In Pictures: How Feroz Khan was different from his contemporaries

The pioneer of disco revolution in Indian cinema

Feroz Khan’s heavy influence from western music was one of the prime reasons of him pioneering the disco revolution in Indian cinema when he introduced Indian-British composer Biddu and Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan with the magical track ‘Aap Jaisa Koi’ from his film ‘Qurbani’. This was the first time a Pakistani singer sang for an Indian film. The popularity of this track made Nazia Hassan an overnight sensation and she turned out to be the youngest recipient of winning a Filmfare Award for Best Female playback singer at the age of 15.

His craze for car races

As stated by Feroz Khan in one of his interviews given for his last directorial ‘Janasheen’, he loved speed and considered it as an integral part of his nature. This was the reason behind the fascination for different types of races shot in his films. His debut film as a director, ‘Apradh’ had the opening credits rolled over a formula four race shot in Germany whereas ‘Janasheen’ introduced Super Bike Championship on the big screens for Indian audiences. Apart from these, his film ‘Dharmatma’ also featured some brilliant aerial shots of a sport named Buzkashi which later on were seen again in films like ‘Khuda Gawah’ and ‘Kabul Express’.

A keen eye for fresh talent

Feroz Khan had an eye for talent due to which he could be credited for bringing more prominence to actors like Amrish Puri and Shakti Kapoor whom he cast for playing negative roles in his film ‘Qurbani’ and later they went on to give some more memorable performances in Bollywood through their villainous act. Same could be said for Indian-British musician Biddu whom he had approached to compose a solo song for ‘Qurbani’ after he had heard the latter’s orchestra album titled ‘Blue Eyed Soul’. Apparently, many music directors from the industry and even his frequent collaborator composer duo Kalyanji Anandji had warned him not to sign Biddu, but Feroz Khan never had any second thoughts on his music and therefore a magical number like ‘Aap Jaisa Koi’ was created.

Destroyed a Mercedes for a perfect scene!

Feroz Khan always followed the principle of no-compromise when it came to making even a single scene look authentic and engaging. One such was the car parking lot scene in his most iconic film ‘Qurbani’, where his character Rajesh was introduced in the movie. According to this scene Feroz Khan purposely loses a bet to actor Amrish Puri and the bet is to drive a Mercedes car. In the year 1979, it was rare to even see a Mercedes on the streets of Mumbai, but Feroz Khan smashed up a brand new one as nothing could stop him to execute this scene with that perfection.

A genius of a filmmaker

Feroz Khan had debuted as a director with the 1972 released ‘Apradh’ but his turning point as a filmmaker came with his second movie ‘Dharmatma’. This was the first Indian film to be shot in Afghanistan. Taking its inspiration from American crime drama film ‘The Godafther’, this film certainly took Feroz Khan to new heights as a filmmaker.