Did you know Gulzar once missed the chance to work with Satyajit Ray?

In 1977 Satyajit Ray made his first

Hindi

film ‘

Shatranj Ke Khilari

’ considered his most ambitious project having an ensemble cast including Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, Saeed Jaffrey, Shabana Azmi, Farida Jalal,

Faroq Sheikh

and others. After ‘Shatranj Ke Khilari’, ‘Sadgati’ in 1981 was Ray’s second only Hindi film. But how many of you know poet and acclaimed filmmaker Gulzar closely missed an opportunity to work with the auteur?

During a media interaction, the ‘Aandhi’ director had once revealed this almost forgotten fact. “In 1975 I heard Ray was making Shatranj Ke Khilari, so I met him and urged Ray whether I can write the script for the film as it’s a unique subject. However, Ray politely turned me down in his rich baritone. I was sad to hear that he had already committed the script to someone else,” recalled Gulzar.
Gulzar, touted to be one of the finest filmmakers and poets in India also added this was the second lost opportunity to work with Satyajit Ray. I had earlier started working on the script for the Hindi version of

Goopy Byne Bagha Byne

(1969). But, Ray shelved the project reportedly after fallout with the producer.