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Veteran actress Hema Malini has always been passionate about her craft and never deterred from taking risks even after achieving star status. In a recent interaction, lyricist-filmmaker Sudhakar Sharma recalled how the actor, who was at the peak of her career, agreed to do his film despite him being a debutant director, and even slashed her fees to star in the project.
On the YouTube channel Laughing Colours, Sudhakar Sharma shared how nervous he was to approach Hema Malini for the role since he was a first-time director. To seek help, he reached out to Dharmendra’s brother Ajit Singh Deol.
Sudhakar recalled, “I had an idea that I should meet Dharmendra’s brother Ajit Singh Deol. I had a friendship with him. I wanted to go to Hema Malini through a person who will make her say yes to the film. I first offered a role to Ajit. Then I asked him to help me get Hema Malini on board. He told me, ‘This is a tricky task.’ He told me to directly meet Hema Malini and narrate her the story as Hema knew the writer of my film, Vijay Pandit. The writer narrated the film to her and she liked the story.”
Though Hema Malini agreed to do the film, she expressed her doubts about working with a debutant director. “Why should I work with you?” she asked Sudhakar Sharma, but he convinced her thanks to the film’s strong script. However, another problem soon came up when he realised he couldn’t afford Hema. What happened next left him shocked.
Sudhakar said, “Her fees was double the budget I had. I gave her a number of what I can give. She told me, ‘You don’t have money, you are a newcomer and your producer is also new. so give me time to think.’ She asked me to come back after two days. But I thought that’s a stalling tactic, so I asked her to shoot for three days, see the rushes and then decide if she wants to keep me as the director or you keep me as an assistant director in another film so that my kids don’t come on road.”
He added, “She asked me to make an agreement with her original fees even if she’s taking less. She said she will later give me a letter saying that she gave up that amount.” The lyricist-filmmaker also recalled how Hema said she wouldn’t come on set before noon because she had to drop her daughter to college.
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After seeing the rushes, Sudhakar Sharma realised that since he couldn’t afford to dress Hema Malini in expensive outfits, she didn’t look glamorous in the film. Hema solved that problem too and agreed to wear her own outfits for the film. “She wore her own outfits for the film because we didn’t have the budget. But about a week before completion, the shoot got halted. Hema ji even offered to waive off her fees. But that film never got completed and was never released.”
