Naaz Cinema Building in South Mumbai was the address for the film distribution and exhibition trade in the city, besides all the peripheral businesses that served and survived on these trades. The cinema itself had seen some glorious days with a number of great hits screened there and the building above it was where just about every major film distributor and exhibitor worked from. Whether it was a first-time film producer, or a regular maker, a visit to Naaz was a must to sell his film.
I remember two such stories about unsold films, though there may be many more.
Producer K C Bokadia had made ‘Pyar Jhukta Nahin’ with Mithun Chakraborty and Padmini Kolhapure. Those days, when it came to a Mithun film, the distributors were spoilt for choice; they had flooded the market.
Bokadia took the proposal to the office of a distributor and got an offer which he did not like. He climbed two more stairs and visited another office, where he was offered Rs 50,000 more. Though the offer was still short of his expectations, he shook hands.
The distributor who bought his film dealt only in Gujarati film production and distribution, but the music of ‘Pyar Jhukta Nahin’ had helped clinch the deal. The fact that the film went on to become a golden jubilee hit is history now.
The other film was ‘Zanjeer’. Though the director, Prakash Mehra, had made a few films earlier. This was his home production and the lead actor, Amitabh Bachchan, had delivered many flops.
The Amitabh-Jaya pair, moreover, had failed in films such as ‘Bansi Birju’ and ‘Ek Nazar’. ‘Zanjeer’ had no face value as such and promised no draw.
Mehra had to sell his film to the Naaz distributor, Prakash Pictures, on their terms: Rs 4 lakh on ‘outright basis’, which meant the maker would get no share of the overflow. That was the norm in those days. Again, the rest is history. The film not only became a major all-time hit, but also launched Amitabh Bachchan in a big way.
Naaz building was a complete film market. If a distributor planned to release his film, he could book all the cinema halls needed in the Bombay Circuit in the same building.
The exhibitors who controlled cinema chains in the circuit also operated from the same building. Just walk to an office next door, and your film is ready for exhibition.
As was the tradition in India, all markets were location specific, be it for grains or medicines, cloth, sugar, jaggery and so on. Similar was the case with films. In Mumbai it was at Naaz Cinema, Bhagirath Palace, Chandni Chowk, in Delhi, Film Colony, Mandi Road, in Jalandhar, and Bentinck Street in Kolkata.
All these film trade markets now wear a deserted look. While the rest are functioning symbolically, Naaz Cinema in Mumbai has been officially shut down.
Naaz buries with its closure a million stories and a thousand deals, some of them seemingly impossible.
–IANS