Bollywood Flashback: Famous Bollywood fights from the golden era

Stars not seeing eye to eye or cold shouldering each other is not something unusual in Bollywood. Fame, success, ego issues, misunderstandings… has often led to cold wars, clashes, ugly fights and fall-outs in B-town. Years ago, it’s heard that huge stars, Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor avoided crossing each others’ path, they were often at loggerheads but they never showed it in public and kept their feelings away from the limelight. Sharmila Tagore, apparently, had a physical fight with Mala Sinha on the sets of Humsaya…Let’s flip the pages of the Bollywood diary and find some juicy bits of gossip from the glorious past.

Nutan slaps Sanjeev Kumar: The incident occurred during the time when Sanjeev Kumar was an upcoming actor and he was cast opposite Nutan, an established name those days. Around the time they were shooting for the film, there were numerous reports and rumours in film magazines about the romance brewing between Nutan and Sanjeev, which was ‘disturbing’ the marital life of Nutan. One of the days when they were shooting together in a studio compound, Nutan gave a tight slap to Sanjeev Kumar as she felt that Sanjeev was feeding the media and planting stories of their link-ups to promote his career. Soon after the slapping incident, there was a big Bollywood bash and it is said that many actors kissed Sanjeev’s cheek that was slapped by the veteran actress.

Dharmendra slaps Sanjay Khan: This incident happened in Chennai where these two heroes were shooting for a film together. Everybody decided to chill in the evening and got together for drinks and dinner. Sanjay Khan probably might have had a drink too many and he began passing some uncharitable remarks against the veteran actor Om Prakash, who was present at the party. Dharmendra, who is known to be a very soft and gentle person, asked Sanjay to stop and apologize. When Sanjay did not listen, Dharmendra slapped him hard on his cheek. On his return to Bombay, apparently, when Dharmendra met Sanjay’s brother, Feroz Khan at the airport, Dharmendra apologised for his behaviour, but Feroz coldly said, ‘He deserved it.’

Raj Kapoor – Raaj Kumar verbal fight: This verbal altercation between Raj Kapoor and Raaj Kumar happened at Prem Chopra’s wedding party sometime in the 60s. Apparently, Raj Kapoor was miffed with Raaj Kumar as he had not consented to work in his production, Mera Naam Joker. Raj had planned the role of a magician for Raaj, but the latter had declined it saying, ‘Raaj cannot be equalled with Dharmendra and Manoj Kumar. If he has to be in the film, then only Raj Kapoor and Raaj Kumar will be there.’ Raj refused to agree with Raaj and went ahead to make the film with other actors. Raj Kapoor probably might have got high at the party, and he told Raaj, ‘You are a bloody murderer.’ (Raaj was a police inspector before entering the industry and he was allegedly accused in a murder case.) To which Raaj replied, ‘I might be a killer, but I never went to you for a favour. It is you who had come to me.’

Sharmila Tagore-Mala Sinha cat fight: These two beautiful and talented actresses were teamed up with Joy Mukherjee for the classic suspense thriller Humsaya(1968), which was also produced and directed by Joy. Though known to be thorough professionals, Sharmila and her co-star Mala were part of a much-publicised cat fight on the sets during the shooting of the film. There were screaming headlines those days that the two had a physical fight on the sets and rumours also has it that Mala Sinha had actually slapped Sharmila!

Prakash Mehra and Sanjay Khan’s filmy feud: It was Sanjay Khan again who found himself in trouble. But this one looks like it’s straight out of a Bollywood script. Filmmaker Prakash Mehra, who made several blockbusters like Zanjeer, Laawaris, Namak Haram…once got high at a booze party in his own house. Prakash already had some grudge against Sanjay, and when some people said some nasty things about Sanjay at the party, Prakash got further provoked. He, apparently, marched up to Sanjay’s bungalow nearby and challenged him to come out for a duel. It’s heard that Prakash was armed with a weapon while he stood outside Sanjay’s bungalow. But this time, Sanjay kept his cool. He made a call to Dilip Kumar and other seniors from the industry. They came, pacified Prakash and took him away.

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