It was the time around the release of Dev Anand’s GANGSTER in the mid-90s, when a debate started in our group of young movie buffs about a fascinating case related with Dev Anand and a ban imposed upon him for wearing black coat or suit by the court.
Obviously it wasn’t anything to be blindly believed in as it ought to be a rumour probably spread for a movie’s publicity in Dev’s prime years to be straight. So where the majority didn’t believe in it in our group, a couple of friends were more than interested in assuming it to be a fact proving themselves as bigger fans of the evergreen icon than others.
Luckily a couple of years later a Hindi film magazine G STAR associated with reputed names, published the same question in its popular section “Aapne Poochha Hai” wherein a reader asked that was this ban a true incident of the past?
The answer published was “Yeh Kori Bakwas Hai!”.
However our dear friends still refused to believe that it was a rumour with no truth in it because they seriously felt good assuming it to be an amazing fact related with the icon. Years passed and we kept watching all Dev Anand films on the first day itself, very well knowing that they are not going to be anything to be cheered or appreciate. But we still preferred to watch them just for Dev alone.
More than a decade later, Dev Anand published his detailed autobiography titled “Romancing with Life” around 2007 and he did made a mention of it while talking about his film KALA PANI. Post reading the book we again discussed it one fine evening and had a great time.
But the point is, was it all true or false?
The answer might be known to many, but would like to reveal something else and more important before giving you the real thing.
Dev Anand’s autobiography was published in the time when internet was still in its growing age in 2007. The android phones were just around the corner, web was yet not overcrowded with loads of Bollywood websites and Youtube era was yet to arrive (which actually began around 2012).
In other words, the world was gradually moving into a completely different digital era, may be that remained the reason many young as well as the old, didn’t read Dev’s personal expressions in the book, which evidently became visible in the next decade.
Surprisingly, in the next 13 years (post the book’s release), the same news of
Dev getting banned by the court - not allowed to wear black coat/suit got repeatedly published in many reputed websites, including the sites of national newspapers. And then many youtube videos also got uploaded by various channels saying the same thing as an amazing, unbelievable fact related to
Dev Anand.
To see the magnitude of this news posted all over the internet in the last decade or so, just type ‘Dev Anand banned for wearing black coat’ in any search engine and see the names in the result both in English and Hindi including web portals, blogs as well as Youtube videos.
No doubt they all assumed it to be a fact as anything repeated till decades easily get considered to be true without any detailed study or research.
However the questionable scenario also proved that in reality, none of the writers/makers of these articles, blogs and youtube videos had actually read the icon’s autobiography in which he had clearly called this rumour as A STUPID MYTH.
So A Stupid Myth mentioned in the headline of this article is a phrase quoted by Dev Anand himself for this silly rumour that in reality originated around the release of his film KALA PANI in the year 1958.
Sharing his personal expressions, Dev writes in his autobiography that KALA PANI became memorable for various reasons. The film brought in Dev’s first filmfare award for the Best Actor along with Best Supporting Actress award for Nalini Jaywant and they received their awards from Al-Naseer, the late president of Egypt.
The icon further adds,
“KALA PANI also gave the world a story about me that has been circulating amongst my fans ever since – that I am forbidden to wear black, for women swoon when they see me dressed in that colour. A Stupid Myth.
But I went along with it, humouring my fans.
The yarn, perhaps originated from the fact that I wore black throughout KALA PANI, as the son (in the film) had sworn to himself that he would always be dressed in black, until the time he freed his innocent father from the clutches of law”-- Romancing With Life
So even when Dev Anand himself clearly revealed all about The Stupid Myth in his autobiography published in 2007, no body among those writers, bloggers and youtubers cared to read the book and still went on writing about the same, further adding into the stupidity rightly proving Dev Anand’s intelligent choice of words.
That in fact is the sad reality of the present era we are living in, unbelievably surrounded by fake news and unaware forwards without any individual study of our own.
Summing up, do think about it while watching your favourite classic of the evergreen icon once again and do try to read the books, at least the ones written by your icons themselves, as that is what actually remains their last connect with us………. left with love and HIS BLESSINGS.
Bobby Sing
(bobbytalkscinema.com)
NOTE : The article in an edited form also got published in THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL Newspaper (Mumbai Edition) on 17th October 2021
(Note : The write-up is a chapter shared from my upcoming book releasing soon. So any additions, rectifications suggested by friends are welcome to make it better.)
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For more such interesting articles on lesser known facts on Hindi Cinema, do try DID YOU KNOW Series by
Bobby Sing available in both Book and E-book form
.
Also available
at Notionpress and Flipkart stores (in India)
The book is now also avaliable in Hindi with the title ITNA TO YAAD HAI MUJHE published by Prabhat Prakashan.
And at Amazon-com and Amazon-co-uk abroad.
