When Director Hrishikesh Mukherjee Made This Hit Comedy Film To Battle His Depression

The era of the 1970s was often called the ‘golden era of Hindi cinema’. Bollywood released several blockbusters that later became cult classics during that time. From emotional family dramas to masala entertainers and rib-tickling laugh riots, the 70s had it all. Today, let’s take a look at one such classic comedy film that was shot in less than 50 days. The film was created out of dissatisfaction for the director. It was inspired by a character from a regional film. The film was remade six times in different languages. The movie is none other than the 1979 film Gol Maal. Hrishikesh Mukherjee directed the film, while Rahi Masoom Raza and Sachin Bhowmick wrote the script. The film featured Utpal Dutt, Amol Palekar, Bindiya Goswami, David, and Deven Verma as the main leads. The plot of Gol Maal focused around Ram Prasad Sharma’s (Amol) simple lie to secure his job, which grows into extreme lies when his orthodox employer Bhavai Shankar (Utpal) gets suspicious.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee had shared in an interview that his movie Alap with Amitabh Bachchan won critical acclaim, but it was a commercial failure. After this, he was completely shattered and went through depression for several months. To get out of it, he decided to try his hand at making an out-and-out comedy. Hrishikesh Mukherjee further said that during his bad days, he saw a Bengali film named Kancha Meetha (Sour and Sweet), in which the hero fabricates stories and makes many stories to hide one lie. He was so impressed by that film that he decided to make a film on that subject.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee completed the shooting of the film in just 40 days. He revealed that, except for a few scenes of Gol Maal, the entire film was shot in his bungalow, Anupama, in Bandra.

According to reports, the film was made on a budget of Rs 1 crore, while it grossed Rs 7 crore worldwide. The film earned about 600 percent profit and was regarded as one of the year’s biggest blockbusters.

Later, the film was remade in Tamil as Thillu Mullu (1981), in Kannada as Aasegobba Meesegobba (1990), in Malayalam as Simhavalan Menon (1995), and in Sinhala as Rasa Rahasak. The film was an inspiration for the Hindi movie Bol Bachchan (2012), which was remade in Telugu as Masala (2013).