Anil Kapoor made his Bollywood debut with Woh Saat Din, a film produced by his brother, Boney Kapoor. At the time, both brothers were new to their respective fields, Anil as an actor and Boney as a producer. Before Woh Saat Din, Boney had produced just one film, Hum Paanch. In an old interview with Komal Nahta, Boney revealed how he struggled to buy the remake rights for Woh Saat Din, and how two of India’s most respected actors, Sanjeev Kumar and Shabana Azmi, came to his rescue.
Boney said, “Woh Saat Din was a remake of a Tamil film called Andha 7 Naatkal. And Bapu (who directed Hum Paanch) was remaking it in Telugu as Radha Kalyanam. So when Bapu went to see this film before remaking it in Telugu, I happened to be there and I saw the film. It was an incomplete film, only 80% of it was there, and I reacted very positively to the characterisation of Bhagyaraj. I got too excited that I decided I want to remake this film and I must buy the rights. Anil also got excited to do it.”
Boney Kapoor continued describing the intense competition to acquire the rights: “So I flew to Chennai. And every major actor and producer had their eyes on the film as Bhagyaraj was the biggest actor-director-producer of that time. There was a mad rush to acquire the rights of the film. So I was there for a month, and just 2–3 days before the release of Andha 7 Naatkal, the producer was short of a little money to repay the financier. Somebody convinced the producer that he would pay the buffer amount to the financier but they should give the remake rights to me. And that buffer was Rs 1,25,000. And that was a huge amount, and they needed it the next day. I didn’t have that much money, nor did I imagine it would be this costly.”
Disheartened, Boney returned to Mumbai, where fate intervened in the form of two compassionate colleagues on the sets of a film. “So Shabana asked me what happened. I said the rights I was waiting all along for will not be mine as he is asking Rs 1,25,000. So she told me, ‘Boney, I have Rs 25,000, you take it and see if it can be of any help.’” Soon after, Sanjeev Kumar also noticed Boney’s low spirits. “After pack-up, he came to me and asked why I was so dejected. I told him that this all has happened and I don’t think I’ll be able to get the rights. So he asked me to come to his room the next morning.”
What happened next left Boney Kapoor deeply moved.
“I was there in his room. He asked me to remove a pillow lying somewhere, and behind it there was some money lying. He told me, ‘This is Rs 1,25,000, take it and buy the rights immediately.’ This was that Sanjeev Kumar who was infamously termed as kanjoos (stingy). I told him that I will take time to return it and will only be able to return it in instalments, but he was like, ‘You first buy the rights, then we will see everything.’ So I used that money to buy the rights and returned the money that Shabana had given me.”
The rest, as they say, is history. Woh Saat Din went on to mark Anil Kapoor’s memorable entry into Bollywood. The film also starred Padmini Kolhapure, Naseeruddin Shah, and Satish Kaushik in pivotal roles, with music composed by the legendary duo Laxmikant–Pyarelal.
