Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra minces no words, not even in front of India’s President or ministers. The director has revealed that when he got his first National Award right at the start of his career, he was promised Rs 4,000 cash prize but was handed over a postal order, which could be cashed only after seven years.
Chopra won the prestigious award for his 1976 film Murder at Monkey Hill. The filmmaker said he was in need of money and was thrilled that he had landed himself that cash prize. Things however didn’t go as planned when he went on stage.
“Mr LK Advani was the Information & Broadcasting Minister. The President gave me the medal and the envelope, and I was more interested in money, because I was very poor. I saw the envelope was very thin, I realised there is no way it would have Rs 4,000. On stage in Vigyan Bhavan, I tore the envelope. I took the cheque out. It said, ‘Postal order encashable after seven years.’
“I stood there and mumbled, ‘Sir ye toh postal order hai?’ He said, ‘Ha toh aapko saath saalo baat 10,000-12,000 mil jayege.’ But I said sir I was promised Rs 4,000 in cash!” the filmmaker said in a video posted by Kellogg School of Management.
Chopra said Advani kept saying, “Ho jayega ho jayega” as he wanted him off the stage, but he refused to budge. The filmmaker laughed and said, “I told him this was a cash award and I want it now. Then the President got involved. He didn’t know English very well, I told him that I was promised Rs 4,000 in cash! Then Mr Advani got angry. He said, ‘ok, if you want cash, come tomorrow morning at Shastri Bhawan, you will get it.’ I knew he was very angry with me.
“There was just three of us, and I told the President that Mr Advani has promised but can I call you if he doesn’t? The President then assured me that Mr Advani will give me the amount. So next day, at 11 AM I went to his office, I walked in, there was a big table and a very angry man. He pushed the phone and asked me to call my father. He said, ‘I want to ask him, ye Bharat ka bhavishya dekh raha hu main?! This National Award winner, in front of the President, is asking me about Rs 4,000? Ye hai Bharat ka bhavishya?‘ He was very angry!”
It wasn’t the end of the chapter between him and LK Advani, as the filmmaker revealed he met the minister again when his film An Encounter with Faces bagged an Oscar nomination. Chopra said he made the documentary for NFDC for money but didn’t have any funds to travel to Los Angeles for the ceremony.
“So I took a train and went to Mr Advani. He was I&B Minister. When I broke the news, he was happy, and then I told him that I don’t have any money. Then he arranged a passport for me which I got without police verification, which was valid for six months. Then he gave me a free Air India ticket, to Los Angeles and back, and gave me $20 a day, all that from Government of India,” he recalled.
The filmmaker made a smashing return to form last year with Vikrant Massey starrer drama 12th Fail, which emerged as the surprise hit of the industry.
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