working too well with the audience.

Khosla reached out to heroine Sadhana, with whom he had worked in four films. “Over the years, she had become a confidante and a sounding board. He showed her his films, and she told him what she felt,” writes Roychoudhury.

Sadhana suggested ending the film with a clip of the track, “Bindiya Chamkegi”, which was to become radio countdown show, Binaca Geetmala’s No 1 song of 1971. Khosla carried out the change.

Do Raaste “ran for more than 50 weeks at the same Opera House where the staff had written the film off.” Debtors were paid. Khosla announced a bonus for some staff members. Bhatt’s bonus was Rs 300, equivalent to a month’s wage. “He gave me 300 bucks extra to me for shedding tears!,” the biography quotes Bhatt as saying.

Khosla passed away in 1991. In the foreword, Bhatt describes him as “My mentor. My master.”