The Godfather

Some of the industry’s most memorable talents indeed got a break through him including Guru Dutt,Hindi’s cinema’s symbol of romantic angst. In 1951,Anand signed Dutt to direct Baazi produced by the former’s production house Navketan Films. “Dev saab and my father knew each other from the time they worked together at Prabhat Studios. Their shirts had got mixed up by a dhobi on a set. Dev saab made a pact that if my father became a director first,he would cast him as the hero,and if Dev saab turned producer first he would let my father direct his first film. He kept his promise,” remembers Guru Dutt’s son Arun Dutt. Baazi was also the debut film of Kalpana Karthik who,going by film lore,mesmerised Anand in their very first meeting. “One of the most understated actresses,she had a spark in her eyes which translated well on screen,” Dev Anand would say. The two got married in 1954 after their film Taxi Driver became a hit.

But it was Dev Anand’s discovery of Zeenat Aman,aptly called ‘Zeenie baby’ that changed the Hindi film industry’s portrayal of the heroine. Winner of the Miss Asia-Pacific contest in the early seventies and a graduate from the University of Southern California,Aman became the face of the hippie fad in India with the popular song Dum Maro Dum in the 1971 film Hare Rama Hare Krishna . “I was very different from the actresses of that time. I did not have any formal training in acting or classical dance. Dev saab told me that he wanted me to be the way I was and that gave me a lot of confidence,” Zeenat Aman said in a former interview to the Express.

It was Dev Anand again who launched Tina Munim in Des Pardes (1978) ),Jackie Shroff in Swami Dada (1982) and Richa Sharma in Hum Naujawan (1985). One of the finest actors today,Tabu too is Dev Anand’s discovery who he first met when she was just eleven years old and cast her in Hum Naujawan . “I feel like I have lost a parent,” says Tabu. “I am in the industry because of him. It was he who asked me to stay back in Mumbai. My name was given by him. He once told me,’tumhara naam alag hai,sabse alag raho’,” she recalls.

Even during the last decade of his films like,Censor,Love At Times Square and Mr Prime Minister ,Dev saab promoted youngsters. His most recent film was Chargesheet,released in September this year with three new faces.