Sridevi with director Umesh Mehra on the sets of the film Guru, one of the few directors Sridevi had a MASSIVE falling out with.
The film was a box-office hit, in fact had one of the biggest openings back in 1989 - but Sridevi said in an interview it was "the worst film-making experience" of her entire career!
The Back Story
Sridevi was asked to do a kissing scene for her film Guru with co-star Mithun Chakraborty. She made it clear to the director that she wouldn't. While she thought the matter was resolved upon discussion, unbeknownst to her, a stand-in’s lips were used for that particular shot in the film - much to her chagrin. When the movie came out, she was shocked and her conservative family was deeply upset.In an interview describing "her worst experience in Bollywood", she said, “Kissing scenes are not for me. For Joshilaay, [director] Shekhar Kapur did ask me if I would mind kissing Sunny [Deol]. When I told him I would feel extremely embarrassed, he said 'Okay, don’t worry, we won’t do it.'
But the kissing problem of Guru was a nightmare. Someone else’s lips were used for a kiss even though I had said I wouldn’t allow this to be done by a stand-in. My parents saw the film and were very upset. And the director [Umesh Mehra] even claimed that I had actually done the kissing scene. That has been my worst experience in the film industry. I really don’t know why I should kiss someone I don’t know. Others can do it but I can’t,” she said.
Despite the behind-the-scenes drama, the film Guru was released at the peak of Mithun Chakrborthy and Sridevi's career and was the biggest opener of 1989 and a blockbuster. And yeah, once again Sridevi had a double role and her songs topped the chart. And yet, Sri looked back at the whole experience with a headache.
Archive of images of Sridevi in the film Guru here.
A Kiss from Sridevi? Rare! The only time she's kissed on camera - on the cheek - is here.
The kisses Sridevi did on screen was rarely a romantic interlude - but for comic flare.
Above: Stardust, Feb 1989, Smooching 'N' Suing! How Sridevi took a kiss to Court!
Above: Scans from MOVIE magazine, February, 1989
Below - using AI to gather what's typed up but its not very clear so... read between the lines. Literally!
CONTROVERSY OF THE MONTH
Sridevi denies kissing Mithun!
Court Verdict Awaited!
Just when the Press had stopped flagging the Mithun-Sridevi affair, just when the embers of the passionate affair were dying out, Sridevi has, unwittingly, revived the controversy.
Unexpectedly she has served producer R.C. Prakash of Guru and director Umesh Mehra a legal notice, and brought an injunction against the release of the film. The reason? A kissing scene between her and Mithun! (picturised, according to the grapevine, at the peak of their affair, in the heat of the moment).
The kiss that promises to have its repercussions.
Madam Sridevi, who today commands more than her fair price, wants the scene to be excised from the film, otherwise... her claim is, the scene has been pixilated on [...], and viz, MDM’s investigations.
[...] has literally left a respected director Umesh Mehra flabbergasted with what he claims is law. Concealing his rage, he explains the controversial scene, that has built up to the legal loss in question: "A hand-bound Mithun is exercising on the terrace. Sridevi discovers on him, and her car key goes clicking, furious. An embarrassment at the[...] makes a spark edit, so in a mirror fully clothed, his face half hidden in a hood. Sridevi sets the camera on self, wrenches his hood, and features to... as legally has. The camera clicks automatically. That’s it! It is as simple and as closing a shot, as he describes it, then why this hullabaloo. Umesh deliberates. The scene is a close-up of the lips, at that time she had done it willingly. But by the time the film got completed, she didn't want it."
[...]ally, Umesh had conceded to sever the scene but, before doing anything drastic, he wanted Sridevi to see the complete film. She eventually did see it, while dubbing. By then the censors had passed both the scene and the film.
Considering that even the Censors did not find the scene objectionable, why is Sridevi so tickled by it, Umesh elaborates, "She wants it deleted more for personal rather than professional reasons." Though Umesh refuses to divulge the personal reasons, its history now. During the making of the film, the Sridevi-Mithun...] culminated in a silent [...] press having failed to [...] reason the split, had [...] the adult Guru. F[...] least. Active, or a co[...] hot-as-ever, dynamic [...]
Getting back to r[...] midway through the [...] records, "Sridevi r[...] such a letter is absurd[...] delete any story or c[...] of course, only after [...] consent."
... Umesh maintains [...] he did not want the [...] saw the film. "Thoug[...] for not wanting the [...] from Fox, namely, [...] film, I realised that s[...] fun film, we could c[...] forwardly, or unfort[...] distributors saw the [...] simultaneously."
And ... Sridevi ca[...] Hell hath no fury as a [...] Tiffed(?), she sent a [...] both the producer [...] Umesh was shocke[...] bit amused. He re[...] pleas, with great am[...] laugh, it says that a[...] manageable age an[...] this film, who will m[...] However, since the [...] 'just funny' mention[...] serious in seconds o[...] "My film is unduly [...] otherwise it would b[...] home in the in-poo[...] 'Thunder Thighs' ju[...] Prakash's earlier film[...] has exposed quite [...] not mention her So[...] said the better."
Umesh finds no t[...] stand incredible. A[...] Sridevi could not d[...] between her profes[...] personal life. From t[...] opines, "Her doubt[...]
Page 48 Movie
February 1989
February 1989
Left Column (Top)
...those lips kissing Mithun are not hers. The only times I have used duplicates in the film is when I have shown both the Sridevi's (she has a double role) together. But not for this scene. She's being funny when she says so."
Unable to fathom why Sridevi has taken this stance, Umesh asserts, "I don't know what's going wrong with her. Either it is her fame which has gone to her head or her bad days are coming. That's why she has gone to court."
Now that the matter awaits the verdict, Umesh is confident of getting through. "Tell me, if you were
Center Pull-Quote
Umesh Mehra:
"She's not called 'thunder thighs' just like that ... She wants the scenes deleted for personal rather than professional reasons!"
[...] but look at what he has done. He shot the scene on duplicates and without Madam's knowledge. Only when she was dubbing for the film she saw the scene and was shocked."
According to Hari Singh, "They picturised the scene on duplicates and they promised to delete it. But when they didn't do so, even at the distribution screening, we realised their intentions. Madam and her family had no other alternative but to bring an injunction against the release of the film."
He denied any 'personal reasons' being involved. "What personal reasons?" he feigned ignorance. "She's not unprofessional; if she was, then she would have not completed the dubbing of the film, till the scene was removed."
When reminded of all the revealing scenes, Sridevi has done in the past, making this one just another feather in her cap, Hari Singh (after consulting Sridevi) hastily added, "Those are things of the past. What is important is the present and future. Now Madam does not do such things. That's it."
Describing Umesh's allegations as "face-saving, and publicity-oriented", Hari Singh insisted that Sridevi's case was stronger, and the scene would be deleted.
The fate of Guru aside, what the controversy has established, it's a boon to have stars when they are in love with one another, there is more passion in the screen-romance, there are no date hassles, and the distributors are delighted.
But if the affair culminates, as it did, midway through the film, it's the beginning of a nightmare for the producer. Like a kiss gone sour...
-- Nilufer Qureshi
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