Suneil Anand

QAMYAB – THE FORGOTTEN GEMS OF BOLLYWOOD

Qamyab is our humble tribute to all those lesser-known actors, one hit wonders and junior artists who we see umpteen times but don’t know about; beyond their faces. These actors have been an integral part of Bollywood but didn’t get their due. This series is our sincere attempt to put a name to these faces, familiarize them to our readers and celebrate their achievements in life – however big or small. We believe that every artist contributes in his/her own way to the cinema’s success. Qamyab will explore the unknown lives of such actors and artists as we believe even these forgotten gems of Bollywood deserve their due recognition today.

Since past few years, ‘Nepotism’ is a high trending word by Bollywood haters. As avid Bollywood followers since last four decades, we believe nepotism can at best, get you a debut or a relaunch but can never bring you success. Had nepotism guaranteed success in Bollywood, our today’s forgotten gem would have been a superstar like his father

Yes, we are talking about Suneil Anand, son of the legendary actor, director and producer Dev Anand. In fact, the entire Anand family from Dev to Vijay and Chetan need no formal introduction to Bollywood buffs. When Suneil decided to be an actor, there were huge hopes from him to replicate his dad’s success. But that didn’t happen

Suneil was born to Dev Anand and former actress Kalpana Kartik on 30th June, 1956 in Zurich, Switzerland, where his parents went to attend the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. His uncles Vijay (Goldie) and Chetan Anand were famous filmmakers while first cousin Shekhar Kapur got global recognition as a director and has also directed Bollywood hits like Masoom (1983) and Mr. India (1987).

Not much is known about Suneil’s childhood except that he studied at a boarding school in Mussoorie. Right since his younger days, Suneil loved to be behind the camera and assist his father for their home banner Navketan Films

In the early ’80s decade, all top actors of the golden era started launching their kids in Bollywood. Sunil Dutt made Rocky (1981) for Sanjay, Dharmendra produced Betaab for beta Sunny Deol, Manoj Kumar’s son Kunal Goswami entered Bollywood with Kranti (1981), Raj Kapoor offered Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985) to his son Rajiv. It was indeed, an era of star sons getting launched in one film after another

Dev Saahab also decided to make a film with Suneil Anand and announced Anand Aur Anand in 1981. Navketan as a production house, wasn’t enjoying the best of times since the ’80s as Dev Anand was accused of concentrating on himself in all his movies and unable to translate his good contemporary ideas derived from newspaper headlines on to the big screen. Nevertheless, Anand Aur Anand became a hot property in the trade circles as Suneil Anand’s launchpad.

The film took three years to complete and made it to theatres in August 1984. The audience were eager to see the evergreen Dev Anand share screen space with his son Suneil. The title was also perfect: Anand Aur Anand, which implied that Dev Saahab’s legacy would be carried forward by Suneil.

Boasting of stellar cast comprising Rakhee, Smita Patil, Biswajeet and then upcoming actor Raj Babbar, Anand Aur Anand released on 10th August, 1984. Unfortunately, the film turned out to be a box office flop shocking the industry as well as Dev Saahab fans. Suneil Anand’s career got a big jolt on his debut itself. Trade bigwigs analysed that the audience could not digest the script, which concentrated more on Dev Saahab than Suneil Anand. Dev Anand was romancing Smita Patil as well as Rakhee and left no scope for Suneil to prove his mettle as an actor

The debacle of Anand Aur Anand impacted Suneil Anand’s career adversely and he could never recover from this flop. While he worked in a few more movies after this, his acting career was sealed from his debut itself

Suneil’s next was Main Tere Liye with Meenakshi Seshadri and this time, the director’s hat was donned by his illustrious uncle Vijay (Goldie) Anand with dad Dev Saahab as the producer. The movie was on the verge of being shelved until Dev Saahab took over the reins as the producer. But even a visionary like Goldie, who gave classics in ’60s and ’70s like Guide (1965), Jewel Thief (1967) and Johny Mera Naam (1970), couldn’t save Main Tere Liye

Suneil Anand’s next release titled Car Thief (1991) opposite Vijayta Pandit, faced distribution hurdles and was lying in the cans for four years after being ready in 1987. Finally, Suneil decided to release the film himself. The internet states Car Thief released in 1986 but that is untrue. The film had an indifferent release in 1991 and sank at the box office. The same year, Suneil had another film Savdaan, which nobody wants to talk about. Fair enough, even we won’t

After his career failed to take off, Suneil Anand vanished completely from Bollywood for more than a decade. While his father Dev Anand continued to make movies featuring himself in lead roles, nobody knew where Suneil Anand was

In 2001, Suneil Anand surprised everyone with a movie called Master. It was supposedly his acting relaunch as well as directorial debut. Master was a revenge drama set in India and Hong Kong, where actor Aasif Sheikh played the main antagonist and frames the hero Suneil in a drugs case and also kills his onscreen father. After spending twelve years in Hong Kong jail, Suneil returns to India to extract revenge by learning Kung Fu in jail. The film’s fights were choreographed by the Hong Kong based Wing Tsun, Great Grandmaster Sifu Leung Ting.

Master had a unique plot and some good stunt sequences but it’s timing was terribly wrong. Suneil had started the film in 1995 and it took six years to release. Initially, Dev Saahab was to feature in a cameo but that never happened. Master became yet another box office disaster for Suneil. It is said that when Dev Saahab saw the trial show, he quietly told Suneil that Master would flop and advised him never to direct a movie again