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Director George Lucas
Cast Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill
Plot Luke Skywalker (Hamill), from the dusty planet of Tatooine longs to be a Rebel, the group led by Princess Leia (Fisher), fighting against the evil Empire comprising Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader. Other evergreen characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi (Guinness), Han Solo (Ford), R2-D2 and Chewbacca make the film one of the greatest celluloid creations ever.
Lucas based the character of Han Solo on his friend, celebrated director Francis Ford Coppola. While everyone from Kurt Russell to Al Pacino was considered for the role, it finally went to Ford.
When Star Wars was re-released in theatres in the late 70s and 80s, Lucas insisted that the Daffy Duck cartoon Duck Dodgers in the 24th Century was run before the feature at the theatres.
The first series of teasers for the film had the commentary by director Orson Welles, who was initially slated to do the voiceover for Darth Vader.
The original name of the character of Luke Skywalker was Luke Starkiller. It was changed to Skywalker on the very first day of filming.
Dave Prowse, who played Darth Vader, was initially offered the character of Chewbacca. He refused because the ?thought of being wrapped up in a big smelly costume was too much? and chose Vader?s character instead because he felt people always remember the villain.
The film was renamed Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope two years after its 1977 release, when Lucas decided to make a nine-film series.
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Director Mani Ratnam
Cast Abhishek Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Vivek Oberoi, Rani Mukherjee, Esha Deol, Kareena Kapoor, Om Puri
Plot The lives of three young people collide in a murder attempt on Calcutta?s Vivekananda Setu. The film traces the three lives ? where they came from and where they are headed.
The chapter-wise break-up of the film and the coming together of the three characters in an accident is reminiscent of Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu?s award-winning Amores Perros.
Ratnam also made a Tamil version of the film titled Ayutha Ezuthu. The only common actor in the two films from the lead cast was Esha Deol, who played the same character in both the versions.
Simran, who plays Kareena?s character in the Tamil version, makes a fleeting anonymous appearance in Yuva as one of the college mates of Ajay Devgan deciding whether they should enter politics or not.
During the shooting of the song Khuda hafiz, Vivek had just returned to the sets after the Calcutta accident in which he broke his leg. Co-star Kareena was also a running high temperature on that day. Yet, the song was canned before its scheduled time.
The Tamil version of the song Dhakka laga buka, also composed by A.R. Rahman, goes as Jana gana mana.
Although he?s directed the Hindi film Dil Se before and then called the shots for Yuva, Mani Ratnam didn?t speak a single word in Hindi and all the directions on the sets were in English.
