Lamhe which is one of the cult films of Hindi cinema has completed 30 years of it’s release. The film which received many awards, including the National Award for Best Costume Design starred Sridevi (in a double role) opposite Anil Kapoor. The story of the film is considered to be way ahead of its time.
As the film hits the 30-year milestone Kapoor went down the memory lane. “Sometimes, when your intent is honest towards a film, it always pays off. This happened to me in all the films I have done. I sacrificed a lot to fulfil my commitments towards the filmmaker and the script,” he says.
Remembering his co-star late superstar Sridevi, he said, “Sri’s father had passed away when we were shooting for it. Yash ji requested me to stay back. I had shooting of two films lined up in Mumbai, especially my personal production Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja. I had to postpone that film’s shooting, and cancelled all the dates. We lost a lot of money, and somewhere I feel I sacrificed that film to fulfill this commitment of mine.”
With one of the lead actors not being present at the shoot due to the emergency, everything had to be stalled. Chopra felt resuming the shoot in India wouldn’t have been okay as it won’t be able to “match London”. “We stayed there for two weeks without shooting, with a lot of films hanging in India. I said ‘no, this is my commitment’ Yash ji is the one who gave me Mashaal. I said let me do what’s in my hand. What I committed, I had to fulfill,” says Anil, who was expecting his son Harsh Varrdhan at that point with wife Sunita.
While the actor feels ‘fulfilled’ today to be a part of Lamhe, he confesses he felt ‘bad’ at that time. “I thought ‘why did I do this? Why did I stay back? I should have come back’ Now I think I did the right thing by staying back and finishing the film. Main vahaan 20 din ruka tha bina kaam ke(I satyed there for 20 days without any work). We didn’t stay in hotels, as it was expensive, I stayed in one of Yash ji’s friend’s house. In fact, the entire unit there was staying in each other’s rishtedaar’s house. We saved money, and then Sri came back, so we finished the London schedule. That’s the reason the film looks so good and beautiful, and has withstood the test of time. It has aged well,” he concludes.