January 20: Every cinema lover at some point or the other has definitely witnessed “Aankhen,” A film that not just changed our perspective towards the Shehnshah of Bollywood, aka, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, But also changed the narrative of Indian cinema.
The film went ahead to be a huge hit, and Mr.Bachchan in a negative role became an overnight rage for every cinema lover.
Well, Today we bring to you the story of The Man who dared to imagine Amitabh Bachchan in his first negative character, The Man who changed the perception of how ‘Heroes’ in Bollywood were seen, The Man, who was once a 21 year old boy, with dreams as vast as the sky, and only 500 rupees in his bank. We are talking about Aankhen’s producer Gaurang Doshi.
Gaurang, who, at the mere age of 16, stepped into the glamorous world of Bollywood and learnt the art of making films with films like Dil, Beta, Raja, which were produced by his father, the late Mr. Vinod Doshi, always had cinema running in his veins.
A young boy with a passion for film making, Gaurang insisted his father let him produce a film on his own. With age and time grew his expertise which was fuelled with an undying passion for making films. At a very tender age, Doshi dreamt of giving Indian cinema a new turn when he thought of producing Aankhen.
A film for which Gaurang was earlier questioned, trolled and ridiculed. The idea of changing the audience’s vision and perspectives of a ‘Hero,’ was why Gaurang was ridiculed. However, the young boy knew what he wanted and went right behind it.
And like they say, the pathway to success is filled with hurdles. With all the ridiculing and questioning, the next hurdle which came Gaurang’s way was onboarding Amitabh Bachchan.
The actor was not on good terms with Gaurang’s father, the late Vinod Doshi, which made it even more difficult for Gaurang to onboard him for Aankhen. However, Gaurang’s determination made the impossible happen.
One fine day, with a leap of faith, Gaurang decided to barge in and meet Mr.Bachchan on the shoot of his film. He managed to grab 5 minutes of Mr.Bachchan, who then asked him to enter his dressing room. The aura and persona of Amitabh Bachchan increased Gaurang’s nervousness.
However, the young, determined boy decided to go for it and told him that he wanted to do a film with him. When Mr.Bachchan asked him to narrate his script in 4 words, he asked Mr.Bachchan if he could call his director. However, the director decided to not come out of his car, out of sheer nervousness. Amitabh, who was not convinced with this behaviour of the director, asked Gaurang as to how will the director direct his film.
Which was when, Gaurang, with the permission of Mr. Bachchan, narrated the script of his film in four lines. “A schizophrenic man who was thrown out of his own bank made the perfect alibi to rob it with 3 blind men,” said Gaurang.
Mr.Bachchan, who was taken aback for a second, immediately approved of doing the film. Happiness knew no bounds for Gaurang, who then signed a cheque to Mr.Bachchan and revealed that even though he has only 500 rupees in his account right now, he will make sure that his dues are cleared in a week.
Gaurang’s dedication took Mr.Bachchan by surprise, and he accepted the cheque. And well, with Aankhen becoming a huge hit, the rest is certainly, History.
Gaurang, who was also felicitated with 7 national and international awards for his film ‘Sandstorm,’ decided to take a break from producing films. “I keep Passion and Money in two different boxes. Passion comes first for me, Films are my passion,” said Gaurang, explaining why his divorce made him take a sabbatical from producing films.
The producer has now, however bounced back and has started afresh. Talking about the rough patch in his life, Gaurang revealed that after the success of Aankhen, he bonded well with Mr.Bachchan and also went ahead to call him his ‘Godfather.’
He revealed that his friends Rocky Khan & Madhu Bhandari never left his side and held his hand through every hurdle of life. Gaurang has partnered with Madhu, and the duo now deals in the Exchange and mining of bitcoin, which also happens to be a new rage.
Talking about his cryptocurrency, Gaurang stated, “With Santoshi FX, we are coming up with our CryptoCurrency. Consta group and Santoshi FX are a few of our crypto ventures.
“The producer is now all set to rebound with his journey of making films. Gaurang is all set to revive his super hit film ‘Aankhen’ and is coming back with ‘Aankhen returns’ and ‘Happy Anniversary.’ The producer also has a series of new and promising projects lined up for various OTT platforms.
Well, Gaurang’s journey can be rightly described as a journey of making the impossible happen, of dreams fuelled with passion, of determination, of visions, of fighting hard and bouncing back, of Never saying Never, Of Bouncing Right back, Because as they say, The Show must go on.