The docuseries Angry Young Men chronicles the journey of the legendary screenwriters Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, more popularly known as Salim-Javed, in the Hindi film industry. After the three-part series was released on Prime Video on August 20, Salim Khan and his eldest son Salman Khan, Javed Akhtar and his children Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar, and director Namrata Rao sat down for a fun interaction with the choreographer and filmmaker Farah Khan.
In the video titled Icons In Conversation on the Prime Video YouTube India channel, Farah played a Salim-Javed quiz with Salman, Farhan, Zoya, and Namrata, and asked some interesting questions. One of the questions that Farah asked was, "Which actress was originally approached for the role of Nirupa Roy in Deewaar?". Zoya said, "Waheeda Rehman", which was not the correct answer. Since no one could answer, Salim Khan revealed, "It was Vyjanthimala." Javed Akhtar added, "Let me tell you something. We contacted two people for this, one by one. First Vyjanthimala, and then Suchitra Sen."
Finally, Nirupa Roy played the Sumitra Verma, mother of Shashi Kapoor's Ravi Verma and Amitabh Bachchan's Vijay Verma in the 1975 film. Deewaar revolved around how Ravi and Vijay struggle to survive in the Mumbai slums and eventually grow up to find themselves on the opposite sides of the law. While Ravi becomes a police officer, Vijay becomes an underworld gangster.
Directed by Yash Chopra, Deewaar went on to become one of the classics in Hindi cinema. Apart from Amitabh, Shashi, and Nirupa, the action crime drama also starred Neetu Singh, Nirupa Roy, Parveen Babi, Iftekhar, Madan Puri, Satyen Kappu and Manmohan Krishna in pivotal roles.
At the 23rd Filmfare Awards in 1976, Deewaar grabbed six trophies for Best Film, Best Director To Yash Chopra, Best Supporting Actor to Shashi Kapoor, Best Sound to M. A. Shaikh, and Best Story, Best Screenplay, and Best Dialogue to Salim-Javed. Its dialogues such as 'Mere Paas Maa Hai' and 'Main Aaj Bhi Phenke Hue Paise Nahi Uthaata' are still a part of pop-culture.
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