K.Asif wants to make the biggest film of Indian cinema. Starts the film with Shiraz Ali as the financier. The film is based on the legendary love story of Salim and Anarkali penned by: Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj.
The lead actor Chandramohan (who was to play Akbar) dies of heart attack.
Partition of India. Shiraz Ali decides to shift to Pakistan. Film stays incomplete.
Film restarts with new star cast and Shapoorji Pallonji as the new financier.
Technicolor arrives in India.
K.Asif shoots one reel in color
Impressed by the results, Asif reshoots three more reels in color.
Asif wants to reshoot the whole film in color. Distributors lose patience and refuse.
Film releases with 85% in B&W, 15% in color. Film turns out to be the biggest blockbuster of Indian Cinema.
The film releases in Maratha Mandir cinema hall in Mumbai with 100% booking for seven weeks even before the first show of the film. The film has an uninterrupted run for three years.
The first telecast on Amritsar (Indian city near Pakistan border) Doordarshan ( a Govt TV channel) results in all flights from Karachi to Lahore (cities in Pakistan) booked for 15 days (Lahore could receive signals from Amritsar). All TV shops in Lahore go out of stock.
Shapoorji Pallonji undertakes the hurclean task Restoration and Colourisation of Mughal-e-Azam to complete the unfulfilled dream of K Asif. Original music composer Naushad Ali and Uttam Singh recreated the original track in Dolby Dts formats. The Design and Direction for the entire project was done by Deepesh Salgia
MEA selected for seven international film festivals in Europe and USA
Film releases on 12th November in colour and six track Dolby Digital sound. The first full feature-length movie to be revived/colorized for a theatrical re-release in the history of world cinema.
Film runs for 25 weeks in cinemahalls in India. One of the longest runs for a re-release anywhere in the World and probably the only one to have a 25 week run even during its re-release.
Mughal-E-Azam…….. A Blockbuster again.
Film releases in Pakistan opening doors of re-release of Indian films in Pakistan.
Shapoorji Pallonji produces a Braodway Style musical play version of the film. The play is directed by Feroz Abbas Khan. Deepesh Salgia provides the Creative and Strategic Vision for the play.
"Hollywood companies have been able to develop colourisation technology only for TV/broadcast quality output. Mughal-e-Azam became the first Black & White film in the world to be re-released in Colour in theatres.
"On the construction of the set of the Mughal Darbar, 150 carpenters, decorators and painters worked for more than 10 months
"In the shooting of the war scenes 2000 camels, 4000 horses and 8000 jawans of the Indian army took part. In the war scenes, real soldiers, horses, cavalry from the Indian army was used. This was obviously to create a real-war effect. Such a thing is rare in today's films. The above was arranged through a special permission from the Ministry of Defence. The Jaipur regiment of the Indian army was used for this purpose.
"The sheeshmahal song PYAR KIYA TO DARNA KYA cost USD 300,00 (in those days a film would be made for less than a million). This song is considered as one of the best picturised song in the Indian cinema. The song "Pyar Kiya To Darna Kiya was written and re-written 105 times by the lyricist, Shakeel Badayuni, before the music director, Naushad, could approve of it; it was shot in the renowned Sheesh Mahal (Palace of Mirrors); and in those days of sound recording, editing and mixing, as there was no way to provide the reverberation of sound, Naushad had Lata Mangeshkar sing the song in a studio bathroom.
"The film was also released at Broadway, Dadar (Mumbai). This resulted in so much traffic that the Dadar bridge was declared "one-way" for few days.
"For the premier, the print of MUGHAL-E-AZAM was brought to Maratha Mandir on an elephant top.
"In 1976, telecast of the film was aired on Amritsar TV (Amritsar is close to Lahore, Pakistan) all flights from Karachi to Lahore were booked for fifteen days. 25 lac people in Lahore saw the telecast from Amritsar Doordarshan.
"The statue of Lord Krishna used in the film was made of real gold.
“In terms of Gold adjusted inflation, Mughal-e-Azam still remains the biggest box-officer grosser of Indian cinema”
"In 1950s, Big films took not more than 60 to 125 shooting days. MUGHAL-E-AZAM needed over 500 , days.”
"It is considered wasteful to use 100,000 feet of negative on an average film. In the shooting of MEA more than one million feet were spent.”
"In 1950s, One or two cameras were considered enough in the shooting of films in general. Shooting of Mughal-e-Azam used as many as 14 cameras.”