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Manmohan Desai (26 February 1937 – 1 March 1994) was an Indian film producer and director. He was arguably one of the most successful filmmaker in 1970s and 80s.[4] Desai is now considered one of most influential film director of Bollywood and a pioneer of making masala film.[5]

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Manmohan Desai
Born	(1937-02-26)26 February 1937[1] Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India
Died	1 March 1994(1994-03-01) (aged 57) Bombay, Maharashtra, India
Alma mater	St. Xavier's College
Occupation	Film director, producer
Years active	1960–1993
Spouse	Jeevanprabha Gandhi[2]
Children	Ketan Desai
Parents	Kikubhai Desai Kalavati [3]

Family background

Manmohan Desai was of Gujarati ancestry. His father, Kikubhai Desai,[6] was an Indian film producer and owner of Paramount Studios (later Filmalaya)[7] from 1931 to 1941. His productions, mainly stunt films, included Circus Queen, Golden Gang, and Sheikh Challi.[8] Manmohan Desai's elder brother, Subhash Desai, became a producer in the 1950s[9] and gave Manmohan his first break in the Hindi film Chhalia (1960). Subhash later went on to produce Bluff Master, Dharam Veer, and Desh Premee with Manmohan as the director.

His wife was Jeevanprabha Desai. She died in April 1979. He was engaged to actress Nanda from 1992 until the time of his death in 1994. He had one son Ketan Desai who is still involved in the film industry. Ketan is married to Kanchan Kapoor, daughter of Shammi Kapoor and Geeta Bali.

On 1 March 1994, as per news Manmohan Desai fell from the balcony in Girgaon as the rail he was leaning on collapsed and died.[10] Very little is known about his death except that he was suffering from chronic back pain. Rumours of him committing suicide have not been confirmed.[11]

Career

Manmohan Desai was known for his family-centered, action-song-and-dance films which catered to the tastes of the Indian masses and through which he achieved great success. His movies defined a new genre called masala films.^{[citation needed]} A common theme in his films were the lost and found plot where family members would be separated and reunited.^{[citation needed]}

He had a string of hits with Amitabh Bachchan in the 70s and early 80s which helped cement Bachchan's status as a superstar of Indian cinema. He worked with Amitabh on Amar Akbar Anthony, Parvarish, Suhaag, Naseeb, Desh Premee, Coolie, Mard and Ganga Jamuna Saraswati; all but the last were box office successes. He was one of the directors who had a special working relationship with Amitabh Bachchan, the others being Yash Chopra, Prakash Mehra, Ramesh Sippy, and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Of these, only Yash Chopra went on to make hits beyond the 1980s.

He often worked with the same actors in several different films:

• Jeetendra in Dharam Veer (1977) after Bhai Ho To Aisa
• Shatrughan Sinha in Naseeb after Bhai Ho To Aisa, Shararat and Aa Gale Lag Jaa (1973) and Rampur Ka Lakshman (1972)
• Shashi Kapoor in Suhaag after Aa Gale Lag Jaa (1973)
• Shammi Kapoor in Parvarish (1977) as a father figure after Bluffmaster (1963) and Budtameez (1966) and a cameo role in Desh Premee as Shamsher Singh
• Randhir Kapoor in Chacha Bhatija (1977) after Rampur Ka Lakshman (1972).

Apart from Bachchan, Manmohan Desai worked with such leading male stars as Raj Kapoor in the 1960 film Chhalia, Shammi Kapoor in "Bluffmaster" (1963) and "Budtameez" (1966), Rajesh Khanna in Sachaa Jhutha (1970) and Roti (1974), Randhir Kapoor in Raampur Ka Lakshman (1972), Shashi Kapoor in Aa Gale Lag Jaa, Dharmendra in Dharam Veer (1977). 1977 was an exceptional year for him. All four of his films released that year were successful: Parvarish, Amar Akbar Anthony, Chacha Bhatija and Dharam Veer.^{[citation needed]} The first two were with Amitabh, and the latter two were with Dharmendra.

Manmohan Desai worked with writers such as Salim–Javed, Prayag Raaj, K.K.Shukla, and Kader Khan, and lyricists such as Anand Bakshi, Sahir Ludhianvi, Qamar Jalalabadi, Gulshan Bawra, and Shailendra. Early in his career he worked with composers Rahul Dev Burman, Kalyanji Anandji, later with Laxmikant Pyarelal for many films. Laxmikant–Pyarelal and Manmohan Desai have worked for nine films, most of them produced and directed by Manmohan Desai, including Amar Akbar Anthony 1977, Dharam Veer 1977, Parvarish 1977, Chacha Bhatija 1977, Suhaag 1979, Naseeb 1981, Desh Premee 1982, and Coolie 1983. In later years Manmohan Desai worked with music composer Anu Malik.

He used an assortment of male singers in his films. In Chhaliya, Mukesh sang the songs of leading man, Raj Kapoor. He preferred Mahendra Kapoor for Biswajit in Kismat. In Roti and Aa Gale Lag Ja, Kishore Kumar's voice was used for the hero. He used Mohd Rafi's voice on Amitabh Bachchan in films like Suhaag and Naseeb. He also used Kishore for Amitabh in Amar Akbar Anthony.^{[citation needed]}

Towards the end of his career, Desai's previously successful stories and style began to lose favour with audiences. Critics accused him of self-parody. His last film as a director Ganga Jamuna Saraswati and the films he produced with his son Ketan Desai directing, Allah Rakha (1986), Toofan (1989) and Anmol (1993) failed at the box office.

Filmography

Year	Movie Name	Cast	Notes
1957	Janam Janam Ke Phere	Nirupa Roy, Mahipal
1960	Chhalia	Raj Kapoor, Nutan, Pran, Rehman, Shobhna Samarth
1963	Bluff Master	Shammi Kapoor, Saira Banu, Pran, Lalita Pawar
1966	Budtameez	Shammi Kapoor, Sadhana, Manorama
1968	Kismat	Biswajeet, Babita, Helen, Kamal Mehra
1970	Sachaa Jhutha	Rajesh Khanna, Mumtaz, Vinod Khanna
1972	Raampur Ka Lakshman	Randhir Kapoor, Rekha, Shatrughan Sinha
1972	Bhai Ho To Aisa	Jeetendra, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha
1973	Aa Gale Lag Jaa	Shashi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore, Shatrughan Sinha, Om Prakash
1974	Roti	Rajesh Khanna, Mumtaz, Om Prakash, Vijay Arora, Nirupa Roy
1977	Parvarish	Amitabh Bachchan, Shammi Kapoor, Vinod Khanna, Neetu Singh, Shabana Azmi
	Dharam Veer	Dharmendra, Zeenat Aman, Jeetendra, Neetu Singh, Pran
	Chacha Bhatija	Dharmendra, Randhir Kapoor, Rehman, Hema Malini, Yogeeta Bali
	Amar Akbar Anthony	Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Parveen Babi, Neetu Singh, Shabana Azmi, Pran
1979	Suhaag	Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Rekha, Parveen Babi
1981	Naseeb	Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Rishi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Reena Roy, Kim Yashpal
1982	Desh Premee	Amitabh Bachchan, Shammi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore, Hema Malini, Parveen Babi
1983	Coolie	Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor, Rati Agnihotri, Waheeda Rehman, Kader Khan
1985	Mard	Amitabh Bachchan, Amrita Singh, Nirupa Roy, Dara Singh
1988	Ganga Jamuna Saraswati	Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Jaya Prada
1989	Toofan	Amitabh Bachchan, Meenakshi Seshadri, Amrita Singh	Producer
1993	Anmol	Manisha Koirala, Rishi Kapoor, Johnny Lever	Producer

References

External links

• Manmohan Desai at IMDb

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