K.Asif’s Magnum Opus … Mughal-e-Azam. The movie that took more than 20 years in making.
A milestone for Indian Film Industry, with production costs Rs 15 million (this was when a normal film would cost around Rs 1-1.5 million), it broke all records. The tickets sold for 100 rupees, back when the cost of a single ticket was 1.50 rupees. Today, the movie of this value will cost more than Rs 150 Crores ($33M).
The music, the story, the cast, the dialogues – every aspect of the movie was giant. Bollywood’s biggest period extravaganza. Although the orginal movie was black & white (with some colored parts), the movie was colorized recently with the sound converted and re-recorded in Dolby Digital. The new producers brought together the new crew who worked to make it happen, with some of the original cast and crew.
It brought back memories for many movie-goers, and they flocked back to theaters. Also introduced the next generation to the movie that was, and the movie that is.
Recently, NDTV did a special on the movie as it completed 50 years on August 5, 2010. Here is the special (you would need Adobe Flash to play).
August 14. 2010
JPS Nagi