Today is the 110th birth anniversary of Bhagwan Dada Abhaji Palav. Bhagwan Dada was one of the great directors of the Indian film industry. When it comes to using body doubles for the first time in movies, credit goes to Bhagwan Dada alone. It was Bhagwan Dada who rained real notes for the shooting on the set. Furthermore, he is the same actor whose slap disfigured Lalita Pawar’s face, after which she had to play the villain for the rest of her life. Raj Kapoor used to call him the Michael Douglas of Indian cinema.
You must have heard the songs ‘Shola Jo Bhadke’ and ‘O Beta Ji, O Babu Ji’. These popular songs were recorded only on Bhagwan Dada. Bhagwan Dada started working in a textile factory after completing his fourth standard. He didn’t feel like studying, so he started going with his father, but he didn’t feel like it here either. He really liked working in movies. His friend Baburao Pehelwan fulfilled his hobby, Baburao was the person who got Bhagwan Dada to work in movies. His first film was ‘Bewafa Aashiq’. Bhagwan Dada was seen as an actor in this film. Although his mind was also in the direction. Therefore, he also acted in the 1938 film ‘Bahadur Kisan’ and also directed it. After which he also opened his own production house.
Bhagwan Dada used to do anything to keep the scenes real in his movies. In such a situation, he had to show the rain of notes in a movie scene. In such a situation, he had rained down real notes to make the scene look real.
Bhagwan Dada was the only actor whose slap spoiled Lalita Pawar’s face. Earlier, Lalita Pawar used to play the role of lead actress in movies, but due to slap from Bhagwan Dada in the movie scene, she fainted first. Later, when she saw her face, she too had deteriorated. After which she never appeared in the lead role.
Bhagwan Dada’s friend had a 25-room seaside bungalow in Juhu. Along with this, he also owned two bungalows in Mumbai. He was also very fond of cars. There were 7 cars in his garage. Every day he used to go to the set with a new car. Although this series was short-lived, there came a time when his films began to fail continuously. He wanted to do the movie ‘Haste Rehna’, in which he cast Kishore Kumar. This film was the dream project of Bhagwan Dada. For which he had mortgaged his bungalow and his cars, but Kishore Kumar’s tantrums did not allow the film to be completed. Due to which Bhagwan Dada had to sell his bungalow and cars. After which he switched to Chawl. If the Ganpati procession used to take place here, it would definitely stop near Bhagwan Dada’s house, the procession used to move forward only when Bhagwan Dada did his characteristic step.
Bhagwan Dada had become addicted to alcohol. It is said that thousands of bottles of liquor had been gathered in his house. February 4, 2002 was the day that Bhagwan Dada suffered a heart attack and said goodbye to the world. His body was found in his room. The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had also expressed interest in his death.