Dostana, featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha as warring buddies was one of the great Raj Khosla’s last directorial successes.
Making Dostana was not an easy task for Yash Johar. After serving as production controller with producer Sashadhar Mukherjee,Sunil Dutt and Dev Anand Dostana was Yash Johar’s first production and he had signed three of the biggest stars of those times Zeenat Aman,Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha.
There was friction between Sinha and Bachchan from Day 1. Yash Johar was a pastmaster at managing star-egos. But this became too much to handle. Shatrughan Sinha would come constantly late every day for shooting while Amitabh Bachchan would arrive punctually on the dot each morning.The two superstars had issues over their scenes together , over the way the dialogues were divided in the dramatic duels between the duo.
Director Raj Khosla whose last hit was this film, was at his wit’s end.
Karan Johar who was all of 8 when Dostana was being shot remembers his father dealing with all the complicated issues. He remembers a shooting spell in Ooty with Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman and Shatrughan Sinha. Mr Bachchan was shooting simultaneously for Dostana and Do Aur Do Paanch. Karan also remembers Shabana Azmi shooting for Thodisi Bewafai in Ooty while his father’s Dostana was being shot there.
At 8 in Ooty during the shooting of Dostana, Karan Johar understood the concept of playback singing for the first time. The song being shot was Kitna mushqil hai kehna bhool jao kitna mushqil hai parr bhool jana.It was meant to be recorded in the divine voice of Lataji. But Karan heard Zeenat singing the song in a male voice.
He was shocked. Karan had no idea about playback singing. “As an 8-year old I was flummoxed. Why was Zeenat Aunty singing in a male voice? It freaked me out. Director Raj Khoslaji sat me down and explained to me patiently what playback singing was, and that the male voice was that of composer Laxmikant(Laxmikant-Pyarelal, the music composers of Dostana).”
Laxmikant was filling in since Lataji was out of the country doing a concert. So the song was filmed on Zeenat with a male voice doing her playback. This was not an uncommon practice with Lataji in her heydays since she was enormously busy.
Another of her chartbusters Naina barse rimjhim rimjhim in the film Woh Kaun Thi,again directed by Raj Khosla, was shot on another hill station Shimla with composer Madan Mohan singing for actress Sadhana in Lataji’s absence.
