Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
It is famously known that when Amitabh Bachchan turned producer in the 1990s with his company ABCL (Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited), it triggered one of the worst phases of the actor’s life. At one point, Amitabh had declared bankruptcy and had to start from scratch again during the late 1990s and early 2000s with Kaun Banega Crorepati and Mohabbatein. But, this wasn’t Amitabh’s first brush with production. The actor had first tried his hand at film production in the early 1970s, just a few years before he made it big in Bollywood with Zanjeer. In a recent interview, veteran journalist Hanif Zaveri claimed that Amitabh had actually produced the Hrishikesh Mukherjee directorial Abhimaan, as he was unsure about his place in the film industry.
Hanif recalled, in a chat shared on Vickey Lalwani’s YouTube channel, that after Saat Hindustani and Anand, Amitabh had faced a string of flops and at one point, he was getting replaced from films that he had already signed. “Zanjeer was yet to come out and Amitabh was skeptical about getting more films after that,” he shared. Before Zanjeer, Amitabh had not experienced any solo hits at the box office and thus, he thought that he must turn producer so he could, at least, create opportunities for himself.
“Amitabh thought that, perhaps, I should turn producer now so even if I don’t get any work outside, then at least I can work in my home productions. Hrishikesh Mukherjee told him that if you turn producer, no other producer will sign you because back then, if any actor turned producer, other producers didn’t sign them,” Hanif said. So Amitabh came up with a plan. He decided that he would ‘ghost produce’ the film where he would be the producer, but the film would carry the name of his close associates as producers. A production company was formed with Jaya and Amitabh’s names, as the two were already in a relationship by then.
“Amitabh Bachchan said, ‘I will produce, but I will do it under someone else’s name. Hrishikesh Mukherjee agreed with that. So ‘Ami’ from Amitabh and ‘Ya’ from Jaya, and they established a company called AmiYa Chitra. Bachchan was the original producer but because they had to write someone else’s name, they used Sushila Kamath and Pawan Kumar’s name. Sushila was Jaya’s secretary, and Pawan Kumar, who later managed Shatrughan Sinha’s work, handled production. Pawan would handle all the logistics but the original producer was Amitabh Bachchan,” he said.
It was during the filming of Abhimaan that Zanjeer released and turned out to be a massive hit. Amitabh and Jaya also got married during the filming of Abhimaan.
Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
