HOW LAMHE ALMOST NEVER GOT MADE!

Courtesy of Movie magazine December 1991

Yash relives his heartbreaks and his heartburns with the hearthrobs Lamhe is an unusual story of a girl's obsession with her late mother's (Sridevi in a double role) rejected lover (Anil Kapoor)! Even more unusual is the behind-the-scenes drama of the film. A bold subject, Yash risked it only to be flooded with anxieties. The Midas behind Waqt, Deewaar, and Chandni is a tense man today. Pensively viewing and reviewing the reels of Lamhe at Rajkamal, he tells me, "I can't eat or sleep." Ironically, we are in the midst of a scrumptious spread. Yash drums his fingers on his temple, as he absent-mindedly munches cucumber slices. Every moment he is obsessed with Lamhe. Yash rewinds moments from a film that nearly never got made.

IF CHANDNI HADN'T BEEN A SUPERHIT I WOULD NEVER HAVE HAD THE GUTS TO MAKE LAMHE

For six years Lamhe was my dream project. I was dying to put it on celluloid. But I didn't have the guts to make it after Mashaal, Faasle, Vijay - in my lean period. Because it's a very bold, off-beat kind of film and the stakes were very high. But the resounding success of Chaandni gave me the creative freedom to make Lamhe. KUCH BHI KAR LO VINOD DOESN'T LOOK 20. SO I WAS STRANDED Having decided to go ahead with Lamhe, the hero became a stumbling block. I had committed to Vinod that he'd do the Lamhe role - whenever I made it. this was much before Chaandni but there was never any such bargain that Vinod-do-Chaandni-and-I'll-give-you-Lamhe. The problem arose when I started scripting for Lamhe and realised that the role required a 20 year old. Now, kuch bhi kar lo, Vinod just can't look 20 today. So I had no choice but to think of somebody else for the role. Vinod is upset with me but he'll come around. After I gave Chandni to Sridevi they all said Rekha would never talk to me. Now we might even work together.

WHEN EVEN JACKIE AND ANIL COULDN'T FIT INTO MY CONCEPT I WAS BEGINNING TO WONDER IF I WILL EVER FIND MY HERO

After Vinod, I considered Jackie. He sent me his photographs without his moustache. I liked the look. But after much consideration I decided that he too won't be able to look that young. I considered Deepak Malhotra too, Sridevi was game, but I got cold feet. An established hero would be a better bet since it was a big budget film. Anil meanwhile had been persistently trying for the role. He even declared, "Main yeh picture ke liye kuch bhi kar sakta hoon." I didn't want to do something about it. Luckily toh main nahin kahoonga, but as luck would have it, at that time itself, Anil borke his leg and had to sit at home for a long stretch of time. So he shaved off the mouche, we liked the look and agreed upon it. We even experimented further and changed the look of his original moustache. Even in those parts of the film where he does have a moustache, we've given Anil a differently cut mouche. Besides his mouchelss look, even otherwise Anil is going to come as a big surprise in Lamhe. Kya kaam kiya hai. I told him to curb his over-eagerness and all the hard work that he normally puts into every character. `Bas, behte paani ki tarah chale jao.' That's what he's done - and to great effect.

COULD SRIDEVI AND I PULL IT OFF AGAIN?

Casting Sridevi in Lamhe wasn't so easy, because the novelty of working with each other and exploring the other person's creative parameters wears off after sometime. But there are exceptions to he rule. Like Amitabh was. Like Sridevi is. Chaandni ke baad mujhe Sridevi samajh aa gayi thi. I was surprised, I was impressed, I was dazzled by her talent. Now for Lamhe I had to think 'ab main use kaise surprise karoon.' How do I change the look from Chaandni! How do I make her explore the character? But we worked at it and succeeded. So much so that we both enjoyed ourselves tremendously. In London, Sridevi told me, 'I've never been so happy in my whole life.'

AFTER SRI'S FATHER DIED, I EXPERIENCED THE MOST TRAUMATIC TIME IN MY LIFE

That was a terrible time for all of us. I couldn't bring myself to break the news to her. After I got the call, I went to her room and told her that her father was very sick and that she had to leave for Bombay immediately. She started weeping. She must have had an intuition. To compound our troubles we were shooting outside Manchester which is a few hundred miles outside London. Weeping continuously Sri caught the inter-linking flight and finally made it to Bombay. Those were the most tension filled days of my whole career. I didn't know what to do. As a producer I could incur lakhs of losses. But I knew Sridevi' professionalism. And I relied on that. And true to form, as soon as the 15th day rites were over, Sri caught the plane for London - on the 16th day itself! And that too all alone. On the very first day after the incident, she had to shoot a comedy scene with Waheedaji (who'd been sitting idle for the whole of that fortnight and wanted to go back to India to her children). Main bhi dar raha tha. I was very hesitant, very apprehensive about asking her to do such a sequence. But Sri immediately put my doubts to rest. "Yashji I've come here to work," she assured me with quiet strength. And went ahead and did the scene full throttle. She even added to the scene with several improvisations. I was left amazed. How could she do it? Especially when I knew that after shooting, she'd go to her room, put the pictures of her parents on her dressing table and cry her heart out. That girl is something else.

FINALLY LAMHE IS COMPLETE BUT THERE IS - AKAYLA TO COMPETE WITH. AMITABH SE AB BHI DAR LAGTA HAI.

The distributors of Akayla are planning to release it in the same week as Lamhe. Now my distributors are thinking of postponing Lamhe. Amitabh se ab bhi dar lagta hai. Chaandni was supposed to be released between Toofan and Jaadugar. Picture dab jaa sakt this. Ek ko toh phir bhi sambhal lete! Par do do! I postponed it and it paid off. Let's see, I think I'll postpone Lamhe. And prove that…IT WASN'T MOUCHE ADO ABOUT NOTHING.