Mumbai: Rajesh Khanna’s blockbuster films were becoming hits, he was discussed everywhere. The stars with tremendous fan following were busy working day and night. Meanwhile, South filmmaker MMA Chinappa Devar offered a film to Rajesh, later he offered money first. Rajesh was in dire need of money in those days, so he signed the film without thinking anything.
Actually, Madras’s famous filmmaker Chinappa wanted to make a Hindi film. He had no shortage of money. So Rajesh Khanna was his first and last choice. Rajesh had bought Rajendra Kumar’s bungalow in those days, so he needed a lot of money. When Chinappa offered a hefty amount, Kaka said yes without delay.
the suitcase was full of notes
According to media reports, Chinappa had given a signing amount of Rs 5 lakh to Rajesh Khanna in the 70s. This was a huge amount in the 70s. Film actor and producer Dheeraj Kumar told in an interview to the media that ‘During the shooting in a famous studio, Kaka called me to his room and showed me a suitcase, then tell me to open it… I opened it and was surprised… the whole suitcase. It was full of notes and till then I had not seen so many notes together. Seeing me surprised, Kaka was smiling in his special way. It is interesting that Kaka had not taken the details of the film till then.
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Rajesh Khanna lost his senses after reading the script
But Rajesh Khanna’s happiness ended when MMA Chinappa Devar sent him the script. Kaka started sweating as soon as he read the script, he felt that if a film was made on this subject, he would be beaten badly and the effect on his career would be different. In such a situation, Rajesh remembered Salim Khan, went to him and said that this script is very bad. I would have returned this script but have taken a lot of money. Probably 9 lakhs which was about 4 lakhs more than his market price. Had taken 5 lakh signing amount.
Rajesh Khanna sought help from Salim-Javed
Javed Akhtar did this story during a show on NDTV. Javed Sahab had said that ‘we read that script and told Rajesh that we have a condition that no one should have any objection to the changes we have to make in it. Rajesh said do anything but save me. We changed the entire script except 4 elephants in that story. The name of this film was named ‘Hathi Mere Saathi’.
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‘Hathi Mere Saathi’ became a huge hit
Renowned script writer of Hindi film industry worked to give life to Rajesh Khanna. The Salim-Javed duo worked on the script keeping Kaka’s image in mind. Tanuja was opposite Kaka in the film ‘Hathi Mere Saathi’. The songs of this film were also a big hit and this film became very popular among children. It is said that ‘Hathi Mere Sathi’ had such a craze among children that schools had to wait for a week to get bookings made for it.
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Tags: Entertainment Throwback, Rajesh Khanna
FIRST PUBLISHED : March 06, 2023, 18:07 IST
