Bharathi S. Pradhan
Thirty-three years after he helped Rajendra Kumar's son make his debut in a runaway hit titled Love Story, director Rahul Rawail is going to make Love Story Again. A very successful director in the 80s, roly-poly Rahul had assisted Raj Kapoor on films like Bobby and when Rajendra Kumar had wanted to launch his son, Manoj, he had chosen the RK-trained director to helm Love Story.
As it turned out, a lot more than just launching his son happened with Love Story. Firstly, Rajendra Kumar had to change his son's name because there was already a Manoj Kumar in the film industry. So Manoj was christened Kumar Gaurav but everybody called him by his pet name, Bunty.
Rajendra Kumar and Raj Kapoor were close friends who almost became family when the former's son, Manoj turned Kumar Gaurav alias Bunty, fell in love with and got engaged to RK's daughter, Rima. But by the time Love Story was ready for release, Kumar Gaurav had fallen in love with his co-star Vijeta Pandit (illustrious classical singer Pandit Jasraj's niece and actress-singer Sulakshana Pandit's sister), and his engagement to Rima stood cancelled. The broken engagement had a ripple effect with cracks soon showing up in the Kumar-Kapoor friendship.
Rajendra Kumar later had a fall out with his director Rahul Rawail too, and threw him out of the credit titles of Love Story. Kumar Gaurav's big box-office debut was thus released without its real director on the scene but it was a huge hit, nevertheless, and both its lead actors became stars for a short while before fizzling out. Rawail didn't get the official credit for it but two years later, he repeated the magic when he directed Betaab (1983), the film that turned Sunny Deol and Amrita Singh into instant stars.
Soon, Kumar Gaurav also fell out of love with his heroine Vijeta. Bunty then wooed and wed Sanjay Dutt's sister, Namrata, with whom he has two daughters.
Meanwhile, Vijeta married a director called Sameer Malkan for a brief while, divorced him and then married Aadesh Srivastava, the ace music director of films like Baghban and Raajneeti. Vijeta and Aadesh are well-settled with two sons and they look after her ailing older sister, Sulakshana Pandit (who has never been the same after her heart was broken by Sanjeev Kumar). The only hiccup in Vijeta's life now is that her other sister, Sandhya Singh, was murdered in 2012.
Sandwiched between Sulakshana and Vijeta, Sandhya had avoided the movie industry and married a customs official. But with her death, she has been in the headlines more than anybody else in the family. Her own son Raghuveer has been held for her murder and is languishing behind bars.
Kumar Gaurav's buddy and brother-in-law, Sanjay Dutt, too, is behind bars.
In the meantime, Kumar Gaurav's first fianc�e, Raj Kapoor's daughter, Rima, wed a very decent businessman, also named Manoj, and became Rima Jain. Her first son Armaan was an AD to Karan Johar and he is on the verge of making his debut as actor in a Saif Ali Khan production.
And director Rahul Rawail, who has two sons, both working with Aditya Chopra at Yashraj, is going to make Love Story Again. He has cast Indian Television Academy boss Shashi Ranjan's daughter Anushka opposite a new boy.
Phew. So many emotional upheavals have happened to the Love Story team in the last 33 years that it would make an unbelievable television saga. Wonder if anything even remotely this exciting is in store for the players of Love Story Again (2014/15). But more than anything else, three decades later, will Rahul Rawail be able to work his magic with newcomers again?
Farhan Akhtar's magic sure didn't work in Shaadi Ke Side Effects (SKSE) which was one of the major disappointments of the year. But producer Pritish Nandy is indefatigable. He was overheard telling friends that his next will be Divorce Ke Side Effects. Well, Nandy certainly has some experience in that area but given the poor response to SKSE, maybe divorcing himself from filmmaking would be the best route to take?
Surprises of course, won't cease in the celebrity whirl. Shilpa Shetty reportedly produced Dishkiyaoon for Harman Baweja because she looked upon him as her younger brother. Understandable considering there were strong rumours that he was seeing her younger sister Shamita. But Shilpa's sisterly affection for him has outlasted Shamita's short-lived relationship with Harman. Because, despite the bombing of Dishkiyaoon, Shilpa now wants to produce another film with Harman's current girl, Bipasha Basu. Try and sort that one out over the weekend.
