Remembering writer Sagar Saruadi -was pen behind Yash Chopra’s iconic films
Remembering writer Sagar Saruadi -was pen behind Yash Chopra’s iconic films
Sagar Sarhadi was the unsung writer behind Yash Chopra’s blockbuster successful romantic films like ‘Kabhie Kabhie’ and ‘Chandni,’. He haped Hindi cinema with his heartrending dialogues and screenplays.
Notwithstanding his significant contributions, including writing for Shah Rukh Khan’s debut, he was in financial hardships and disillusioned struggling to make socially relevant cinema like ‘Bazaar.
The late legendary filmmaker Yash Chopra was often hailed as a visionary who redefined romance on the silver screen. Some of his most iconic films—‘Kabhie Kabhie,’ ‘Noorie,’ and ‘Chandni’—are still regarded as odes to romantic love and passion on celluloid.
But, while the author provided the vision behind these evergreen films, it was writer Sagar Sarhadi who penned the unforgettable dialogues and screenplay for these movies.
As per film historians, Sarhadi not only wrote screenplays and dialogues for several Chopra films but also penned the lines for Shah Rukh Khan’s debut, Deewana, and Hrithik Roshan’s launch vehicle, Kaho Naa Pyar Hai. Regardless shaping some of Hindi cinema’s defining works, Sarhadi lived away from the limelight, leading a life marked by loneliness and finally leaving to the ‘immortal’ world from his Mumbai apartment.
His early life and roots in partitioned India – Sagar born as
Ganga Sagar Talwar in the small village of Baffa near Abbottabad—then part of undivided India grew up against the backdrop of social and political turmoil. He adopted the pen name “Sarhadi,” inspired by filmmaker Zia Sarhadi, whose socially conscious movies like Footpath and Hum Log left a lasting impact on him. The choice also resonated his own origins from the frontier region. He spent his early years in Abbottabad, Pakistan, before relocating to Delhi at the age of twelve due to Partition. Finally moved to Bombay (now Mumbai) to live with his elder brother.
Education and Struggles in Bombay:
Following his graduation in English from St. Xavier’s College, for a brief period worked as an Urdu translator for a British firm. His true passion, however,
lay in writing. He soon abandoned the steady job to pursue a creative career. Like many newcomers to the city, he faced severe hardships. He attempted various odd jobs—from trying his hand at driving a taxi (an effort that ended disastrously on the first day) to seeking employment at a typing institute, which never materialized.
He took up to taxi driving career to scroll but in 2017 on the very first day, hit a pole while reversing.
At one point, while managing his brother’s textile shop, he was engrossed in a book that a customer walked away with an entire bundle of fabric.
It was a chance encounter with Cinema
eventually, Sarhadi found employment at an advertising agency, but his Marxist ideology clashed with the corporate culture, leading him to resign.
Regardless his success in mainstream cinema, Sarhadi was drawn toward socially relevant subjects. Inspired by a news story about women being forced into marriages for money, he created Bazaar in 1982.
Although friends warned him that the film would commercially, Sarhadi pushed forward. With financial help borrowed from acquaintances and technical equipment lent by actor Shashi Kapoor, he managed to complete the project. Featuring Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Farooq Shaikh, and Supriya Pathak, Bazaar achieved critical acclaim though its popularity was limited to certain audiences. The film proved that Sarhadi was determined to make cinema that reflected real social issues rather than chasing box-office formulas.
However, fortune did not always favor him. His next venture, Tere Shaher Mein, dragged him into a financial crisis. The film’s producer borrowed money from a moneylender, and when repayment failed, Sarhadi was forced to bear the burden. Deceived into signing a fraudulent guarantee letter, he had to sell his apartment to settle the debt. The financier’s threats pushed him to the brink of destitution. This marked the beginning of a series of struggles that overshadowed his career.
“When the producer couldn’t pay him, the financier forced me to cough up the money. He got my signature on a guarantee letter by fraud. I had to sell my flat,” he told Scroll, and added, “The financier used to threaten me that he would bring me on the footpath, and he did.”
Although Sarhadi continued to write for Yash Chopra in later projects, he chose not to restrict himself to the romantic genre. He believed that cinema should engage with wider issues and not be confined to formulaic storytelling. His creative vision made him seek narratives that challenged societal norms. For this reason, he distanced himself from the mainstream industry that, in his view, thrived more on glamour than substance.
Lost Opportunities and Unreleased Work
In the early 2000s, Sarhadi attempted a revival of sorts by casting a then-unknown Nawazuddin Siddiqui in his film Chauser. Yet, fate once again worked against him—the film never saw a release. For a man who had introduced powerful voices to the industry, such repeated disappointments were a source of disillusionment. He eventually concluded that meaningful cinema had disappeared from India, a belief that reflected his growing discontent with the changing face of Bollywood.
Sagar Sarhadi passed away in 2021 at the age of 88, following a prolonged illness. His death marked the end of a career that had contributed immensely to Hindi cinema, though he never quite received the recognition he deserved. While Yash Chopra is remembered as the master of cinematic romance, it was Sarhadi’s words that gave those stories their soul. From shaping landmark films to daring to make socially conscious cinema like Bazaar, his journey was one of resilience, creativity, and quiet suffering.
News Edit KV Raman
