Rajesh Khanna was one of many greatest stars within the late Nineteen Sixties and early Seventies, holding the file for 17 consecutive hits on the field workplaceDuring this peak of his profession, he was so in style that he began signing movies without even reading their scripts.
The celebrity as soon as signed a film for Rs 5 lakh as an advance, however after reading the script, he realized it was “terrible.” Despite this, he did not wish to again out as a result of he was promised Rs 9 lakh for the film, a enormous sum within the early Seventies. He agreed to do the film, however solely after his chosen writers rewrote the script.
In Yasser Usman’s e-book, Rajesh Khanna: The Untold Story of India’s First Superstar, an attention-grabbing story is shared about Rajesh Khanna’s choice to signal a film. At the time, he was making an attempt to purchase his sea-dealing with bungalow, Aashirwaad, from the earlier proprietor, actor Rajendra Kumar, and needed to pay a important quantity for the property. Around this time, he was provided a film by producer MMA Chinnappa Devar from Chennai, primarily based on a story about a man and his pet elephants, which might later develop into Elephant Mere SaathiRajesh agreed to the film due to the big sum provided, signing on without reading the script.
After Rajesh Khanna had been displaying off his money, he lastly acquired the script for the film and was shocked and disenchanted by it. Realizing the script wasn’t as much as customary, he referred to as within the well-known writing duo Salim-Javed to rewrite it. At the time, Salim-Javed had been nonetheless unknown and dealing as salaried staff at Sippy Films, however they agreed to assist.
Salim Khan, of the Salim-Javed duo, shared with Yasser that Rajesh Khanna was initially excited in regards to the giant cost when he signed the film. However, after reading the script and studying about Devar’s Tamil movies, he acquired scared. Salim recalled Rajesh telling him, “This is a terrible script. I could have rejected it outright, but I took a huge amount.” Salim believed Rajesh wanted cash to purchase a home and a automotive, which is why he agreed to a sum larger than his standard market worth, which was Rs 9 lakh, together with a Rs 5 lakh signing quantity—Rs 4 lakh greater than his standard price. at the moment.
Salim-Javed utterly rewrote the script, holding solely the idea of the pet elephants, and thus Haathi Mere Saathi was born. The film grew to become a enormous success, sustaining Rajesh Khanna’s unbroken streak of hits and giving Salim-Javed one in every of their early successes as properly.
