The Showman Showdown

In line with how a movie show starts in theatres, one should perhaps begin with a disclaimer. When Prakash Mehra’s son was pressed about the matter, he said his father and Manmohan Desai had nothing but respect for each other. But if and when one goes past that recent interview and through old film scribes’ archives, there emerges a picture of an unparalleled rivalry between the peers. It’s bollywood. Rivalries here have historically been between actors — not just mainstream stars like Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, but also arthouse thespians, for Mahesh Bhatt has often told of the tension between Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil on the sets of *Arth*, both actresses involved then in a National Awards arms race of sorts. But oneupmanship between showmen is a somewhat rare phenomenon, and even when observed, it stems from betrayal: a mentor miffed by a mentee, as an example. Karan Johar and Nikhil Advani had a falling out after *Kal Ho Naa Ho*. And when accused of meting out stepbrotherly treatment under his banner, Nasir Hussain swapped *Teesri Manzil* with Vijay Anand’s *Bahaaron Ke Sapne* to prove a point to Vijay’s brother. These were personal fallouts that were *incidentally* professional. With Mehra and Desai, it was different.The Mehra-Desai rivalry wasn’t about one not wanting to stay in the other’s shadow but about each wanting to hog the limelight. Their rivalry was a professional one first that *turned* personal. [Photo Credit \(Left\): Raghu Rai, ToI, \(Right\): Lesactualites.news](https://preview.redd.it/gqo0jkfn1qae1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=773f9909142a3dade07537a24b8ee660bf27286e) *“Only a Sharaabi can make a film like Sharaabi while a Mard can only make a film like Mard*,” said Manmohan Desai in 1984, between Prakash Mehra’s film and his. Mehra responded in a way that can’t be reprinted. How did it start? Their particular situation had three dimensions. 1. TIME Between 1975 and 1985, from the imposition of the Emergency to the proliferation of video parlours, bollywood faced an existential crisis. Only sixteen films crossed the Rs 1 crore benchmark in any major territory to be termed “super dupers” by trade analysts, these being: *Sholay, Amar Akbar Anthony, Jai Santoshi Maa, Deewar, Dharam Veer, Ek Duuje Ke Liye, Laawaris, Suhaag, Muqaddar Ka Sikander, Andhaa Kaanoon, Coolie, Naseeb, Kranti, Namak Halaal, Ram Teri Ganga Maili and Mard*. During time, in his time, Amitabh Bachchan starred in 70% of bollywood’s biggest moneyspinners while over half of the overall super-duper hits in the “Bachchan era” were made by Manmohan Desai or Prakash Mehra. Shridhar Dhanagare, from the facebook page *Bombay Talkies: The Glory of Mumbai Single Screens*, however suggests that the Mehra-Desai rivalry predates to ’72-’73 with overlapping releases like *Raampur Ka Laxman (Desai), Zanjeer (Mehra), Samadhi (Mehra)* and *Aa Gale Lag Ja (Desai)* jostling for jubilees or 100-day runs at Shalimar, Imperial, Dreamland, Opera House theatres respectively, thus dovetailing in ascents and peaks. 2. SPACE Mehra and Desai were attacking the same market, the commercial movie space though they arrived at it in different ways. Desai’s cinema owed its ideas — the pratfalling gags (cue the pie-fighting sequence in *Naseeb*), breakneck speed, lavish sets and outlandish props (the literal Easter egg in *Amar Akbar Anthony* and the mechanical falcon in *Coolie*) — to the razzmatazz of stunt films like *Circus Queen* made by his father Kikubhai Desai. And a childhood spent playing with the Khetwadi slum children after his father’s premature death dictated the packaging: massy melodrama. “My films begin their real business beyond Thane or Ghaziabad,” Desai used to say, pointing to centres far beyond the metros. As opposed to Desai, Mehra was more of an outsider. A Punjabi refugee from U.P.’s Bijnaur with a deserter father, Mehra hailed from the theatrical tradition and wanted to be a lyricist, gradually getting into “social” films from years of struggle in school and public theatre and assisting Vinod Desai (no relation of Manmohan’s) on mythological pictures but forever holding an admiration for films like *Jaagte Raho* and *Pyaasa*. Thus, Mehra’s films were social entertainers with a keen musical sense, made first and foremost for the masses. 3. MATTER Mehra and Desai were often fighting for the same resources, whether for the acting or writing graces of Kader Khan or the dates and commitment of Amitabh. There was a fight for territory as well. The overseas market had shrunk. South remakes and rates were wreaking havoc. Producers were few. Pal Chandani was the distributor for both Desai and Mehra in the Karnataka circuit. Things came to a head when Desai refused the use of Alankar theatre for *Sharaabi* with *Coolie* running; Mehra’s film had to be released at Apsara instead. Till the time *Jaadugar* and *Toofan* released in quick succession only to crash and burn, theirs was, indeed, a turf war like no other. https://preview.redd.it/42i19q32zpae1.jpg?width=474&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7f6620b5fbe522bb1561343225a776bec8d09a58