Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (JBDY) was released in 1983. Recalling the experience of making the film, Satish had said in an earlier conversation, “None of us thought that it would become such a cult classic over time. Apart from acting in the film, I also wrote the dialogues for the film along with Ranjit Kapoor. It was made on a budget of 7.5 lakhs.”
This was followed by Satish’s first shocking revelation: “It was Anupam Kher’s first film, but his role was cut in the editing. For the first time an NFDC film was bought by a regular distributor, Romeu Sippy.
Sathish was not initially a part of the cast. “I was not a part of JBDY’s repertoire of actors, but everyday while writing dialogues I used to think for which role I should send my name to Kundan through Ranjith. Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani were already finalized. But as luck would have it, I played Tarneja’s assistant Ashok when we were improvising the crazy telephone-receiver exchange scene. It was a very funny scene while performing as an actor for the role of Ashok, my casting was not finalised.
For Satish’s good fortune, Kundan decides to let Satish play the role of Ashoka. “Kundan said, ‘Yaar, teri kya timing thi iss scene mein. But which actor can do such timing?’. Ranjith immediately jumped in to help. After some reluctance, Kundan agreed. And thus I got a role in the film. Got the role. So from Rs 3000 for dialogues my total remuneration became Rs 5000 and I got Rs 2000 for acting. We used to get Rs 10 per day for conventions.
JBDY played a major role in furthering Satish’s career in films. He was feeling proud to be associated with this film. “I am extremely proud to be associated with this cult classic of Hindi cinema. I remember coming back to Delhi from Nainital after finishing Shekhar Kapur’s first film Masoom and before coming to Bombay I went to meet Ranjit Kapur who was a top theater director. I met Kundan Shah at his house who had come to sign Ranjeet as a dialogue writer for JBDY. I knew Kundan because I had done my first film Chakra in which he was the lead AD. All three of us were talking and out of nowhere Ranjit said to Kundan, ‘Since you are making a crazy comedy, I would like to have Satish as my co-writer.’ I was shocked. Ranjith assures Kundan that I have a great comic sense and timing and will be of great help in writing the film. And thus began my career as a writer, though I had never written before.”
Satish and Ranjit wrote the entire film at Kundan’s house in Sion and slept there only to be woken up occasionally by their little darling daughter who would say, ‘Uncle Uthao… Write’.
The ‘Mr India’ actor recalled, ‘Every day we used to take a scene from the script and start performing and improvise it in the room and record everything and according to Kundan’s liking. Used to put it down on paper. Ranjith and I used our theater experience to mold the dialogue script of JBDY.
For the wild, wacky and iconic Mahabharat scene in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Sathish had revealed, “It took us ten days to write the Mahabharat scene as it was mentioned in the script that they all go to a theater which has some Drama happens. It is being performed and chaos ensues. But which drama? We all got stuck because whatever drama we thought of was not bringing humor to the situation. We took a ten-day break because we could not make the scene. But one day when I was walking in the market of Santacruz, I saw cheap color comics of Laila Majnu, Shireen-Farhad, Mughal-e-Azam etc. and from there we got the idea that the characters in the climax of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro And thus the extraordinary and hilarious climax came to paper.
Then came another shocking revelation from Satish: “There was a romantic track between me, Ravi and Neena Gupta in JBDY but it was cut due to length problems.”
The JBDY premiere was no less fun. “We didn’t have any passes and Kundan was taking money from us for the Prime Minister’s ticket. This may have been the first and only premiere where the actors had to pay out of their own pocket to see their film. After the premiere, there was no party and after the film I went to the station to go back home, had dinner at a dhaba. We were not able to celebrate at the time of its release, but the celebration is going on till date regarding JBDY. I’m proud to be a part of it.”
Working with Kundan was a lot of fun for Satish. “Kundan had a great sense of humour. He is very difficult to please even as a writer and actor. Even if he was happy with something he would never show it. He had tremendous unstoppable energy, and he injected that energy into his actors when making films. He will inspire everyone to give their best to the film. And a remarkable performance from great actors Naseer, Ravi Baswani, Bhakti Barve, Satish Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Om Puri and I giving their best. Filmmaker Vinod Chopra played a role in the climax scene of Mahabharata. I’m sure Kundan is looking down from heaven and laughing at the memory.”
And now Satish and Kundan must be laughing together at the memories.
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