Subhash Ghai, often hailed as “The Showman” — a title once synonymous with Raj Kapoor — carved his own legacy in Indian cinema with blockbusters like Karz, Hero, Karma, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Khalnayak, Pardes, and Taal. On his birthday, we look back at the unusual way in which Ghai, who had no formal training in film direction, landed his first film as a director.
At the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, Ghai enrolled in the acting course, (not direction). Though he appeared in a few small acting roles in the early 1970s, his true talent lay elsewhere. Blessed with a commanding imagination and a flair for narration, he could script scenes and narrate them so vividly that listeners felt they were already watching a film.
During his struggling days, he narrated one such script to his FTII senior and close friend Shatrughan Sinha. Sinha, more impressed by Ghai’s narration style than the story itself, introduced him to producer N.N. Sippy. When Ghai narrated his idea to Sippy, the seasoned filmmaker gave nothing away — no reaction, no verdict. Instead, he simply invited Ghai to a party that evening.
At the gathering, to Ghai’s utter astonishment, Sippy introduced him to financiers with the words, “Meet the director of my next film.”
Thus, without having ever assisted a director or studied cinematography, Subhash Ghai found himself helming his first film — Kalicharan (1976) — starring Shatrughan Sinha and Reena Roy.
Later, N.N. Sippy would reveal in an interview, “Subhash shot the movie exactly as he had narrated it — scene by scene, even down to the moment where the titles would appear.”
The film was a resounding success, turning Shatrughan Sinha into a star and establishing Subhash Ghai as a director of extraordinary vision.
Years later, after working with Ghai in Vidhata (1982), thespian Dilip Kumar was so impressed by his technical brilliance and scene picturization that he remarked, “Subhash, you will surely make it very big.” True to that prediction, Ghai went on to become one of Bollywood’s most successful and flamboyant directors.
