Anand was based on my relationship with Raj Kapoor, I wrote it when he wasn’t well: Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee made many in style films in his day however the movie he’s most remembered for is his 1971 movie Anand, which instructed the story of a dying man who spreads cheer wherever he goes. Starring Rajesh Khanna within the titular function, the movie had him sharing display house with a then beginner Amitabh Bachchan. As Khanna’s character battled his ailment, Bachchan turns into his assist system and is totally remodeled along with his timeless positivity. A heart-wrenching story on display, the movie was, in reality, impressed by the occasions of Mukherjee’s personal life.
Mukherjee shared in a 1998 interview that this was a biographical movie that was based mostly on his relationship with filmmaker-actor Raj Kapoor. He instructed Rediff that he obtained the concept for the movie after he grew to become mates with Raj. “In Anand, one was a Bengali and one was a Punjabi. So it was clear what they needed to appear like. I obtained the concept to make this movie after I grew to become mates with Raj Kapoor,” he had stated. Within the movie, Rajesh performed the Punjabi character and Amitabh performed the Bengali character.
Mukherjee stated that he wrote the movie when Kapoor was “affected by a pulse drawback.” Calling the movie “a sort of a biography”, he stated, “I wrote Anand when Raj Kapoor was not nicely. He was affected by a pulse drawback, however he nonetheless managed to smile and unfold happiness round. I used to suppose if one thing occurs to him, what’s going to occur to me? All of us had been frightened about him and he can be smiling all the time. The identical approach Amitabh would fear and Rajesh would brush it off.”
In the identical interview, Mukherjee stated that whereas the movie known as Anand, after Rajesh Khanna’s character, he noticed Amitabh Bachchan’s Bhaskar Banerjee as the primary character. “He was the primary character as a result of he’s there all through the movie and thru him, we get to know the story. Rajesh Khanna was the second primary character. I simply had to take a look at Amitabh to know that he was proper for the function,” he stated.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Raj Kapoor had a long-standing friendship as Kapoor had labored with him in his second directorial, the 1959 movie Anari. Mukherjee had as soon as shared in a Filmfare interview that they first grew to become mates when he traveled with the star to Moscow.
Mukherjee handed away in 2006 in Mumbai.
