Dadamuni remembered

Fighting against all odds, Chotisi Baat created a remarkable impact. The idea was to cash in on the success of Basu-da's earlier rom-com Rajniganda.

- Subhash K Jha

Basu Chatterjee's Chotisi Baat came in the most audacious year in the history of Hindi cinema. 1975 has gone down in the history of Indian cinema as the year of Sholay. It was also the year of Jai Santoshi Maa. The meager-budgeted mythological not only gave Sholay a run for its money—even outdoing the box-office collections of Ramesh Sippy's film in many centers—it gave to the masses a new God to worship. And that God was far more pervasive than Gabbar Singh. 1975 was also the year of a number of other blockbusters, mainly Dulal Guha's Pratiggya (Dharmendra and Hema Malini had two back-to-back hits in 1975), Yash Chopra's Deewaar, Brij Sadanah's Chori Mera Kaam, Sohanlal Kanwar's Sanyasi, and K.S. Sethumadhavan's Julie. Each of these created a box-office record of its own. And if Basu Chatterjee thought he was safe in the sweet-and-tender Uthey Sabke Kadam Dekho rom-com zone, in came his closest competitor Hrishikesh Mukherjee in the kingdom of courtship comedies with Chupke Chupke, softly nibbling away at Basu-da's fan base.

Fighting against all odds, Chotisi Baat created a remarkable impact. The idea was to cash in on the success of Basu-da's earlier rom-com Rajniganda. The same formula of the underdog stealing away the wholesome, giggly, office-going girl—who keeps confiding in her colleague (played by Nandita Thakur; hats off to the actress for just being cast as a good listener)—from under the nose of his cocky competitor in the courtship. Big-time producer B.R. Chopra invited Basu Chatterjee to make "another naughtier Rajniganda."