There was a time when Bollywood heroes used to do different films simultaneously and would shoot for five or six films in a day. No one wanted to complete one film at a time because they believed that if they focused on a single film and it flopped, they wouldn’t get another opportunity.
Govinda was particularly famous for doing multiple films at once. Actors used to handle 10 to 12 movies concurrently, and at one point, Govinda had actually signed as many as 70 films immediately after his debut.
During a conversation with ITMB Shows, when the host asked if there was any truth to the rumors that he had signed several films after tasting success, Govinda nodded and said, “I had 70 films.” When the interviewer asked if he meant he was working in all those films simultaneously, he clarified, “No, I had 70 films at one time.”
The actor explained that he couldn’t finish all of them and had to leave some. “Later on, 8-10 closed themselves, or maybe 5-6 did. Then 4-5 films I had to leave because of dates and scheduling,” Govinda added. He mentioned that juggling so many projects at once sometimes meant shooting for as many as five films in one day.
However, not many know which Bollywood actor started the trend of doing one film at a time. In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, filmmaker Sanjay Gupta revealed that it was Aamir Khan who initiated this trend.
“Woh time 2 se 3 saal lagte picture banane mein, kyunki ek ek hero 8-10 filme ek saath karte the. To kabhi aapko 10 din yahan milte the, 15 din baad 10 din wahan milte the. Oh concept jo tha, ek actor ek hi film karega, yeh sabse pehle Aamir Khan ne shuru kiya tha 90s mein. Woh ek hi film sign karte aur ek film unhone ki, aur hum sab ne bola yeah pagal hogaya hai, woh bahut bada kisa hogaya tha ke Aamir ek hi picture kar raha hai. Woh insecurity aise hote the ke agar picture flop ho gayi to kaam nahi milega,” he said.
Nowadays, actors focus on one film at a time and start working on the next project after completing the current one. However, some films take a few years to be completed.
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