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.
The early ’80s saw the launch of a dozen star kids in Bollywood.
The first entry was of Sunil and Nargis Dutt’s son Sanjay with Rocky (1981) followed by Dharmendra’s son Sunny Deol in Betaab (1983), Manoj Kumar’s son Kunal Goswami in Ghungroo (1983), Nutan’s son Mohnish in Bekaraar (1983) and Dev Anand’s son Suniel Anand in his directorial Anand aur Anand (1984). Raj Kapoor’s youngest son Rajiv debuted in F.C. Mehra’s Ek Jaan Hain Hum (1983) before Raj Saahab gave him a spectacular launch himself in Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985). Shashi Kapoor’s children also joined the Bollywood bandwagon with Kunal Kapoor debuting in Ahista Ahista (1981), Karan Kapoor in Sultanat (1986) and Sanjana in Hero Hiralal (1988). The entire period of four years starting 1981 saw maximum star sons trying to gain a foothold in the Hindi film industry.
Amongst the lot, the only ones who could survive for the long haul were Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt. Mohnish Bahl tasted success as a villain in the ’90s while the rest of them failed to make it big.
One more star kid was launched during this early ’80s era. This youngster enjoyed tremendous female fan following and his short-lived stardom was much bigger compared to his peers. He is Kumar Gaurav, son of veteran actor Rajendra Kumar aka Jubilee Kumar. Gaurav is one of the finest examples of rise and fall of an actor in this fickle glamour world called Bollywood, which makes a person an overnight sensation but writes him off totally after a couple of flops.
Kumar Gaurav was born on 11th July, 1956 to the ’60s superstar Rajendra Kumar and Shukla Behl (cousin of filmmakers Shyam Behl and Ramesh Behl) in Lucknow. His real name was Manoj Tuli. Gaurav completed his education at Bishop Cotton School, Shimla and is said to have completed his higher education in Mumbai where Anil Kapoor was his colleague.
After Gaurav completed his education, Rajendra Kumar decided to launch him in a romantic film titled Love Story (1981) opposite newcomer Vijayta Pandit. The very first thing he asked him was to change his name from Manoj Tuli and take up his screen name Kumar Gaurav as there was already a big star in Bollywood called Manoj Kumar.
Much before his acting debut, Gaurav was credited as the producer of the Rajesh Khanna- Nanda starrer The Train (1970) as well as an assistant for Raj Kapoor’s Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978), where his name appeared as Manoj R. Kumar in the credits and some mistook it to be the star actor of Purab Aur Pachhim (1970) and Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974). Earlier, Kumar Gaurav had got an offer as the main lead in G.P. Sippy’s Ahsaas (1979) but dad Rajendra Kumar asked him to reject it as he was planning Love Story for him.
Suddenly, Kumar Gaurav became such a craze that filmmakers started lining outside his home to sign him. Every young girl in India fell in love with him and wanted to get married to this new romantic chocolate hero.
With such an unprecedented craze, Gaurav was considered as the next big superstar, who could give the reigning Bollywood giants a run for their money. But unfortunately, things didn’t go as expected…
Quite a few producers wanted to repeat the hit pair of Kumar Gaurav and Vijayta Pandit after the super success of Love Story. But Rajendra Kumar was against it as their link up rumours irked him and he wanted Gaurav to concentrate fully on his career. Thus, he discouraged Gaurav from signing any movies with Vijayta and the hit pair got nipped in the bud.
A year after Love Story, Kumar Gaurav came with his next release. The movie was Tito’s Teri Kasam (1982) opposite the pretty Poonam Dhillon. Producer Tito had announced a film called Tiger with Amitabh Bachchan after success of their Mr. Natwarlal (1979) but chose to push it forward and start Teri Kasam instead with the newly crowned star Kumar Gaurav.
Teri Kasam’s music by R.D Burman again was a big hit and naturally, fans were expecting the movie to be a bigger success than Love Story. Sadly, the film was nowhere close to it and failed at the box office after a lukewarm start. The same year, Biddu’s Star which had Kumar Gaurav in the titular role of a pop singer, was readied for release.
The disco themed songs by Biddu were a rage and mind you, this was before the disco fever engulfed Bollywood with B. Subhash’s Disco Dancer (1982). Star was again expected to be a huge hit but flopped miserably at the box office.
Nevertheless, Gaurav was still in the race and signed some notable films like Lovers (1983), Romance (1983), Hum Hain Lajawab (1984) and Ek Se Bhale Do (1985) but all these films bombed at the box office.
Riding on India’s 1983 Cricket World Cup win, noted producer- director Mohan Kumar decided to make a film on cricket and signed Kumar Gaurav in the lead role as All Rounder (1984). Gaurav had pinned a lot of hope on this film but it only added to his increasing list of box office failures. Film gossip magazines started labelling Kumar Gaurav as a one hit wonder. An actor who was named a rising star on debut was getting written off just as quick…
In 1985, Gaurav nodded to work in an offbeat film titled Janam with the maverick director Mahesh Bhatt. He signed this film without informing his father. Janam was the first ever Hindi movie made for television and when it premiered on Doordarshan, the streets were practically empty as this was the first instance of a new film getting streamed directly on television. This experiment actually benefitted Kumar Gaurav as almost the entire India saw the film on its first screening and appreciated his performance, which is still considered his career best.
Next, Pappa Rajendra Kumar decided to relaunch Gaurav again and produced Naam (1986), directed by the Janam director Mahesh Bhatt. Naam also starred Sanjay Dutt making a Bollywood comeback after his notorious drug phase.
Mahesh Bhatt was selected to direct Naam as he could extract the best from Kumar Gaurav in Janam. Naam became a critical as well as commercial success but the credit went to Sanjay Dutt, who gave a dynamic performance as the wayward brother of Gaurav. Naam was a huge hit but sadly, didn’t benefit Gaurav’s career. His next two releases were Aaj (1987) and Goonj (1989) – both box office croppers.
In 1989, Rajendra Kumar yet again tried to revive Kumar Gaurav’s career with the multistarrer Jurrat, a high-octane action drama featuring Gaurav for the first time as an action hero. Jurrat was a decently made movie shot on exotic foreign locales but clashed with Rajshri’s Maine Pyar Kiya, which trounced it at the box office.
By the early ’90s, Kumar Gaurav had long lost his stardom and no big filmmaker wanted to work with him. Even a certain bold and beautiful actress of that time, whom Gaurav had rejected in the past, refused a project with him.
The early ’90s saw Gaurav doing supporting roles in films like Indrajeet (1991), Pratigyabadh (1991) and Hai Meri Jaan (1991); none of which did well. The 1993 released Phool was the last attempt by Pappa Rajendra Kumar to resurrect his non-existent career. The film featured the reigning queen of Bollywood, Madhuri Dixit but even her charm couldn’t save Phool from flopping badly at the box office.
With the rise of cable television in mid ’90s, Kumar Gaurav decided to switch to television and acted in a few serials like Sikander, X-Zone, Woh Kaun and Chocolate.
In 2000, Gaurav’s long delayed Gang directed by the late Mazhar Khan, finally made it to theatres. The film was in making since 1989 and had a stellar cast of Jackie Shroff, Nana Patekar, Javed Jaffrey and Juhi Chawla with Kumar Gaurav playing a complete ‘hatke’ character from his usual chocolate hero image. Gaurav was seen as a short-tempered abusive guy, who takes to crime and drug addiction. It was a surprise to his fans, who loved watching him on screen after a long time. Unfortunately, Gang didn’t create a ripple at the ticket counters.
The biggest surprise came in early 2001 when director Sanjay Gupta announced his next big project titled Kaante at the Filmfare awards function. This movie starred Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Mahesh Manjrekar, Lucky Ali and Kumar Gaurav as criminals, who pull off a bank heist in USA.
Gaurav played a computer hacker in the film, who is the key person to make the robbery successful. Kaante was a box office hit but it came too late in the day for him. It was also his last known Hindi release. So for those cynics who call Gaurav a one hit wonder, he had Naam and Kaante also on the hit list but these two movies’ success was somehow not attributable to him.
In 2004, Kumar Gaurav appeared in the Hollywood film Guiana 1838 which remains his last film till date He had shot for a silent film called My Daddy Strongest in 2006, which remains unreleased till date.
Though Kumar Gaurav couldn’t make it big in Bollywood after a promising start, he is a successful man in the business world. He loved travelling since childhood and now owns a travel company by the name of Island Holidays and considers Maldives as his second home.
Though he has no intention to get back to acting, Gaurav can be often spotted at film parties or events hosted by his friend and brother-in-law Sanjay Dutt. During the release of his biopic titled Sanju (2018), Sanjay Dutt candidly admitted that the character of Vicky Kaushal (Kamlesh) had some elements of Kumar Gaurav as well.
It is well known that Kumar Gaurav married Namrata Dutt, daughter of Sunil and Nargis Dutt in 1984. They have two daughters Saachi and Siya. Saachi is married to actor Bilal Amrohi, grandson of the late director Kamal Amrohi.
Today, Kumar Gaurav lives a blissful life with his family at his posh Pali Hill residence in Bandra and takes care of his business, far away from Bollywood. But the charming Bunty from Love Story continues to remain associated with him.
All images courtesy Internet
COMMENTS