In the 1960s and 1970s, former actor and stuntman Kamran Khan began directing B-grade action movies starring Dara Singh. These were films such as Beqasoor, Watan Se Door, Ilzam, and Panch Ratan. However, after welcoming his second child, he thought to go mainstream. He mortgaged everything he owned, pooled his entire life’s savings into the project, and signed Sanjeev Kumar to star in it. However, midway through filming, the star abandoned the project, leaving Kamran with debts amounting to lakhs of rupees. Overnight, he lost everything, and spiralled into alcoholism and depression. He didn’t work for over a decade, his marriage crumbled, and he eventually died penniless. The family didn’t even have money to pay for his funeral, and had to borrow a small amount from his close friend, writer Salim Khan. Kamran’s two children were only teenagers then, but they had to start earning for themselves, and to repay their father’s debts. They’ve now left marks on the industry themselves; they’re Farah Khan and Sajid Khan.
In a recent interaction at the Ajanta Ellora Film Festival, Farah reflected on the difficult childhood that she and Sajid experienced. “Cinema kept me happy even in the worst of times. During my childhood, when things were bad at home, and parents were fighting, they were separating. The only time I got happiness was when I went to a movie theatre, sat for three hours, and we saw either a Manmohan Desai movie or a Nasir Hussain movie. We used to watch the potboilers at that time. That kept us happy.”
She continued, “I don’t think anyone knows my father’s name, because he used to make B-grade movies with Dara Singh, and they used to be great fun. They were all like Robin Hood Comes to Bombay, Tarzan Comes to Bombay… Dara Singh is roaming around in Tarzan’s kachchha all over Bombay city… Then, the usual happened. He put all his money into one movie, including the house, and it was a washout, and with that, everything went. Then, for the next 13-14 years, my father didn’t work. He didn’t leave the house, and times were very, very bad.”
In an earlier interaction with journalist Karan Thapar, Farah said that her father died with only Rs 30 in his pocket. “I was a spoilt brat before that, and would get whatever I wanted and then suddenly everything changed… Only the house remained, and everything else went… The cars, my mom’s jewellery, the gramophone—everything. Finally, we were left with an empty house, two sofas, and a fan. We even rented out the drawing room for a few hours. People would come, organize a kitty party, play cards in the room, give us some money in return, and leave. That’s how the house was running for a couple of years.”
In an interview on the Timeout with Ankit YouTube channel, Sajid told the story of his father’s failures. “My father was a filmmaker, who used to make films with Dara Singh. He used to make black-and-white B-grade films. Salim Khan was one of my father’s close friends. When Farah was born, my father was going through a very good time, but when I was born, he gave his first flop. He must’ve thought that he has two kids, and he should expand. He decided to make an A-grade film. He tried to make a big film with Sanjeev Kumar. That film never worked, because it never got made. Halfway through, Sanjeev Kumar abandoned the film and ran away. My father lost all his money. Then he started drinking, he became an alcoholic, my parents got divorced. And I went and stayed with my aunts.”
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He said that even as a child, he would shuttle between his maternal and paternal relatives, and would be confused about his religion. “One day, I asked my father, ‘What is my religion’. He kept his drink down, he used to drink from morning till evening, and he pointed out of the window to the Lido Cinema. He said, ‘That’s your religion’. This was fed to me as a seven-year-old child. He said, ‘In there, Hindus and Muslims and Christians all come together, they laugh and cry together, that’s your only religion’,” he said.
Sajid recalled the moral crisis that he experienced immediately after his father died, because he had bought a ticket to a movie and wasn’t sure if he should go to watch it. He said, “I’d bought a ticket for a Friday show of Rajesh Khanna’s Naya Kadam. On Tuesday, my father died. He drank himself to death. By Thursday, I started worrying about the ticket I’d bought for the movie. Should I go to see the movie or not? I’d just lost my father on Tuesday. I was 14. I asked my friend what to do, and he said, ‘Have you gone mad?’ But I told him that my dad would’ve wanted me to see the movie. My friend took the ticket from my hand and tore it. I’m still dealing with this in my head. Was I right to think about a movie after my dad died? But this was what he had inculcated in my head.”
He continued, “Normally, when parents pass away, they leave some real estate or some money in the bank, or a will. My father left Farah and me with debts. I was 14, she was 17. We had a debt of Rs 3 lakh, in 1984. We were shattered. We had no idea how to earn money. We spoke to those people and told them that we would pay them back bit by bit. Farah started dancing, she started her dance troupe. I started doing mimicry at birthday parties. On Sundays, I’d perform at the beach. I would give the money to Farah, and save some to watch movies.”
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Opening up further about the hardships they experienced in the subsequent years. “We were the only family in our neighbourhood that didn’t have a TV. We had no money. We had just one fan. We didn’t have money to pay for electricity for two weeks. We would sleep in the hall, Farah and me. You work when you don’t have a choice. We did it with a certain amount of dignity, and my mum insisted that we finish our education. She was also working, she was doing housekeeping at a hotel, but she was living separately because she had to go in the morning and she’d come back in the evening. When my father passed away, I went to one of my relatives to ask for money for the funeral. We did not have money for the funeral. It was Salim uncle who gave money for the funeral. Salman’s dad. He gave me money. But that’s life. They can take everything away from you, but they can’t take away your sense of humour,” he said.
Farah began choreographing dance numbers, and eventually climbed her way to the top of the pyramid. She made her directorial debut with the film Main Hoon Na, and then made the blockbuster Om Shanti Om, both starring Shah Rukh Khan. Sajid made several hit films himself, but was accused of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement. He hasn’t directed a film since then.
