Joy Mukherjee

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A spoiled brat, who rebuffed punishment from his teachers! Joy Mukherjee being the son of famous filmmaker S.Mukherjee was a pampered child. He was such a spoiled brat that he never took punishment. Teachers at Sacred Heart Boys’ School (Boarding School in Dehradun) where he studied reveal that he rebuffed from taking any punishment. When teachers made complaint he would not be afraid of his father too! The only person he feared was his mother and never uttered a word when she scolded or beat him! At St. Xavier College in Mumbai he was less in class and more at cinema halls watching matinee shows with his friends. He loved sports and enjoyed boxing, wrestling and football. At college, he took up tennis. Every night he would party and come late at night. His life was aimless.

Joy Mukherjee and his wife Neelam were made for each other Since Joy Mukherjee’s family is mostly into films hence he wanted to marry a girl from the film industry so that they could understand each other. In the late 60’s Joy met Neelam, a beautiful girl educated in England and an actress in Bollywood. She also directed Joy Mukherjee in the films Shekhar Mera Naam and Shesha Drushti. They had a very romantic and a successful married life. When Joy made his most ambitious film Love in Bombay he was left bankrupt and as many as 37 cases of insolvency were lodged against him. In this financial crisis when everybody left Joy Mukherjee in darkness, it was just his wife Neelam, who stood by his side. In fact when Joy expired in 2012, Neelam released his husband’s dream film Love in Bombay after 40’s years of its making!

Joy Mukherjee became actor accidently Assistant film director R.K. Nayyar who had been working for S Mukherjee’s film production once narrated a romantic story that he had written for Mukherjee Banner. The script was a novel love story of an ugly girl, who is discarded by the hero and how she compels the hero to marry her after she transforms her repulsive looks into an attractive and gorgeous woman. After reading the story S Mukherjee felt the script demanded a new girl. Hence he launched hunt for a new heroine. While the hunt was on; one day Joy Mukherjee saw a picture of a young beautiful girl in the filmy weekly newspaper Screen and immediately called the girl to meet him. The girl was Sadhana. She was finalized and Dharmendra was finalized as the hero but when the film shooting was to commence Dharmendra got busy with other assignment! Shooting had to be postponed and hunt for new hero began when one day R.K. Nayyar was discussing the songs of the film with the seniorMukherjee at his house he saw Joy Mukherjee and was dazed by his charming personality and exclaimed – We have got the hero! Thus Joy Mukherjee got his debut film in his father’s home production! The film was Love in Simla. It was the directorial debut of brilliant filmmaker R.K. Nayyar. The movie was a huge hit! An ugly taunt made Joy Mukherjee an actor! Since Joy Mukherjee was selected accidently for the film hence he was not much interested in the film. Also he was just 20 year old hence he was more interested in enjoying life than be serious! As a result on the first day of the shoot he had to face bitter humiliation from the film crew as he was not able to deliver his shots correctly. In an interview Joy confessed, “I had given around 10 re-takes and yet I was not able to deliver the right shot as per the director Nayyar Sahab demand. Cut after cuts, I was frustrated and took a break.” “When I was sipping coke I heard somebody from the crew whispering “Arre S. Mukherjee ka bêta hai. Jitna re-takes dena hai do. Kaun unko star banese rokh sakta hai! (He is son of S. Mukherjee. He can give as many re-takes. Nobody can stop him from becoming a star!). Hearing this taunt I was shaken and pledged to work hard and give my best. Next day I tight lipped everybody,” he added. Joy Mukherjee becomes a star! After the mega success of Love in Simla, Joy Mukherjee’s next film Hum Hindustani (1960) opposite versatile actor Sunil Dutt was released and was an instant hit. Two years later all his three films released Ek Musafir Ek Hasina (1962), Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon (1963) and Ziddi (1964) were super hit and Joy Mukherjee was became the most sought after star! Joy Mukherjee had the opportunity to star with maximum top heroines of the 60’s like Vyjayanthimala in Ishaara; Saira Banu in Shagird; Mala Sinha in Humsaya; Sharmila Tagore in Dil Aur Mohabbat, Sadhana Ek Musafir Ek Hasina. In fact with Asha Parekh he did four hit films Hum Hindustani, Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon, Ziddi and Love In Tokyo and all of them were super-hits