Alcohol and filmmaking have had a very curious kind of bond. It was taken that if you are in any kind of work related to the film industry, you drank. And, I have seen very few, if at all any, exceptions to this general perception.

Alcohol has been a great adhesive of relationships in the film industry and, thankfully, never been a cause of conflicts as such. Sadly, for some in the film industry, alcohol became an obsession. The habit has ruined some while, worse still, it has killed quite a few. And, it did not matter if you were a star or a daily wage earning spot boy; alcohol got the better of you.

Hailed as Hindi cinema’s and, hence, India’s first superstar, K L Saigal, played the role of Devdas, the legendary fictional character in Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic novel of the same name. Devdas made the frustrated character who takes to alcohol following his failed love affair, dies of the addiction, depicted in a melodramatic way in the film.

But, the film also seemed like it foretold the ultimate-- the death of K L Saigal. He was successful in every sphere. He became a legendary singer, idolised even by the later day singers, was successful as a star and was well loved personally. I don’t know what drew him to alcohol to the extent that it mattered to him more than his work and, finally, led to his death at a young age of 42!

This case, sort of, sets the tone of relationship between the film industry and alcohol. And, K L Saigal was not the last film celebrity who died of alcohol addiction.

That was probably an era of indulging in self-pity. The heroes or, for that matter also the heroines became alcoholic on screen and the audience sympathised with their cause. There were innumerable examples from Devdas, Pyaasa, Saheb Bibi Aur Ghulam, Amar Prem, Premnagar, Amanush, Sholay, Amar Akbar Anthony, Shaarabi (Bachchan), Sharabi (Dev Anand) and many others but never was an actor shunned for playing a drunk!

Latter, the drunk character was passed on to the comedians and the actor, Badruddin Jamaluddin Kazi, was named after a whiskey brand, Johny Walker, and went on to make a career out of it!. And some, like Keshto Mukherjee (reported to be a teetotaller in real life) excelled playing the alcoholic in film after film.

Film events and alcohol went together like an aarti which was followed by Prasad in a temple!

The films were launched with a mahurats in true Indian tradition: a pooja, breaking of a coconut and the customary sounding of the clap for the ‘mahurat shot’. It did not matter if the producer was a Hindu or a Muslim or any other community, this tradition was followed.

However, the real mahurat celebrations followed in the evening at a ‘get-together followed by cocktails’, as the phrase went. Thereafter, every occasion was a reason to drink. Completion of a shooting schedule (films were shot piece meal), completion of the shooting, music release, release date announcement; reasons were aplenty.

The evenings were looked forward to for drinks as friends as well as bottles of alcohol would materialise from nowhere! One thing was quite peculiar to the filmmakers. However stretched their financial resources be, they had big hearts when it came to drinks and food. It was an open house. In many cases, the production office or the studio makeup room turned in to bar. The producers as well as their errand runners knew where the booze was available even at 2 am and, hence, the sessions never ended unsated.

Another tradition was that of entertaining your regular or prospective distributor and that usually meant host him for drinks and dinner till wee hours. Rest of the entertaining the distributors found on their own. While there were hotels where these distributors coming from various parts of India were left to do their thing, I, over the years met only one distributor, Mr G D Mehta from Delhi, who lived at ISKCON while in Mumbai; it was not inconvenient for him since the place did not even permit smoking let alone alcohol and Mr Mehta did not indulge in either. Otherwise, ‘Murgi todna ‘was a favourite phrase for distributors from North.

There were a few in the industry who neither drank nor served drinks at their events. Rajshris was one such and if they had to plan an event, it would be generally over tea. Then there were those who kept a strictly veg menu at their events. Gulshan Kumar and his T Series affairs were strictly veg but an exception was made for alcohol. Alcohol was the magnet that drew the needed persons, media being one.

Talking of media, there prevailed a trend when the media (in those days it was limited to print media), was invited to outdoor locations where a film was being shot! Having been to many, I think the media was more pampered than the stars! Forget 5 Star accommodation and all that, the producer’s main concern was making sure the media enjoyed their evening and that meant daru! When it came to guests (media) and caring, nobody could do it better than the South producers who were then big time in to making Hindi films. A couple of production men of these South filmmakers always hovered around the ‘press’ to cater to their needs.

One typical question asked about an evening party was: Scotch hai? I don’t know how it mattered because, as the joke went, Scotland did not even produce the amount of ‘Scotch’ consumed in India. For, most of the ‘Scotch’ supplied by bootleggers was fake though not harmful. In Mumbai, one community hailing from Western part of India excelled in such businesses, be it alcohol or something else. This ‘Scotch’ was not harmful because they just indulged in upgrading a cheaper Indian whiskey to Scotch. For instance, RC went into Red Label bottle and so on.

Many celebrities have died of alcohol in the film trade and would not be wise to name them: some from failure led alcoholism, some from insecurities, and others simply by letting the alcohol get better of them. Also, some strugglers as they were called then and aspirants as they are called now, were initiated into drinking hooch while they struggled. In a strange big metro that Mumbai was and is, Pascal’s (real Bandra bootlegger) and Aunty’s adda were the only outing for them. Some of these adda patrons went on to become big stars and graduated to Scotch. That was also a sign of success! Again, no sense naming them though some of them have been candid enough to talk about it on occasions. You often heard these Pascal and aunty kind talking about a particular big star or maker as: ‘Pinneku tou hamare yahan atta tha’. The pubbing era had yet to dawn.

Now, things are different; drugs rule.

But, two people I have seen who were certifiable alcoholics, Javed Akhtar and Mahesh Bhatt, changed their lives totally once they gave up. They drank like a fish and smoked like chimneys was an apt description. I have seen a drunk Bhatt being carried by two people in the middle of the day and I have been a witness to Akhtar’s palms shaking uncontrollably from nicotine and alcohol. Don’t know what wisdom dawned on both. They gave up both vices totally, never looking back, thereafter their lives changed for the better. Bhatt and Akhtar both were back in business with an impressive track record on their return as well as getting into public life besides films. 

@ The Box Office

While the big names are failing to deliver, new ones are doing the needful with content driven films.

*Badhaai Ho, dealing with a traditional theme and treating it is a light-hearted story, has worked wonders. The subject may be odd today but a chacha-bhatija /mama-bhanja studying in the same class was a norm in 1950s and 60s.

The film opened decent with about 7 crore on Thursday, the Dussehra holiday, but went on picking up from Friday onwards peaking at 13.3 crore on Sunday. The film had an impressive four day opening weekend of 44.2 crore. Holding steady Monday onwards, the film should close its first week with a tally of around 65 crore.

*Namaste London falls prey to its insipid content. The film gets a poor opening response and fails to pick momentum for obvious reasons. After an unimpressive four day weekend of 6.3 crore, the film may just fall short of 8 crore mark in its first week as the drop was drastic Monday onwards.

*Andhadhun is expected to add another 11 crore for its third week which is reasonably good and show a tally of about 60 crore.