An old Devdas - Unfinished film in the offing

There have been quite a number of celluloid versions of Saratchandra Chatterjee's novel story “Devdas” but not many perhaps know that there is one more -- an unfinished one -- featuring veteran actors Dharmendra and Hema Malini. 

The unfinished film which was being directed and scripted by eminent writer Gulzar in the 1980's, however, was abandoned after making of just two reels, portraying Dharmendra as Devdas and Hema as Paro, for unknown reasons. National Film Archives of India (NFAI) Director Prakash Magdum said, “We are trying to trace the two reels of the aborted production that featured Dharmendra and Hema Malini. I just spoke to Gulzar who has given some clues as to from where these reels could be procured. We hope to get it to preserve in our archives,” Magdum said.

As many as six multi-lingual movies have been made based on “Devdas”. The earlier versions featured Kundanlal Saighal, PC Baruah and thespian Dilip Kumar. In 2002, Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed another version of “Devdas”, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit.

Magdum also informed that NFAI has recently stumbled upon a unique collection of Hindi film booklets giving production details of old landmark movies dating back to 1934, numbering 1790 films. This would serve as a database for the golden age of Hindi cinema, he added.