On August 12 in 1983, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro hit the screens. The satirical comedy marked late filmmaker Kundan Shah’s directorial debut and earned him the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director at the 31st National Awards. Based on themes like corruption, bureaucracy and politics in news media, it boasted of a talented ensemble like Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Satish Shah, Satish Kaushik and Neena Gupta. The film might have had a lukewarm response at the box office upon release but has achieved a cult status over the decades.
As Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro clocks 40 years of its release today, Gupta, who played Priya, the secretary to a corrupt contractor (essayed by Kapur) in the film, walked down the memory lane and exclusively spoke to News18. “I can’t believe Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro completes 40 years! I can’t believe I’m so old (laughs). The experience I had working on the film was something else. It was hilarious,” she exclaimed.
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro was produced by the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) and was made on a tight budget. Talking about it, Gupta shared, “I had worn my own clothes throughout the film because we didn’t have the budget. I was very new. I used to take an auto-rickshaw to the shoot. I couldn’t eat the food on the set and so, I would pack in my own lunch consisting of roti and sabzi.”
She fondly recalled working with some of her gifted co-actors who are no more today and stated that shooting for the film felt more like working on a play. “We used to keep laughing throughout the shoot. With Om Puri, Satish Kaushik and Satish Shah, it was a riot! It was like doing a play. We rehearsed a lot before starting the shoot. Most of the guys in the film like Naseer and Ravi were theatre actors. Theatre is known for its discipline and on the sets of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, everyone would come on time,” she remarked.
And how was it collaborating with Shah, who was known for interlacing simple narratives with a social statement? “Kundan was also crazy (laughs)! Jaisi film dikhti hai na, usko banaane mein utna hi maza aaya. I always say that no matter what you do, be it plays or television, there has to be a message in it,” she said.
According to Gupta, it is this quality of the film that has rendered it an element of relevance and a terrific recall value. She explained, “You’ve to say something through your story without being too preachy. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro is a very big example of the same. It entertains you throughout but manages to make such a big statement through that process.”
Interestingly, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro also marked filmmaker Sudhir Mishra’s debut in the Hindi film industry as he co-wrote its screenplay along with Shah. Mishra was also the assistant director on the film. Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, on the other hand, was the production controller and even played a photographer in it. In fact, the names of the lead characters in the film was inspired from Mishra and Chopra. In 2012, a digitally restored print of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro was released at selected theatres, which received a good response from Cinephiles.
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