“I Used  To Weep Every Night, Had To Drag Myself  To Shooting Every Morning,” Mansoor Khan On 33 Years  Of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar

Mansoor Ali Khan’s Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar(JJWS)   was  not  an  easy  film to make.

 Says Mansoor, “ You know  if ever  a book is written about the behind-the-scenes activities  of any of my films it would have to be JJWS. It’s a  film designed by destiny. The changes in the  cast just happened. I had met Ayesha Jhulka but I forgot  about her as I was busy with the  screenplay. I had met Deepak Tijori. But I chose to  work with Milind Soman instead because of his physique. I saw Pooja Bedi on  the  beach one  day.”

  But  Pooja was not Mansoor’s first choice.  “No she was not!  It was Nagma. She  abandoned  the project four days before shooting. I had told her right  from the beginning that she  is  not the heroine. I don’t  want to  blame  her, but the least she could have done  was to  inform me.You can’t hang up on me when I’m planning a forty-day outdoor schedule. Later of course she came to me and said  it was the biggest mistake   of her  life . Farah  Khan recently hosted a dinner for all the guys who had been sacked. There I met Milind Soman. Farah Khan kept  that dinner where all the sacked actors of JJWS came.”

 Where is Mamik  who played Aamir’s elder brother so effectively? “Mamik  was always a bit on his own trip.He  was a good guy.It was  very difficult to find  a guy who was one-up on Aamir on screen as he  was  already a big star when he came to  JJWS.I wanted an actor who could play Aamir’s charming softspoken dependable brother.Mamik was  an amazingly good-looking guy. About his career not taking off after JJWS, he was  laidback. I can  understand  that that . I too am laidback. But being in the driver’s seat I had  to  take my  responsibility  very seriously.”

JJWS  was  the  only film  Mansoor wanted to make. “I think it has stood the test of time. Just the  other day two kids who had come to vacation in my farmstay where talking about it.Everybody thinks I wrote JJWS  after seeing Breaking Away. That’s not true.Right from 1981  I wanted  to make  a film about a  guy who is a loser who finally gets his groove. That’s what had happened  with me. I had gone to  college  for five  years to the US, wasted  my father’s money. I came back angry and defensive. The whole world was  my enemy  at that time(laughs).JJWS was born of my anger at that time. But if you notice there is  a critical difference between JJWS and Breaking Away. The  boy in that film is a champion cyclist. Breaking Away is very different.I want to  make this very clear . The two films were very different.”

  The  song Pehla Nasha  lingers in public memory.

Shares Mansoor, “A friend of mine recommended  Jatin-Lalit.  I was  opposed  to the idea of not working with Anand-Milind again; you  know  how it is when  you  get into  a comfort zone. But when I  had sittings with  Jatin-Lalit  I knew this was what I  wanted for  JJWS.In QSQT  it was Papa kehte hain.My Papa  used to say, ‘That’s  the sure hit, now let’s move ahead with the other songs. Similarly it  was Pehla nasha in JJWS.”

Shakun Batra was  supposed to make a documentary on the  making  of JJWS.

 Mansoor reveals, “He was so keen on  doing a documentary on the making of JJWS. I am too shy too pursue something like this. He got  busy  with other things. One day I will sit with  you  I’ll tell  you  all the stories about JJWS. I had a nervous breakdown. I’d  cry in  the middle  of  the night.I was the captain of the ship and I didn’t know what was happening. I had no control over it. I had to drag myself to the set each morning. But  finally it all worked out.”