In the original scheme of things, Danny Denzongpa was supposed to play Gabbar,” reads the entry on Gabbar Singh in marketer and writer Diptakirti Chaudhuri’s The Bollywood Pocketbook Series (Hachette India; Rs 999). Film scriptwriter Salim Khan’s father Abdul Rashid Khan was a Deputy Inspector General of Central Provinces in pre-independence India and among the stories he told of Chambal’s dacoits to his son was of one named Gabbar Singh who would cut off the ears and noses of the policemen he captured, the name and gory details staying with the would-be screenwriter of one of Indian cinema’s most iconic films. “Every chapter starts with a story and often, it is a very obscure aspect of a popular story,” Chaudhuri tells us of his series, made up of four books dedicated to the 50 most iconic characters, dates, places and objects in Hindi cinema, its format a nod to the popular childhood game Name Place Animal Thing. Similarly, he cites, while most know of Dadasaheb Phalke making Raja Harishchandra, he was not the only one making films in India at that time, pointing to one Baburao Painter. He unlike Phalke who imported a camera, made his own, and was also involved in the first recorded instance of censorship in India.  

Amitabh Bachchan as Vijay Dinanath Chauhan in Agneepath where for the first time since Reshma Aur Shera, he didn’t speak in his signature baritone. He created a rasping voice modelled on that of Tamilian don Varadarajan Mudaliar