So, I was only 5 when I developed an affinity for movies. With only Doordarshan and its other Channel "DD Metro" [do you remember that other channel] on TV, there wasn't too many opportunities to watch movies.
Yes, occasionally we used to rent VHS [or VCR] and watch films like "Mohra" and sometimes English films like "Jurassic Park" but watching an English films was a rarity those days.
I belong to a small town and movies used to reach the movie theater here after a good 4-5 months of its release. However they have evolved with time and "first day first show" is a possibility for the fan-boys now. Some of them even installed the Dolby sound system. But since I haven't watched a film here in last 10 years so I can't comment on that. Anyways.
Sometimes when the theater owners could not win the rights of the latest film [I don't know how the cinema hall functions though], they used to show some old films that released a couple of years ago.
So, in 1995, when I was 6 years old, one day they announced on the loud speaker on the back of a Tempo Rickshaw that from the coming Friday, a film called "Saajan" will play on 4 shows everyday [they really used to do such announcements, if you remember].
I still remember glimpses of the day when I virtually forced my dad to take me to the theater so that I could watch 'SAAJAN' and when I did, I was starstruck after seeing Salman. A few months later, they were playing ANDAZ APNA APNA and I asked some elder brother of mine to take me to the theater, this time to watch Andaz Apna Apna. I used to be patient with other films, but didn't missed any of Salman's film till I was 15 or 16.
I am not a Salman Khan fan anymore but yes I was, I certainly was and even now I can see him on those No Logic Entertainment films he does. At least he is honest with what he promises.
In the next part, I will share what happened during the late 90s and the early 2000s and about my drift to English films.
-Amritt Rukhaiyaar
