Generational connections continue in the Hindi film industry. In Raju Hirani's forthcoming biopic, Ranbir Kapoor plays Sanjay Dutt, the troubled son of Nargis, who once had a grand connection with Ranbir's grandad, Raj Kapoor.
Raju Hirani and Abhijat Joshi's script on the Sanjay Dutt biopic has reportedly turned out to be so interesting that actors are jumping with excitement on getting a narration. One of them is Akshaye Khanna. Raju has penciled in Akshaye to play, of all the roles, Sanju's dad, the much-respected Sunil Dutt. And with that comes another connection. It was Sunil Dutt who gave a break to Akshaye's dad, Vinod Khanna, as actor in Man Ka Meet (1968).
With acting turning into a family business for many, it was bound to happen. Akshaye is currently finding a connection in every second film he's doing. Ittefaq 2 is another film he's a part of. When it was announced last year, one had noted in this column that the original Ittefaq was directed by Yash Chopra in 1969 while the sequel will be helmed by his grandnephew (brother B.R. Chopra's grandson), Abhay. Additionally, Ittefaq had slipped out of Shatrughan Sinha's hands in the 60s but his daughter Sonakshi toplines its second edition.
As they prepare to start shooting, yet another connection has come up. In 1975, when Ravi Chopra went to sign Vinod Khanna for Zameer , with which he made his debut as director, Akshaye was not even born. Mom Geetanjali was pregnant with him. In 2017,when Ravi's son Abhay Chopra makes his debut as director with Ittefaq 2, it's with VK's son Akshaye as one of his main leads. Incidentally, Akshaye may have been in hibernation for a while but with a strong work ethic and his willingness to do roles that don't have him playing the main romantic hero, we're going to see some interesting work from him in the months to come.
VK's third son Sakshi Khanna is being readied for an acting career with Sanjay Leela Bhansali launching him in his next production. Since Sakshi is Akshaye's brother from a different mother, two half-brothers will be working simultaneously in the studios of Mumbai.
Mumbai had a sombre start to the New Year when builder and educationist Akhtar Rizvi's son, Abis, was shot dead in a terror attack in Turkey. Many harked back to 1990 when filmmaker Brij Sadanah, who had made entertaining films like Victoria No 203 , drunkenly shot dead his wife and daughter Namrata, before killing himself. Only son Kamal Sadanah had come out alive from the bloody melee.
Brij had married actress Sayeeda and raised his two kids as Hindus but Islam continued to be in the family. Kamal was seeing a girl called Yasmine and Namrata was engaged to gentle Abis. Even after Namrata died so tragically, and Abis later married another Hindu girl called Pooja, he and would-have-been brother-in-law Kamal continued to be thick as thieves. With his flourishing business in construction and education, Abis also turned film producer and financed a movie which Kamal directed.
The Rizvis had their own fair share of twists in the tale. Abis's mom, Meena, converted after marrying Akhtar Rizvi, and became a staunch Shia. But tragedy struck that marriage. Her unmarried son Saqib succumbed to cancer, now Abis has died from a bullet just like his fiancée Namrata, and husband Akhtar moved out a few years ago with a younger wife.
Abis himself was ringing in the New Year in Istanbul with friends including a Gujarati girl he had grown close to. And strangely, even his mother, who spoke to him before his death, thought he was partying in Singapore. Nobody knew he'd flown to Turkey.
Abis Rizvi's life had it all - romance, palace intrigue and tragedy against a Hindu-Muslim backdrop. RIP.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author
