Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

While the industry celebrates with panache the Friendship Day, and reams are written about the value of friendship, the operative part has a thin veneer. It does not have the solidity of relationships in the same proportion as it happens in the real life. A live example of this kind is Sanjay Dutt. Right from the time when he was undergoing drug de-addiction to the present times when he is out on bail he finds that his friendships keep on waxing and waning like that of moon and does not have a consistency. Few like Mahesh Bhatt have stuck their neck out to support him through the entire thick and thin.

Friendship had its applicability in the older times and the most celebrated example of the ''friendship in the film fraternity ''is that of Dev Anand and Sachin Dev Burman. When Dev Anand was making GUIDE Sachin Da had fallen ill, and there was a very little chance that he would stand on his legs once again. Sachin Da requested Dev Anand to take another music director, but Dev Anand said, he would wait for him. For six months the set stood in the studio, but the film started again only when Burman Da was back, and GUIDE's music still has the reach, which transcended the gap of generations. The moot point was that the commercial interest to the extent of suffering a loss was never given prominence for the sake of friendship. Raj Kapoor could be considered the brand icon that lived and died for friendship. It would be difficult to find a director who would make a film to try to bail out his friend, but Raj Kapoor was such a friend who made TEESRI KASAM for his friend Shailendra. The examples of these kinds abound more from the past than from the present times. But could it be owing to the fact that the rank of friendship was not from the same file i.e. between an actor and an actor or a producer and a producer. It was between people from different genres, but they all had a common meeting ground of creativity.

In the present times the overriding consideration seems to be the commercial interest. Should it be given precedence? It would indeed be a tough task to gloss it over as the scale of financial stakes that are involved make it the over riding consideration than anything else. It could be because of this reason that the friendship has to be sacrificed at the altar of commercial interest. When stars like Salman and Shah Rukh can fight at a party and can further accentuate it during the course of reconciliatory initiatives, then friendship does not have the fragrance. It cannot be smelt like a rose for new dose of revitalization.

It indeed is rather peculiar that an industry, which makes such celebrated films on friendship like DOSTI, DOSTANA etc., and would have one of the largest oeuvre of music devoted to friendship does not value the notion of its essence in its true sense of terms. The hope could be in the present generation which views and gives friendship great respect and value, and may be few years down the line we would see successful examples of friendship to be quoted and cited as references.


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