CHENNAI: The filmmaker carved out a niche for himself in Hindi cinema, writing and directing Hindi adaptations of several of his successful Tamil movies with ease and aplomb. His Bollywood journey, however, was a mix of critical acclaim and commercial inconsistency.With Amitabh Bachchan, he made the landmark film ‘Aakhree Raasta’. Bhagyaraj had originally planned to direct a Hindi remake of Bharathiraja’s 1984 Tamil film ‘Oru Kaidhiyin Diary’ with Rajesh Khanna in the lead. When Khanna dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, Bhagyaraj roped in Amitabh.Since the screenplay was translated into Hindi and Bhagyaraj did not know the language, every morning Amitabh would ask the director to deliver the dialogues in Tamil so he could verify whether the emotion was conveyed well. Bhagyaraj would emote all the scenes for the cast and crew.On the first day of shooting, Amitabh, who had the full script with him, asked Bhagyaraj to explain how each scene would be shot to check whether the director was prepared enough. It was a test that Bhagyaraj passed with elan.Amitabh played two characters—a wrongfully imprisoned father seeking revenge and his estranged son, now a police officer. When Bhagyaraj completed 40 years in cinema, Amitabh praised him as “a prolific director, producer, actor, music director, editor of a weekly” and called ‘Aakhree Raasta’ “one that I enjoyed being a part of.”The Kapoors had a special place in their hearts for Bhagyaraj. At an event in Chennai this year to celebrate the auteur’s 73rd birthday and 50 years in cinema, Boney Kapoor said there were plans to remake Bhagyaraj’s 1982 film ‘Darling Darling Darling’ in Hindi with Anil Kapoor. The iconic song ‘Kaante Nahin Kat Te’ was originally composed for this remake, but it never materialised. The song found its way into ‘Mr India’ (1987). Boney also revealed that he had arranged a meeting between Bhagyaraj and Raj Kapoor.Bhagyaraj’s ‘Enga Chinna Rasa’ was adapted into the Hindi hit ‘Beta’ (1992), produced by Boney Kapoor. Bhagyaraj later directed the Hindi remake of his own ‘Veetla Visheshanga’ as ‘Mr Bechara’, starring Anil Kapoor and Sridevi. Boney Kapoor said during the event, “I’ll always be indebted to him and his family. Whatever little we have achieved, he has been a major contributor to it.”
