Looking Back:Ramesh Sippy pulled biggest casting coup in 1982 – paired Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar in “Shakti”
Looking Back:Ramesh Sippy pulled biggest casting coup in 1982 – paired Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar in
“Shakti”
Only Filmmaker Ramesh Sippy, a director with a midas touch could do it. He brought thespian Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan together for his film
“Shakti”. This was following the super-duper success of Sholay.
He collaborated with Amitabh Bachchan and writer duo Salim-Javed for his1982 film Shakti. Pairing the two stalwarts in his film was the biggest casting coup never ever attempted by any filmmaker at that time around.
Ironically, Shakti did not receive the much anticipated response from the audience upon its release since Bachchan’s superstardom was at its peak at the time and his fans missed watching him dance and doing everything for which they loved him.
In the midst of his recent interview, interview Ramesh Sippy shared that he was much aware it would be a great father-son story and above that he knew with Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar, this film would emerge something else altogether. Nobody could make this combination, before or after this film.” But yet, the film couldn’t perform well.
The filmmaker reasoned that by the time Shakti released, Bachchan emerged as an institution. He would do everything in the film,from dancing, singing, fighting to romancing. So, it was a one man performance. When Shakti came, it felt like people got disappointed. The front bencher audience didn’t get that satisfaction. But a film’s story has some limitations.
Ramesh Sippy further stated that although he and his team thought that Shakti looks “dry” without any dance or song sequence, they still decided against keeping any.
It was after some discussion it was decided against it.The film’s purity should stay, else it won’t be Shakti. So it was decided not to compromise. Sippy signed off.
Sippy further disclosed that at the mahurat of Shakti, Amitabh had stole all the attention as he arrived in a helicopter.
Notably, it was through the actor’s grand entry, the makers wanted to establish the dynamics of the father-son relationship which was shown in Shakti. Sippy further stated that it was a good start as people got to know that there will be somethiģng like clash of giants. But since dance and song were not there in the film, maybe people felt that void.
Apart Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan, Shakti also featured Rakhee Gulzar, Smita Patil, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Amrish Puri.
News input KV Raman
