by: Sushama

In a way, it was because of drugs that Zeenat Aman became a star and Dev Anand's career got a new lease of life. Hare Rama Hare Krishna, the smash hit of 1972 was a hit because it dealt with the 'in' topic of the day - drugs. And it was because of drugs that Zeenat and Dev missed the Hollywood bus, I mean airplane.

Before HRHK was released, a small film-maker from Philippines decided to make an English film with Indian stars. The lead players were Filipinos but in the second lead were Dev and Zee babe. The shoot was carried out in the pink cities of Rajasthan and the arrangement was that when the picture was ready, the producer would take the exposed negatives with him to Hollywood where 20th Century Fox had agreed to distribute it.Only if the maker had concentrated on the film, Dev and Zeenat might have hit the international scene much before anybody else, starting a healthy trend probably. But half-way through, he lost interest in the film. May be because he learnt that it was very easy to resource opium and hashish in India and if he could manage to sell the same abroad, the profits that he could make would be many fold when compared to what that film could fetch.

Anyway that film was completed and the film-maker left India with the cans containing the exposed negatives. Only, according to a tip off that came too late, there were packets of opium and hashish nestling with the reels of film in the cans. The unsuspecting customs authorities let the man go. It was only much later that they realized what had slipped through their hands! Eventually the film was released all over the world only to flop. It was never screened in India as the censors objected to the 'too much' scenes of Zeenat. However, since then export of exposed negatives has been banned. Only processed negatives which can be inspected are allowed through.

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