Sultanat is notable for its grand scale, lavish production, memorable song-and-dance routines, stunning visuals and fight sequences. It was the first time Bollywood superstars Dharmendra and Sunny Deol, father and son, were appearing in a movie together. It was a movie that launched Miss India 1984, Juhi Chawla (long before Qayamat se Qayamat Tak). It had the Bombay Dyeing uber hunk of the 1980s Karan Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor's blond and blue-eyed boy (literally) making his debut too. It had phenomenal music by Kalyanji–Anandji, grand dance numbers by reigning Bollywood Queen, Sridevi.
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| Karan Kapoor and Juhi Chawla's first film |
Tragically though, the expensive film bombed miserably at the box-office, but the film was in the news for years. So much happened behind the scenes - it was a fascinating chapter in Bollywood's storied history.
Dharmendra wanted the film to be another Ten Commandments. Mukul Anand wanted it to be like a regular Hindi film. The film's producer Arjun Hingorani's main interest lay in the American version - titled Chasing the Sward - shot on the same location.
The producer spent 40 lakhs - an enormous sum in the 1980s - on making arrangements for the American crew to fly down to Bombay - but he did not get permission from the Indian government for them to shoot in India. When the Indian Intelligence caught on that that the American crew of 23 was in the country without a government notice, they denied them permission to shoot in the country, and they had to go back without filming a single scene. Arjun Hingorani's argument was that he was a Indian producer and he did not need permission to shoot an Indian film on Indian soil - however, heavy politics and red tape got in the way.
The English version was going to be made by Philip Dayton, an Indian-American Co-Production, but the producer Arjun Hingorani was forced to drop the idea due to unmitigated circumstances.
During the shooting of the Hindi film, the American crew and the lead players were present on the sets watching the lavish production, as Sridevi mesmerised in an epic song and dance routine with hundreds of extras and dancers in grandiose sets. The English version was to start after the completion of the Hindi - but without the musical numbers.
For, Chasing The Sword, Hollywood stars Kevin Bernhardt and Karen Mayo Chandler were signed for the lead roles - replacing Sunny Deol and Sridevi. Christopher Atkins - a superstar then from the box office smash Blue Lagoon - was in the running for the role that eventually Karan Kapoor signed. Director Mukul Anand really wanted Karan Kapoor for the film as the Eurasian hunk looked like an all-American boy next door; tall, blond and light-eyed. The middle child of actress Jennifer Kendal and Indian legend Shashi Kapoor, Karan was making a buzz in Bollywood early on. Since the film was being made in English, Karan would fit perfectly in the film was the thinking - even though he wasn't a trained actor. To top it all, the young Kapoor already had a large fan following as a supermodel for Bombay Dyeing; Kapoor's posters were studded around the country, a rage among the young long before he appeared on film. Fresh out of college Karan, 22 back then, however, was not interested in Hindi movies at the time, as he mentioned repeatedly in interviews. He finally relented after months of persistence by the director.
When Karan Kapoor was first approached for the second lead, he quoted a very high price. Rumours were swirling in print at the time that Karan accepted the film because he was promised a lot of money - which he needed. In those days, the Kapoors were going through financial strains as Shashi Kapoor had lost money in his "art movies". Critically acclaimed films that garnered great press - that made almost no money from the teeming masses! It was a strange decade for the movie bizz; a lot of great films were deemed 'art house' that few people saw, while a lot of masala movies made big money - that are in turn are remembered for very little merit.
Kunal Kapoor dubbed for his brother Karan in the movie - Western educated Karan had poor Hindi diction. To top it all, the director John Dayton was also unhappy with Karan's British accent and was planning to get his English dubbed too!
Adding further strains in the pot, the casting for the film was completely out of whack. Suresh Oberoi was going to star in the Hindi and English version of Sultanat. In the Hollywood version, Suresh Oberoi was going to use the screen name "Richard Oberoi". He ended up not acting in the film. Anita Raaj was signed for the film as a second lead and she dropped out of the movie too. Dilip Tahil's role was originally meant for Mithun Chakraborthy; a special appearance in the film but he dropped out later because he was afraid his role would look like a small supporting one to Sunny Deol, not a special appearance as originally intended. The stories about Sridevi and Mithun created great gossip - and box-office, three of the four films they did were blockbusters so distributers were keen to cash in on their star power. It also wasn't meant to be. Furthermore, legend also has it that Mukul Anand wanted to make the film originally back in 1981 with Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor. They both agreed to do the film... but Bachchan wanted an established director for the film. First-time filmmaker Mukul Anand refused to part with his script and finally made it with Sunny Deol and Karan Kapoor years later. There was so much conflicting casting news that the movie was written about monthly in the tabloids for years - but not for any of the right reasons.
When the American crew was packed off to the US with none of the English version shot, at the time, Mukul Anand had two choices. Leave the film or alter the script and start shooting. If the film got shelved, Arjun Hingorani would have lost a whopping 80 lakh ruppees - with little, if anything to show for it. Somehow, Mukul made compromises and completed the film. In a post mortem of the film in print, Mukul stated that he knew the film would be a disaster. He felt that entire subject had been compromised. The Hollywood version was titled Chasing The Sword as it was the sword of The Prophet was a key ingredient in the film - and it was supposed to have supernatural powers which made the man wielding it turn superhuman. An Indianised superhero film of sorts would have been special, perhaps a hit like Mr.India had been, but everything changed during production - there was no sword. No superpower and no heroics.
Despite all the backstage drama, upon final cut, the distributors ended up liking the film; it had grand visuals, good music and by 1986, there was no bigger female star than Sridevi, Dharmendra was already a legend and a reliable bet at the box-office - so they bought it. The producer sold it at the expected price in every territory, and the film premiere on 11 March, 1986 after nearly five years in production.
However, the distributors lost heavily when the film crashed at the box-office.
Arjun Hingorani would go on to blame Mukul Anand for the end product. Arjun claimed that Mukul went overbudget beyond belief (an accusation Subhash Ghai had a decade later with another Mukul fiasco Trimurti) . He also complained that Mukul did not shoot the film the way he it was supposed to be made, but really by then there was so much he-said, she-said, no one knew what to make of it. To be honest, the film did not harm anyone's career in the long run; all the stars landed on their feet - and in many cases went on to great success in succeeding years!
The 80s and early 90s in Bollywood were notorious for many other similar tales of great launches, expensive mahurats, grand ambition... that came to naught. There's no business like show business after all.
