Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

It indeed is a strange world where the friends, more so a director and an actor cherish one of the everlasting relationships, and then something happens and the friendship acquires a professional connotation, which in real sense of terms both start working outside friendships. Hindi film world is replete with such kind of relationships and the latest example of it being given a new try is that between Sunny Deol and Raj Kumar Santoshi who have realized that they cannot exist without each other.

After all, have Sunny Deol or Raj Kumar Santoshi been able to attain the success when they parted ways as they did when they were together. Here is the example GHAYAL, GHATAK, DAMINI, and after they parted ways there was nothing for them to talk about with the same streak of success as they had it earlier.

Akshay Kumar and Vipul Shah is another of the director star friendship that gave the world of Hindi cinema one of the biggest hits of its time SINGH IS KINNG, and before that NAMASTEY LONDON and it would indeed be interesting to watch whether Vipul Shah be able to attain the same level of success when his LONDON DREAMS hits the theatre, as Akshay Kumar is not a part of that project, but it is Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan who play the stellar role in it.

As a matter of fact the bonding between a director and an actor came into its own with the advent of Amitabh Bachchan in a big way when he had astonishing rapport and chemistry with Prakash Mehra and Man Mohan Desai and it gave the finest films that Hindi cinema saw. Its reverberations had started making its appearance from the time of Rajesh Khanna with the bond that he developed with Shakti Samant that found manifestation in AMAR PREM, ARADHANA, ANURAG and KATI PATANG.

But the relationship between Big B and Prakash Mehra started losing warmth in the later stages, while Man Mohan Desai passed away, otherwise it would have been one of the long lasting relationships that Hindi cinema could have ever seen.

In the present time Govinda and David Dhawan had this kind of relationship and it gave one laugh riot after the other for this duo. It all started with SHOLA AUR SHABNAM in 1992 followed by AANKHEIN and with interruption in the intermittent found expression with films like ANDAAZ, COOLIE No. 1, SAAJAN CHALE SASURUAL, BADE MIYAN CHOTE MIYAN, HASEENA MAAN JAAYEGI, and PARTNER. The dream run that Govinda had in his career, and in which breaks were applied got a new lease of life once again when they came together to make PARTNER.

An aberration in this was the relationship between Farah Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, Farah started her career with Aamir Khan in JO JEETA WOHI SIKANDER but at a later stage became a staunch friend of Shah Rukh Khan and the relationship continues to have its expressions through the likes of MAIN HOON NA, OM SHANTI OM, and numerous choreographic assignments that Farah Khan did for various films made by Karan Johar who formed another triumvirate of this triangle in terms of friendship as it could be the only triad that the industry may be having which pools its resources together in making a film. This triad started with KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI and from there it has gone through DILWAALE DULHANYA LE JAYNGE, to KABHI ALVIDA NAA KEHNA and also would find expression in MY NAME IS KHAN. To refine, it is not a triad but a four pillar structure where the foundation is provided by the banner of Yash Raj films in one form or the other.

Ajay Devgan has also developed this trend in two parallel ways. For the serious kind of films he has a friend like Prakash Jha that provides him an opportunity to express his serious side, they finding expression through GANGAJAL, APHARAN, and through RAJNITI ( yet to be released) while the comic caper is fostering with Rohit Shetty with his series of GOLMAAL.

Aamir Khan is one star who does not believe in the maxim of friendship and comes out every time with a product that surprises the industry though he had a friendship to an extent with Ashutosh Gowariker that started with BAAZI and catapulted both of them to the international stage with the phenomenal success of LAGAAN. The same kind of evolutionary path has been the leitmotif of Salman Khan as well. Salman and Sooraj Barjatya gave one of the biggest hits that the industry witnessed, it being MAINE PYAAR KIYA to HUM AAPKE HAIN KOUN. Salman parallely had a wonderful relationship with Sanjay Leela Bhansali with whom he projected his sensitive side in a very sensitive manner both through KHAMOSHI and HUM DIL DE CHUKE SANAM.

Whatever is the tenure of friendship between the director and the actor it has been for the mutual benefit of the both! However when it has not grown it has resulted in flop films and subsequently the relationships have sort of cooled down as it happened with Ram Gopal Verma and Big B after the not so big success of SARKAR RAJ. Or for that matter the relationship that existed between Sanjay Gupta and Sanjay Dutt, and the manner in which it has evolved presently.

May be, it could be owing to the fact that they need to grow apart from each other to provide this friendship a long term perspective, but one thing is for sure Hindi cinema has been a cherished place as far as celebrating the friendship is concerned.