When Kader Khan’s Dialogue For Roti Impressed Manmohan Desai Who Gifted Him “Black & White Toshiba TV Set’ & ‘A Gold Bracelet’ (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)
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Veteran actor Kader Khan is one of the most prominent actors during the 90s era. His collaboration with Govinda’s rib crackling comedy is well remembered even today. However many don’t know that he was a prolific dialogue writer and impressed Manmohan Desai.
For the unversed, Khan was the man who penned crackling dialogues for films like Amar Akbar Anthony, Muqaddar Ka Sikander, Yaarana, Roti, Khel Khel Mein, Rafoo Chakkar, Lawaaris, Parvarish, Namak Halal, Coolie to name a few.
During a conversation with Filmfare, Kader Khan had shared that for Roti, he received a sum of Rs 1,21,000. He said, “Manji declared, ‘My writer will be paid Rs 1,20,000’.” Khan further elaborated how he landed as a dialogue writer for filmmaker Manmohan Desai during a conversation with Rediff.
The veteran actor said that the legendary filmmaker was fed up with Muslims. He recalled Desai as saying, “You people are so good in Urdu, but you don’t know how to use it well other than doing sher-o-shayari. He told me we should be writing more dialogues. He asked me to write dialogues for his film, but warned me that if the dialogues were not good, he would tear it up and throw it into the gutter.”
When Kader Khan asked, “What if I wrote good dialogues?” Manmohan Desai replied, “I will pick you up and put you on my head like a Ganpati and dance.” The very next day, Khan approached the filmmaker with dialogues ready. “He took me in and heard the dialogues.He was so happy with them that he made me read it over and over again at least 12 times and even recorded it. He then went inside, got a portable black and white Toshiba television set and gifted it to me together with a gold bracelet. He also gave me Rs 20,000 in cash. After giving all that, he asked me my price. I told him that I got Rs 21,000 for my last film. He said, “For my film, you will get Rs 120,000.”
The later actor then continued, “I got all this for writing the dialogues for Roti. After that, there was no looking back. I was getting film after film to write. I became famous and I was respected.”
