It was on this day in 1975 that the crime drama, Deewar, which tells the story of a pair of impoverished brothers who find themselves on opposing sides of the law, released. A cinematic favourite, it has spawned its share of interesting trivia…
‘Mere paas Ma hai…’, one of the most popular dialogues of all time, is a line from this Yash Chopra directorial. And did you know that the dubbed English version of Deewar was called I'll Die For Mama?
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In the times of double shifts, Amitabh Bachchan shot for both Sholay (1975) and Deewaar simultaneously! Mornings would be spent shooting for the Ramesh Sippy directorial, Sholay, while his nights were reserved for Deewaar. Both were to find their place on the list of Hindi cinema’s best entertainers.
Apparently, Amitabh Bachchan's role was based on the real-life Bombay smuggler Haji Mastan. Mastan was originally a worker in Mumbai's docks, while Bachchan’s character in Deewar was also working in the docks, with the iconic Billa Number ‘786' tied to his arm.
Filmmaker Yash Chopra had his heart set on Rajesh Khanna for the role of the unforgettable Vijay Verma. However, his scriptwriters Salim-Javed had a spat with Khanna and insisted that Amitabh be signed on instead.
Deewar also established Parveen Babi as the ‘New Bollywood Woman’. Her character Anita is a liberated working girl, smoking, drinking and making love to her partner, defying every Hindi film heroine rule.
The film cemented the success of the writing duo Salim-Javed, skyrocketing their value. In an unheard of trend, they were paid as highly as some actors at the time, apparently demanding Rs.8 lakh per film after Deewar’s success.
Amitabh ended up setting a fashion trend with his casually knotted shirt – in reality, he did it because his coolie shirt was a tad too long!
The mother's role played by Nirupa Roy took its time getting to her. It would have been offered to Waheeda Rehman, but for the fact that Yash Chopra had already cast her in Kabhi Kabhie (1976) as Amitabh Bachchan's wife! Chopra was afraid that if Kabhi Kabhie released first, the audiences would not accept Rehman as Bachchan's mother. Vyjayanthimala was also approached, but she turned it down.
Deewar earned its spurs as an ‘all-time earner’, taking its place among the top 10 grossers of the Hindi film industry at that time. It ran for over 100 weeks. It was also one of the only 13 films that grossed over 1 crore rupees in every territory across India between 1970s-1980s.
