Saudagar starring Bollywood legends Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar completed 30 years since its release. The movie also marked the debut of actor Vivek Mushran. In a recent interview, he talked about his experience of working with director Subhash Ghai, and his treatment of the then fresh faces Vivek and co-star Manisha Koirala.
“Both Manisha and I were newcomers who were learning. Subhash ji knew that, and so he started shooting silent scenes with us first,” he said, reminiscing about the shot where Manisha patches up his wound in silence.
The movie is based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and Dilip and Raaj star as two friends whose relationship soured over the years but their grandkids decide to reunite them.
“The mastery of Subhash ji was how handled these two great actors. It’s not easy to have such big people in a single project. You have to treat them with a lot of care, and yet manage to get great performances out of everyone. Every filmmaker cannot do that.”Vivek Mushran, Actor
Vivek also credits the film’s longevity to the way the director moulded the story. “The stories of many films remained the same at that time, it was about how directors put their own impression onto it. Even Saudagar had Subhash ji’s touch, the way he presented it musically, the way he got the drama and then casting the two giants. The longevity is because of that,” he told Indian Express.
Saudagar also stars Amrish Puri, Anupam Kher, Deepti Naval, Mukesh Khanna, Gulshan Grover, and others.
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