{"id":2816,"date":"2016-04-09T00:08:08","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T18:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=2816"},"modified":"2020-05-28T18:38:06","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T13:08:06","slug":"shakti-samanta-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/shakti-samanta-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"‘In Aradhana, Sachin Karta Gave Me My Life\u2019s Biggest Hit’: In Conversation with Shakti Samanta"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The

The films of Shakti Samanta (R) are known for their everlasting music.
(Pic: A beautiful graphic crafted as a gift to Silhouette by Pakanati Lakshmi Priya)<\/p><\/div>\n

Renowned filmmaker Shakti Samanta\u2019s impressive repertoire of directing 37 films in Hindi and producing six more along with five films in his native Bengali language makes him one of the most successful filmmakers in Hindi cinema. A rich career graph, to put it simply.<\/p>\n

\"(Pic:

Starting as an assistant in Sunehere Din in 1948, with director, Satish Nigam, Shakti Samanta assisted Phani Majumdar before becoming an independent director
(Pic: Google Image Search)<\/p><\/div>\n

The top rung legendary actors of his era, including Ashok Kumar, Dev Anand, Pradeep Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan,\u00a0 Sanjeev Kumar, Jeetendra and Mithun Chakraborty starred in his films.<\/p>\n

The list of actresses was just as impressive – starting with Geeta Bali, Shyama, Bina Rai, Nalini Jaywant, Madhubala, Mala Sinha and Shakila and moving on to Sharmila Tagore, Asha Parekh, Moushumi Chatterji, Zeenat Aman, Hema Malini, Neetu Singh, Raakhee, Tina Munim, Jaya Prada and many more.<\/p>\n

Shakti Samanta made four films each with O P Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishen and S D Burman. With R D Burman, he did the maximum number of films \u2013 11 in Hindi plus four more in Bengali. Three of his films were with the famous Bengali singer-composer Shyamal Mitra and two each with Ravi and Ravindra Jain.<\/p>\n

The Debut with Bahu<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starting as an assistant in Sunehere Din<\/em> in 1948, with director, Satish Nigam, Shakti Samanta assisted Phani Majumdar before becoming an independent director with \u00a0Bahu<\/em> in 1955, starring Usha Kiran with Karan Diwan. His brother, Girija Samanta was almost his right hand helping him in all his productions.<\/p>\n

Bahu<\/em> was produced by Bikram Pahwa the eldest of the three Pahwa Brothers. The youngest brother was introduced in the film as Basant Kumar as seen in the poster. Music and movie enthusiast Sundeep Pahwa, the son of Basant Kumar Pahwa later told me, \u201cBahu <\/em>was to be directed by writer Vijender Gaur. But a small problem arose as he had been signed for his first directorial venture Kasturi<\/em> starring Nimmi and was under a contract that he cannot sign any other film before Kasturi<\/em>\u2019s release.”<\/p>\n

\"Poster

Bahu (1955), Shakti Samanta’s directorial debut was produced by Bikram Pahwa the eldest of the three Pahwa Brothers. The youngest brother was introduced in the film as Basant Kumar (bottom right)
(Pic: Sundeep Pahwa)<\/p><\/div>\n

“Shakti Samamta a young Bengali assistant to Phani Majumdar was Basant Kumar\u2019s neighbour at Trivedi House 14th Road Khar, Bombay. He was a Hindi teacher earlier and had joined Phanida as his assistant to translate Bengali dialogues to Hindi. By a stroke of destiny he was signed as a Director for his debut film Bahu.<\/em> Vijender Gaur wrote only the dialogues in the film. Luck favoured Shakti Samanta in his professional life. He got his debut film Bahu <\/em>on the rebound and during the making of the film, the Nadiadwalas signed him for Inspector.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I met Shakti Samanta in Calcutta during IFFI 90 (International Film Festival of India-1990), in the days between 10-20 January. We spoke on two occasions in and around the festival venues. Most of the conversation was in Bengali language and parts of it in Hindi. He asked my credentials and made sure I did not record our conversation.<\/p>\n

Shakti da asked me who else I had met during this festival. I replied that I had met Vijay Anand<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, Gulzar, Revathi, Supriya Devi, Basu Bhattachrya, among others. In the beginning he was a bit uncomfortable, keeping his replies short and cryptic but as we settled down into the conversations, he relaxed. On our second meeting he was completely at ease.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The booklet of Bahu, Shakti Samanta’s first directorial venture. Notice the impressive credits. (Pic: Sundeep Pahwa)<\/p><\/div>\n

Excerpts from our conversation held over two sittings:<\/em><\/p>\n

Peeyush: <\/strong>Dada, my basic interest is in the music in your films….<\/em><\/p>\n

Shakti Samanta: <\/strong>What about it?<\/p>\n

Peeyush: <\/strong>From early on your films have had good music. The Hemant Kumar phase for Bahu, Inspector and Hill Station had all good music. When did you become aware of the music quality you wanted in your films?<\/em><\/p>\n

Shakti Samanta: <\/strong>Music is an important ingredient in our cinema and I was comfortable with Hemanta da as I knew him from before during my apprenticeship with Phani da (Phani Mazumdar).\u00a0 Particularly during Baadbaan<\/em> days.\u00a0 Very early in my life in cinemas, I had learnt that music was a huge selling factor for a film. You see in those days radio was the main source and if any song got liked people would rush to theatre to watch that film.<\/p>\n

Kaise koi jiye<\/strong><\/em> (Baadbaan<\/em>, 1954) – Timir Baran and SK Pal \/ Indeevar \/ Geeta Dutt and Hemant Kumar Tandem<\/span><\/p>\n