Mansoor Khan goes inside the making of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar with Subhash K Jha as it hits 33 years since it hit the big screen.
Mansoor Khan’s Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (JJWS) was not an easy film to make.
Says Mansoor, “You know, if ever a book is written about the behind-the-scenes activities of any of my films, it would have to be JJWS. It’s a film designed by destiny. The changes in the cast just happened. I had met Ayesha Jhulka, but I forgot about her as I was busy with the screenplay. I had met Deepak Tijori. But I chose to work with Milind Soman instead because of his physique. I saw Pooja Bedi on the beach one day.”
But Pooja was not Mansoor’s first choice. “No, she was not! It was Nagma. She abandoned the project four days before shooting. I had told her right from the beginning that she is not the heroine. I don’t want to blame her, but the least she could have done was to inform me. You can’t hang up on me when I’m planning a forty-day outdoor schedule. Later, of course, she came to me and said it was the biggest mistake of her life. Farah Khan recently hosted a dinner for all the guys who had been sacked. There, I met Milind Soman. Farah Khan kept that dinner where all the sacked actors of JJWS came.”
Where is Mamik, who played Aamir’s elder brother so effectively? “Mamik was always a bit on his own trip. He was a good guy. It was very difficult to find a guy who was one-up on Aamir on screen as he was already a big star when he came to JJWS. I wanted an actor who could play Aamir’s charming, soft-spoken, dependable brother. Mamik was an amazingly good-looking guy. About his career not taking off after JJWS, he was laid back. I can understand that. I, too, am laid back. But being in the driver’s seat, I had to take my responsibility very seriously.”
JJWS was the only film Mansoor wanted to make. “I think it has stood the test of time. Just the other day, two kids who had come to vacation in my farm stay were talking about it. Everybody thinks I wrote JJWS after seeing Breaking Away. That’s not true. Right from 1981 I wanted to make a film about a guy who is a loser who finally gets his groove. That’s what had happened with me. I had gone to college for five years to the US, wasted my father’s money. I came back angry and defensive. The whole world was my enemy at that time (laughs). JJWS was born of my anger at that time. But if you notice, there is a critical difference between JJWS and Breaking Away. The boy in that film is a champion cyclist. Breaking Away is very different. I want to make this very clear. The two films were very different.”
The song ‘Pehla Nasha’ lingers in public memory.
Shares Mansoor, “A friend of mine recommended Jatin-Lalit. I was opposed to the idea of not working with Anand-Milind again; you know how it is when you get into a comfort zone. But when I had sittings with Jatin-Lalit, I knew this was what I wanted for JJWS. In QSQT, it was ‘Papa kehte hain.’ My Papa used to say, ‘That’s the sure hit, now let’s move ahead with the other songs. Similarly, it was ‘Pehla Nasha’ in JJWS.”
Shakun Batra was supposed to make a documentary on the making of JJWS.
Mansoor reveals, “He was so keen on doing a documentary on the making of JJWS. I am too shy to pursue something like this. He got busy with other things. One day, I will sit with you. I’ll tell you all the stories about JJWS. I had a nervous breakdown. I’d cry in the middle of the night. I was the captain of the ship, and I didn’t know what was happening. I had no control over it. I had to drag myself to the set each morning. But finally, it all worked out.”
