EXCLUSIVE:

 

"BOL VOLGA - GANGA SANGAM HOGA.." 

 

(ON INDO-SOVIET JOINT CINEMA!)

 

Beautiful Kseniya Ryabinkina in 'RK's film 'Mera Naam Joker' (1970).

Recently saw the news of Russian President Mr. Vladimir Putin's visit to our India..and remembered the traditional friendship between these two countries!..And also India-Soviet/Russia co-produced films!

We all know our Indian films are very much popular in Russia! People there still sings Bollywood songs like RK's "Aawaaraa hoon.." and Mithun's film song "Jimi Jimi Jimi aaja aaja.." But that is not sufficient, there were several films jointly made by Indian & Soviet/Russian filmmakers!

Nargis, Oleg Strizhenov & Balraj Sahni in 'Pardesi' (1957)

First time in 1957 joint venture happened between Soviet Union's 'Mosfilm Studio' and India's K. A. Abbas's 'Naya Sansar International Production House'..And title of that film was 'Pardesi'! That was based on the travelogues of Afanasy Nikitin..named 'Journey Beyond Three Seas' which was also English title of that film! It tells story of 15th century Russian trader who travelled to India and falls in love with an Indian girl Champa! Abbas wrote it with Mariya Smirnova and himself directed with Soviet cinematographer Vasili Pronin. It was in two versions..Hindi & Russian and artists from both the sides acted..from here Nargis, Balraj Sahni, Padmini & Prithviraj Kapoor..and from there Iva Arepina, Vitali Belyakov, Stepan Kayukov & Oleg Strizhenov as Nikitin! Ali Sardar Jafri & Prem Dhawan wrote the songs of it and music composed by Anil Biswas & Boris Chaikovsky. It's Meena Kapoor sung '"Rasiya re man basiya re.." was memorable! This film won Best Art Direction Award (for M. R. Acharekar)..and was shown in 'Cannes Film Festival'!

Zeenat Aman, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Prem Chopra 
& Rolan Bykov in 'Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor' (1980).

Then there were different genre of films jointly made. In 1971 our renowned filmmaker M. S. Sathyu made film 'Black Mountain' 
on the story by Aleksandr Zguridi who also co-directed it! That was on heart trending friendship of young boy with elephant! Artists in it were Reshama Pasha & Prince Pradeep! Like this there was short children film 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi' (1975). 

And in 1980 popular film 'Ali Baba Aur 40 Chor' (Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves') was an India-USSR join production. Basically the folk tale from Arabian Nights..for film screenplay was written by Shanti Prakash Bakshi & Boris Saakov. This film produced by F. C. Mehra and jointly directed by Latif Faiziyev & Umeash Mehra. In this Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman & Rolan Bykov were in the main roles! R. D. Burman composed music and P. L. Raj choreographed the dances of this hit film! 

Poonam Dhillon, Sunny Deol and others in film 'Sohni Mahiwal' (1984)

Again in 1984 same writer-producer-directors made film on immortal lovers.. 'Sohni Mahiwal' for which Javed Siddiqui wrote dialogues! Handsome Sunny Deol 
and pretty gorgeous Poonam Dhillon were in the romantic lead with Indian & Russian artists in it! This hit film's songs written by Anand Bakshi & Anu Malik composed music! This film won 3 Filmfare awards which includes Best Female Playback Singer for Anupama Deshpande for song "Sohni Chinab di.."  

Then same directors jointly made film 'Shikari' (1991) under the banners of 'Eagle Films' (India) & 'Shak Film' (USSR). This film co-written by Roskov, Nikolai, Ulmas Umberbekov & Vinay Shukla..And also co-cinematographed by L. Travitsky and  
S. Pappu! In this Mithun Chakraborty, Varsha Usgaonkar & Russian Irina Kushnareva were in the main roles!

Mithun Chakraborty and Russian 
Irina Kushnareva in 'Shikari' (1991).

In 1991 our famous actor Shashi Kapoor produced film 'Ajooba' which he co-directed with Soviet filmmaker Gennadi Vasilyev. Inspired from Arabian mythology..this fantasy film co-written by Yu Avetikov, Bharat Bhalla, Valentin Ezhov, Brij Katyal & Prayag Raj. Also co-cinematographed by Sergei Anufriyev, Aleksandr Kovalchuk & Peter Pereira..And co-edited by Bhanudas Divakar & Tatyana Malyavina! This big budget film was produced in association with famous 'Gorky Studios' in Moscow. Amitabh Bachchan was in the lead of this film with (first time) Dimple Kapadia, Rishi Kapoor, Sonam & Amrish Puri. With them there were several Russian artists, but their speech not matched with Hindi dialogues! This film released in the Soviet Union with Russian title 'Vozvrashcheniye Bagdadskogo Vora'!

Shashi Kapoor with Shammi Kapoor & Russian artists 
during the shooting of his 'Ajooba' (1991).

Apart from co-productions, Russian artists always comes India to work in our Bollywood. Like Kseniya Ryabinkina who acted in 'RK's 'Mera Naam Joker' (1970) and got popularity!..Now more such beautiful artists & talented people from Russia can work creatively here!

At the end I just modified the old song of 'RK's film 'Sangam'..

"Mere man ki Ganga aur tere man ki Volga ka

Bol sangaam hoga ke nahin.."

- Manoj Kulkarni
['Chitrasrushti', Pune, India]