Vanity vans aren't any more exclusive in Bollywood, says Amitabh Bachchan, revealing that they was first introduced by Mahmohan Desai. The megastar added that the late filmmaker gifted him one too.
“At the studios these days, the biggest space is taken up by the shallowness vans for artists, talent, directors, writers .. It was never like this in our time… ok .. like earlier days! There have been make up rooms in the event you were important enough, sharing an office space with two others in case you had just started off, and did your changing and make up within the production bus that transported the workers and crew .. Now and then for an all night shoot, you simply dozed off at the floor of the set… getting a room was a luxury,” wrote Big B on his blog.
“But Manmohan Desai, the master, was different. He had a back problem and had to lie down as he travelled to the sets, so he built himself a van where a bed may well be placed and post a television set inside, something that was unheard of, and wait put a mirror in the back of the sleeping area, to look at the television lying the other way round !! Why so ? Because he said the imagery is healthier when it reflects off a mirror !!! Its laterally inverted but so what he would say ! After which within a couple of days presented me with one,”
Amitabh says that during those days the vans used to have few basic facilities.
“It was not what vanity vans are like today. It had a bed, a bathroom, and seating with a fold out table on one among them. I installed a pull out make up tray with mirror, to do my make up in there and desperately tried to mend a music system within. It took several pioneering efforts so to achieve that, but finally all of it came around, and since I had a general license for it, I moved across the city in it.
“Gave me privacy. Gave me a bed to rest on for the hour long drives and a ready wash room ! Ecstasy and enjoyment!! Ok so lying at the bed during movement was somewhat arduous at every bump or turn, you slid off to the ground. Nothing I MAY do about it. However the great innovator Mr Man Mohan Desai did have an answer. Seat belts that strapped him up as he lay !! Now and then it seemed like contraptions used to pin down a violent patient in hospitals,” wrote Amitabh.
Desai had teamed up with Big B in hits like “Mard”, “Coolie”, “Naseeb”, “Suhaag”, “Parvarish” and “Amar Akbar Anthony” – IANS
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