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| − | NIMMI
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| − | Aan: Mehboob Khan wanted
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| − | to film the movie in Technicolor and he was wondering how to accomplish the feat. There were no
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| − | proper cameras and the processing had to be done in London, which meant an enormous expense and
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| − | it seemed like an impossibility. Yousuf Sahab had a series of meetings with the brilliant Faredoon A.
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| − | Irani and he convinced the ace cameraman that with his kind of expertise he could shoot the entire film
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| − | in 16 mm and have it blown up to 35 mm. Faredoon Irani accepted the challenge.
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| − | When Aan went to the Technicolor lab in London the chief technician in the lab expressed a keen-
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| − | ness to meet Faredoon Irani to congratulate him for the skill with which he had filmed the movie using
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| − | an obsolete camera. When it was blown to 35 mm nobody could find out that it was filmed on 16 mm.
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| − | Aan was a worldwide success. At the London premiere British actors and directors were so impressed
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| − | by Yousuf Sahab that they were inviting him to settle down in the UK and work in English films.
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| − | The premiere of Aan in Ceylon was one of the biggest in terms of the massive crowds that lined the
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| − | streets from the airport to the hotel where we were put up. They were all Dilip Kumar fans. Such was
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| − | the mass hysteria that the crowds broke all cordons at the airport and breached security at the hotel to
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| − | see him. In Aan Yousuf Sahab played a poor villager who was deft with the
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| − | sword and was an expert at fencing.
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| − | I remember the London distributor of the film (titled Savage Prin-
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| − | cess), [the legendary filmmaker] Sir Alexander Korda, asking Yousuf Sahab how he performed the fencing scenes so perfectly.
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| − | He was so impressed that he came to India soon after and Mehboob Sahab invited him to sound the
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| − | clapper board for the first shot of Amar.
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| − | NIMMI recalls: His break-up with Madhubala was imminent by the time we completed the shooting of Amar. I think ''' he came to know about Premnath and Madhubala being more than just friendly co-stars. '''
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| − | WAHEEDA REHMAN
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| − | Aadmi [released in 1968]Even though the director was Bhim Singh it was Dilip Sahab who was at the helm.It was a mystery to me why Dilip Sahab did not give his name as director in the film credits when all
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| − | the hard work behind the camera was being done by him, motivating both the technicians and artistes
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| − | to give their best.
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| − | When I was working
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| − | in Satyajit Ray’s Abhijan [1962], Mr Ray asked me if I could speak to Dilip Sahab about a film he
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| − | had in mind, an idea he believed was perfect for Dilip Sahab. I spoke to Dilip Sahab but he did not
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| − | give any reply. He just looked thoughtful. So I told Mr Ray to speak to him. I gathered later that Dilip Sahab did not agree to do the film because it required him to appear bare bodied.
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| − | HARISH SALVE
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| − | His troubles began when the Income Tax Department decided to assess him on allegations of having
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| − | earned black money – something for which Bollywood was, in public perception, notorious. The as-
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| − | sessment would not only result in a large demand for escaped tax, but also penalties equal to the es-
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| − | caped income, and possible prosecution for evasion of tax.
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| − | A raid conducted upon [A. R. Kardar,] the disgruntled producer[and director]
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| − | of a movie called Dil Diya Dard Liya [1966] (clearly stage managed by him) supposedly yielded evidence
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| − | by way of secret accounts maintained by him in which there was an entry against DK of a sum of Rs
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| − | 10 lakh. There was no corroborative evidence to show that anything was paid by him or received by
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| − | Dilip Sahab; nor indeed was there any material to suggest that the producer had a sum of Rs 10 lakh
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| − | (a king’s ransom at that time) to pay in cash. Yet an allegation was made that Dilip Sahab possessed
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| − | concealed income; penalties were imposed and there was a threat of a potential prosecution.
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| − | The assessment was made. He wisely pursued legal remedies, and there was some respite when an
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| − | appeal against this perverse assessment was allowed.
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| − | The year 1974 saw a spate of preventive detentions of those alleged to have committed economic
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| − | offences (however tenuous the allegations) and personal liberties became a hostage to a shrill cam-
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| − | paign to trample underfoot the rights of those alleged to be economic offenders in the march towards socialism.
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| − | My first case
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| − | was Income Tax Officer vs Dilip Kumar alias Yousuf Khan, to be heard by the tribunal on a day-to-day
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| − | basis in June 1975.
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| − | The hearing was set for the second week of June 1975.The hearing began and the department’s representative – a senior and experienced officer – tried
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| − | tirelessly to put across the department’s case to the tribunal – only to increasing chagrin of the mem-
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| − | bers whose tentative comments were carping to the point of being cynical as to what this case was all about.
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| − | And then all hell broke loose.
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| − | On 25 June the infamous Emergency was declared.
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| − | My father had to seek a short adjournment as (being a Congress MP) he had to fly to Delhi for a day
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| − | or two.
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| − | My youthful anger at the injustice heaped upon this iconic Indian, increased exponentially at what I
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| − | considered dishonest suspension of democracy under the power of numbers and rhetoric – a view I
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| − | still maintain.
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| − | It was in this surcharged atmosphere that the hearing went on for about three weeks.
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| − | Realizing the potential of his client’s skills in vocal mesmerization, my father obviously decided to
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| − | unleash him upon the unsuspecting members of the tribunal at some time (although he did not, as a
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| − | foxy interlocutor, disclose his intentions to us).
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| − | The opportunity presented itself in a moment when the tribunal members asked my father about
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| − | how a movie was produced. My father asked for leave to ask his client to explain the process – this
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| − | brought the roof down on the department’s case!
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| − | What chance did those poor mortals – of an age when they possibly swooned over Suhaana Safar
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| − | in their youth – have against the scene that had just unfolded.
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| − | By the end of that day, the fate of the case was sealed even if the arguments carried on. Dilip Sahab
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| − | spoke for over 40 minutes explaining not just how movies are made but how he had been pilloried.
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| − | This was followed by a two-minute silence – almost as though to mourn the death of the department’s
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| − | case.
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| − | I joined the bar in 1980 – and the first case I appeared in the Supreme Court was the petition for
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| − | leave to appeal by the Income Tax Department against the tribunal judgment in favour of Dilip Sahab.
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| − | To my immense joy, it lasted for all of two minutes before the judges threw it out!
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