Subhash Ghai recalls the trick he used to get sworn enemies Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar to work together in Saudagar: ‘Actors are insecure’

Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar were sworn rivals who hadn't spoken to each other in three decades before Subhash Ghai signed them to star in Saudagar.

saudagar subhash ghai dilip kumar raaj kumar

Film Director Subhash Ghai, Dilip Kumar and Rajkumar on the set of film Saudagar. (Express archive photo)

Director Subhash Ghai pulled off a major casting coup when he got the superstars Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar to sign on for his 1991 film Saudagar, but he was aware that the two weren’t on good terms. In an interview, the filmmaker described the trick that he used to get the job done, and said that actors are often ‘insecure’, and it becomes the director’s job to mother them.

Speaking to News18 about their differences, the filmmaker said, “Whether it is Dilip Kumar or Raaj Kumar, or even the generation that followed, Shah Rukh Khan or Salman Khan, you have to understand that actors are like children, and the director is their mother. One child can be studious, the other can be naughty, but a mother handles each of them, doesn’t she? Directors are like mothers. Actors are insecure. They worry about whether they can deliver, if their brand will be impacted, if they should throw around attitude to compensate for these insecurities…”

Also read – ‘Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar are enemies for last 36 years’: What Subhash Ghai’s writer told him ahead of Saudagar casting

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He continued, “The director’s job is to smile, and let the actor feel that they are the most important person in the world, as long as I get my shot. It was the same issue in Saudagar. When I found out that Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar weren’t on good terms, I used only one formula. I would tell Dilip saab that Raaj saab was praising him, and I would tell Raaj saab that Dilip saab was praising him. So, when they came together, they’d meet with positivity, and the job would get done.”

Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar’s rivalry went back three decades. Dilip Kumar reportedly took offence when Raaj Kumar slapped him harder than expected while shooting for a scene in Ramanand Sagar’s 1959 comedy-drama Paigham. The filmmaker admitted in an old interview with Nation Next that when he offered the film to the two stars, one of his writers remarked that they hadn’t spoken to each other for 36 years. But the ‘ego massage’ technique paid off.

One of the film’s cast members, Govind Namdev, recalled the experience as particularly ‘traumatic’. He told Lehren Retro, “When I got the role, it was quite big and then he later chopped off the entire role in the final edit. By then, I had already told the entire world that I was working with Dilip Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Subhash Ghai. These are big personalities. I had told everybody about it. The shoot was also done,” he shared.

Saudagar also starred Amrish Puri, Anupam Kher, Gulshan Grover, Vivek Mushran, Manisha Koirala, Mukesh Khanna and Jackie Shroff, among others

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