Dev Anand means “God of Happiness” and Dev Saab indeed gave Happiness to many. Today 3rd December 2017 is the 6th Death Anniversary of this Romantic hero. Let us reminiscence some rare trivia about this lovable personality.
Dev Saab was an English Honours Graduate from Lahore College. Before joining films he was first an accounts clerk in Mumbai at a salary of Rs 85/-. Later he got a higher paid job of Rs 185/- in the Army’s censor department at Mumbai and his job was to censor the letters of soldiers.
Gaata Rahe Mera Dil; Remembering Dev Anand On His 6th Death Anniversary
Dev Saab started his film career as a hero, and he was always a hero, in the sense the lead role was always his. His 1st movie as hero was Hum Ek Hain in 1946 when he was just 23. He acted in a total of 114 movies out of which he played the lead role in 113 and had a guest appearance in 1 movie. He was the hero in 104 out of 113 movies which was a record, ultimately broken by Rajesh Khanna who had 106 movies as hero.
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At 26, he founded Navketan films and the talent discovered by him was just amazing, Prominent male actors discovered by him were Guru Dutt, Johnny Walker, Shatrughan Sinha, Jackie Shroff, Kabir Bedi. Prominent female actors were Zahida, Zeenat, Tina Munim, Zarina Wahab, Richa Sharma, Mink, Tabu, Shabama Azmi and Ekta. Music directors Jaidev, Ali Akbar Khan, Lyricists Sahir Ludhianvi, Neeraj and Singers Abhijeet, Udit and Jaspinder Narula were also discovered by him.
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Incredibly, these are just few of his discoveries and there are many more. Navketan means Newness in Sanskrit, and indeed the banner justified its name.
Urban legend has it that Dev Saab and singing sensation Suraiya fell in love when on the sets of the film Vidya , during the shooting of the song “Kinaare kinaare chale jayenge” the boat overturned and Dev Saab rescued her. However they could not get married due to opposition from her orthodox family.
He later got married to Kalpna Kartik in 1954 while shooting for the film Taxi Driver. Her real name was Mona Singha and the name Kalpna Kartik was given to her by Chetan Anand.
His autobiography is aptly named “Romancing with life”. The greatest complement given to him is by none other than Dilip Kumar who said that among him, Dev Saab, and Raj Kapoor, three greats, the best in Romantic scenes was Dev Anand. Dilip Kumar also says that when Dev Saab received the right scripts and an imaginative director, he gave immaculate performances in Guide, Asli Naqli and Kala Pani.
“Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya Har fikr ko dhuein mein udata chala gaya”.
This song , with lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi, music by Jaidev, beautifully sung by Mohd Rafi and picturised on Dev Saab in Hum Dono captures his attitude towards life.
Gaata rahe mera Dil is one more of his iconic songs. Dev Saab, we are sure whereever you are, you are singing and dancing and giving happiness to others.
