30 Years Of Hum…Aapke Hain Koun, Anupam Kher Remembers When He Got Facial Paralysis

Sooraj Barjatya’s Hum…Aapke Hain Koun was not all fun and games. At least not for Anupam Kher. The actor recalls, “It was during that pass-the -pillow. The shooting of that was about to start. It was the first day and I woke up to the twisted mouth I had no idea. The previous night Anil Kapoor’s wife Sunita during a dinner at their home, told me that you are not blinking from one eye .She told me to go to a doctor a neuro-specialist at that time in Bombay Hospital and when I went to doctor he started medication and told me to stop all work-related activity for two months.Yes, that was the first day of this twenty-day schedule , the set was erected all the cast was there and everything. After the doctor’s diagnosis, I came out sat in the car and I thought if I go home and rest for two months and don’t shoot, that means a complete defeat.So I went to to the studio .Everyone on the set thought I was doing some comedy with my mouth twisted and all .So I told Sooraj about my facial paralysis and the doctor had asked me to take rest. Sooraj said to take rest,that we can do the sequence later.I said no no absolutely not. I wanted to be a part of the shooting.That’s why they gave me that Dharmendra’s drunken suicide scene monologue from Sholay to perform in the pass-the-pillow scene. It was not possible for me to play straight drunk in a Rajshri film, so they gave me a part as drunken man.

Hum…Aapke Hain Koun has not only been THE blockbuster of Anupam’s life it has also given him a philosophy of life. “Know your own fears and conquer them. Just recently I was shooting in Hyderabad and a young assistant came to me to say my story gave him so much of courage.In today’s time people are so paranoid and rightly this I am damn. If actors get a small pimple then they cancel the shooting But here my face became completely crooked. And about 3 to 6 months later I had asked the doctor how will I know that I recover fully.He said, try whistling. When you can whistle,you have recovered. Even now as a habit I whistle every morning.”

Defining the importance of Hum…Aapke Hain Koun to his life and career Anupam says, “Rajshri Productions is my parent company.They gave me my first break Saaraansh .Hum…Aapke Hain Koun is a cult film. Cult films are usually a little dark, over the years people start liking it. But this one was an immediate hit.It changed the way NRIs do weddings, it gave a direction to wedding of middleclass India. And unbelievable song, beautiful song. I liked those songs because in foreign countries when we watch musicals in foreign movies, La La Land or whatever, we celebrate the musical genre.This was the first musical of ours.They completed it in one year. They took the dates of all artistes for one year.So t there was no stress that I have to do this, I have to do that.Sooraj is very genuinely a nice person . Working in his films is like being in a temple.Hum…Aapke Hain Koun is not a film.It is an emotion. There were no artificial emotions .It was just pure happiness.Very simple musical celebration of middleclass joys.First big blockbuster biggest if not the biggest in the history of Indian cinema . But definitely one of them. We are talking about 1994 when the economy was something else.I remember when its previews were held,I came out and I told Raj Babu(Sooraj Barjatya’s father Raj Kumar Barjatya), ‘This movie will be so popular that there will be a lathi charge in front of theatres.’ I had said this. Before the release, it was before the release, yes, yes, they did a preview for the cast and I had told them that this film will not come down from the cinema halls. When it was premiered in Liberty, their reaction was it is a wedding video or whatever, there is no plot, there is nothing.It was like this and then suddenly after release in Jaipur lathicharge happened.”