Dev Anand’s Navketan Films turned 60 this year. And the I&B Ministry marked the occasion with a special felicitation
ceremony for the veteran actor in New Delhi last week.
But while Anand sr was being honoured, both he and the government, conveniently forgot informing the families of his two equally talented brothers whose contribution to Navketan Films is no less.
Families of Chetan and Vijay Anand — who directed some of the best known films of Navketan — were completely in the dark about the recognition. “I would’ve loved to be a part of the celebrations, but I only heard of it on Sunday through someone from outside,” says Sushma, wife of late Vijay Anand.
“Last year, when the Cannes Film Festival chose Guide among its Best Classics, my son and I attended its special screening there along with Devsaab.
But here we didn’t get to know,” she adds.
Though Chetan and Vijay, both dead, quit Navketan in the ’60s to set up their own banners, the studio has always been synonymous with the Anand trio. It has therefore irked many that the duo’s contribution was completely ignored at the
Delhi function.
Says Chetan’s son Ketan (after whom the banner was named) and who was in Delhi that day tending to his ailing mother: “I wouldn’t have gone anyway since I haven’t done much for the banner. Dev is the pillar behind it. But the fact that we didn’t even know about it hurts.”
{{/usCountry}}Says Chetan’s son Ketan (after whom the banner was named) and who was in Delhi that day tending to his ailing mother: “I wouldn’t have gone anyway since I haven’t done much for the banner. Dev is the pillar behind it. But the fact that we didn’t even know about it hurts.”
{{/usCountry}}Ketan’s mother Uma Anand co-wrote some Navketan hits like Humsafar and Taxi Driver with Vijay Anand, and is currently bed-ridden. When contacted, Dev Anand says, “Chetan and Goldie (Vijay) were very talented. We were a great team. But they left Navketan and couldn’t do much.
My best films were with Goldie but all the films he made without me, nobody knows them.”