Blast From The Past: How Jaya Bachchan Lost Gulzar’s Mere Apne To Yogeeta Bali
Here is a little trivia for Indian cinema lovers. Jaya Bachchan was finalised for Gulzar's directorial Mere Apne, which eventually went to Yogeeta Bali
Last-minute casting replacements are not unknown to Gulzar’s cinema. Moushumi Chatterjee and Rekha lost Koshish and Namkeen, respectively, to Jaya Bhaduri and Sharmila Tagore.
But Jaya herself was a victim of a casting switch in a Gulzar film. She was the first choice for Gulzar’s directorial debut Mere Apne. But lost the role to, of all people,Yogeeta Bali.
Here’s how it happened . Gulzar Saab had chosen Jaya Bhaduri for the romantic lead opposite Vinod Khanna. At that time Jaya’s debut film Guddi had not released. Vinod Khanna didn’t want to work with a newcomer.Yogeeta Bali was seen as more commercially viable.
Mere Apne was the story of a gangwar between two groups captained by Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha. It made instant stars out of Khanna and Sinha and established Gulzar as prominent directorial name.
Jaya Bhaduri went on to become a major star after Guddi.She never worked with Vinod Khanna.But she went on to do the highly-acclaimed Parichay and Koshish with Gulzar. She replaced Moushumi Chatterjee in the latter.
Yogeeta Bali was a fairly successful star in the early 1970s with middling hits like Parde Ke Peeche, Mem Sahib and Samjhauta to her credit.
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