Few movie buffs know that Bollywood missed out on the production of one more Devdas which would have featured veteran actors Dharmendra and Hema Malini, depicting the tragic love story that has continued to appeal filmmakers over the decades.
The unfinished film which was directed and scripted by writer Gulzar in the 1980s, however, was abandoned midway for unknown reasons, National Film Archives of India (NFAI) director Prakash Magdum said on Tuesday.
“We are trying to trace the two reels of the aborted production that featured Dharmendra and Hema Malini. I just spoke to Gulzar who has given some clues as to from where these reels could be procured. We hope to get it to preserve in our archives,” Magdum said.
As many as six multilingual movies have been made based on Devdas novel, written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay originally in Bengali, revolving around an alcoholic protagonist.
The earlier “Devdas” versions featured Kundanlal Saighal and thespian Dilip Kumar.
In 2002, Sanjay Leela Bhansali had directed another version of Devdas, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit.
Director Anurag Kashyap gave a modern twist to the old story in his Dev D.
Magdum also informed that NFAI has recently stumbled upon a unique collection of Hindi film booklets giving production details of old landmark movies dating back to 1934, numbering 1790 films. This would serve as a database for the golden age of Hindi cinema, he added.
