Dev Anand was one of the biggest stars of his generation so when he wanted to launch his autobiography, it was expected that the stars would align perfectly. But, circumstances did not allow this as Amitabh Bachchan, who was a special guest at the book launch, left soon after he made an appearance on stage and didn’t stay for dinner or to take a copy of the book. And the next day, when Dev Anand went to Jalsa to meet Bachchan and hand over his copy of the book, he was made to wait at the gate of his residence for close to half an hour.
In a recent interview with Vickey Lalwani, Dev Anand’s close friend and associate Mohan Churiwala, recalled this incident from 2007 and shared that Amar Singh, who was a close friend of the Bachchan family in those days, had promised that he would bring the star to the book launch. So much so that he had volunteered for Bachchan’s presence at the event. “He asked, ‘Hum Amitabh ji ko bula lein?’ I said, ‘Bula lo’,” he recalled. Amar Singh promised that he would arrive with Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Ambani and Tina Ambani.
Amar Singh was associated with Samajwadi Party at the time, and Maharashtra was under Congress, with Vilasrao Deshmukh as the Chief Minister. Meanwhile, politician T Subbarami Reddy called Dev Anand’s team and said that he would be coming with Deshmukh. This bothered Amar Singh as he was not on good terms with Congress at the time. While Amar had promised that they would stay for dinner with Dev Anand, the same did not happen and even before the event could end, they left.
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“Dev saab wondered, ‘Did they feel bad about something?’” he shared. After a telephone call with Amar Singh, Mohan said that he would deliver the books meant for the Ambanis, Bachchan and Singh at Jalsa, but at the last minute, Dev Anand said that he would accompany him too.
“I reached Jalsa and I honked. The watchman came out, asked us about our visit and went inside. He didn’t come out for 15 minutes,” he recalled and said that in the meantime, he called Amar Singh, who took another 10 minutes to come out. “Dev saab said it has been a while. Why is it taking so long?” he asked. As they entered, Amar Singh was still in his night wear and was surprised to see Dev Anand as he didn’t know that the star would be accompanying Mohan. Amitabh Bachchan arrived in another 15 minutes as he was probably at the health club. “We sat there for a few minutes and had tea,” he said.
After Dev Anand’s death in 2011, Amar Singh revealed in a chat with Vir Sanghvi that Dev had to wait because he had to seek permission from Bachchan to allow a guest inside Jalsa. “In Vir Sanghvi’s interview, he said that if he had to call any guest, he had to take permission from the Bachchans,” Mohan recalled and added, “I was glad that this came out after Dev saab’s death. Or else, if he heard about this that someone had to ask for permission to allow him in, he would have felt very bad.”
