What Took Raaj Kumar’s Ulfat Ki Nayee Manzilen 23 Years To Hit Cinemas –

We have heard how film productions come to an abrupt halt. At times, financial crunch is cited as the reason; on other times, disagreements between the cast becomes the reason a film’s shooting stops. One such incident once made headlines. The movie was Ulfat Ki Nayee Manzilen and it was released 23 years after it started filming. Let us delve into the details.

The star of the film was none other than the late Raaj Kumar, who was known to be quite stubborn when it came to his demands and preferences. The actor was formerly a sub-inspector in the police department and he carried forward the stern attitude of a cop to his acting profession as well. That is probably why he did not get along well with the producer of the film K Razdan, when Ulfat Ki Nayee Manzilen started filming way back in 1971.

Named Ulfat at that time, the film had Waheeda Rehman and Sadhana as female leads. But while filming, Raaj Kumar had a disagreement with Razdan regarding filming issues and refused to shoot. Everyone knew it was impossible to make the actor do something he did not want to and hence, the film was shelved for the time being.

In 1984, K Razdan gave the rights of the film to Hari Singh, who decided to revive the film and talked to Raaj Kumar about it, and he agreed. But both the actresses refused this time. Waheeda Rehman had already started playing elderly supporting roles and Sadhana had left films altogether. Raaj Kumar then managed to get hold of two duplicate actresses, shot with them and finished the film, though he was way past his prime. The film took another 10 years to release.

Raaj Kumar was sure of the film’s success but he did not realise that by the time the film, now called Ulfat ki Nayee Manzilen was released in 1994, his stardom had waned and trends and storytelling methods had changed drastically. The movie bombed at the box office and was taken out from many screens on the second day itself.