In the 1570s, a leading Brahmin of Mathura was alleged to have publicly abused Prophet Muhammad in the vilest words possible. After the Brahmin was arrested, Akbar himself instituted a commission of enquiry consisting of men like Abu'l Fazl and Raja Birbal to investigate the matter. In the investigation that followed, the guilt of the Brahmin was proved.
A section of the ulama wanted the death sentence, while another section argued that since the accused was a Zimmi (a protected non-Muslim in a Muslim state), only a heavy fine should be imposed as punishment. Akbar favoured the second view. He however left the matter to Sadr-us-sadr Abdun Nabi Khan, but categorically mentioned that the Brahmin was to be let off with only a lenient penalty.
Abdun Nabi Khan, being the orthodox man that he always was, ignored the imperial directive and had the Brahmin executed. Emperor Akbar was enraged. Shortly after this incident, in 1579, the emperor ordered Abdun Nabi Khan along with Abdullah Sultanpuri (another equally bigoted aalim) to proceed to Mecca and forbade them to return to India without permission.
Soon, the great rebellion of 1580 broke out: several disaffected nobles in Bengal and Bihar rose up in rebellion, and proclaimed Mirza Hakim as their emperor. The news of this insurrection reached Abdun Nabi Khan in Mecca. Rejoicing at the prospect of Akbar's ruination, he immediately set off for India.
But when he finally arrived in India, he found out that the rebellion was over, and Akbar was now more secure in his position than ever before. With all his hopes dashed, the elderly aalim was left completely to the mercy of the Mughal emperor.
Now, when Abu'l Fath Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar decided to be cruel, he could be very, very cruel. The elderly Abdun Nabi Khan was brought before the emperor, and Akbar struck him hard across his face. He was then handed over to the custody of Raja Todar Mal. With the Emperor's tacit permission, the troops guarding the Sheikh's prison were removed. A signal was presumably given by the authorities, upon which an angry Hindu mob burst into Abdun Nabi's prison and lynched him to death.
This is a rather lengthy article, so I will link it directly.
https://scroll.in/magazine/879049/the-story-of-my-mother-the-actress-who-was-almost-cast-as-anarkali-in-mughal-e-azam
A VHS tape was reported to carry some edited out footage of this, in the climax portions. Read this thread to know more.
“As Akbar refuses to grant Anakali's Mom's promissed wish, she goes to Jodha. Jodha agrees with her and takes a sword to half conscious Salim and asks him to fight for Anarkali and save her in time. Salim goes on horseback, struggles and is determined to get there, eventually stumbles and does not quite reach the burial site.”
The first Indian movie to earn INR 100/1000/2000+ crore (Adjusted for inflation) in history was released in 1960. Its record as India's highest grossing movie of all time hasn’t been broken in the last 6 decades. This Epic production was made for an unheard budget of INR 1 Crore in 1960 which is more than 100 crores adjusted for inflation in today’s date. It grossed more than INR 2,200 crores adjusted for inflation in India alone, a record which no Indian movie has ever come close to even in today’s global market.
Mughal-E-Azam (1960)
Directed by K Asif
Produced by Shapoorji Palonji
Starring - Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Madhubala
Written by K Asif, Kamal Amrohi and others
Music by Naushad
Budget/Box Office - Rs 1 Crore/Rs 11 Crore (INR 2,200 crore adjusted for inflation)
Awards - National Award and Filmfare Award for Best Film
IMDB Rating - 8.2/10
RT Rating - 91%
My Rating - 10/10
Mughal-E-Azam was based on the love story of Prince Salim, heir to Emperor of India, Akbar and Anarkali a court dancer and how he wages war against his father after he opposes their relationship. It was the first movie to cost more than 1 crore and sell more than 100 million tickets. It is the first black and white Hindi movie to be digitally colored and first Indian movie to be officially re-released. This is the only movie in history to feature India’s most treasured classical voice "Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan" at an astronomical cost of 50 times more than any singer of that era. A cost which even the highest paid actors were not earning for an entire movie. Everything in the movie was done at a grand scale whether it was golden shoes for the Prince, a set which took more than 2 years to make or a song with 100+ singers in the backup chorus.
The movie took 16 years to make. The director of the movie K Asif would only complete 2 movies in his lifetime and he would spend a third of his life creating his labour of love and life "Mughal-E-Azam". The work on the movie started with Chandra Mohan, Sapru and Nargis as the original cast in 1946 during British Raj. The movie would stall after Chandra Mohan’s death. Then Prithviraj Kapoor would get cast for the role of Akbar along with Dilip Kumar and his real life love interest Madhubala for the iconic roles of Salim and Anarkali. Dilip Kumar and Madhubala had a long love affair even though Madhubala’s father had declined Dilip Kumar’s marriage proposa
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HAHK(1994) enjoyed a footfall of 7,39,62,000. More than two decades later, Bahubali 2 with all its sequel-hype, massive investment, big publicity, good WOM, and wide+multilingual release received 5,25,22,000.
Mughal-E-Azam(1960) made ₹2000 crores on Indian box office (inflation adjusted). More than five decades later, Dangal with its massive release made ₹538.03 crore.
MCU tried every trick in the book to recreate Avatar's performance with Avengers : Endgame. Will the Indian market ever see that & what will it take? Can we, today, even begin to understand the cultural relevance and craze that these movies enjoyed?
^PS. ^The ^figures ^might ^be ^disputed ^when ^compared ^from ^different ^sources. ^The ^crux ^is ^the ^peaks ^& ^grandeur ^that ^these ^films ^achieved.
Many sources give this number, but I've never seen the calculations behind it. How much was the ticket price in 1960? Wikipedia shows it made 11 crore in 1960.
For it to make 2000 crore at modern ticket price, its ticket price would have to be 1/180 of the modern ticket price. So Mughal E Azam's ticket price in 1960 would have to be around 1 rupee or lower.
Assuming it is at Rs 2000 crore at modern ticket price, it'd have to have sold at least 100M tickets in 1960 (assuming modern ticket price to be Rs 200 on average). Indian population in 1960 was 450M, so 100M tickets (with rewatches of course ) doesn't seem implausible considering the movie was a must-see event.
Found this on wiki,
Principal photography for Mughal-e-Azam began in the early 1950s. Each sequence was reportedly filmed three times,as the film was being produced in Hindi/Urdu, Tamil, and English. The film was eventually dubbed in Tamil and released in 1961 as Akbar, but that version's commercial failure resulted in the abandonment of the planned English dubbing, for which British actors were considered .......... So it took more than a decade to shoot this movie so why can't we notice change in actors age? The consistency? I remember when jagga jasoos came, people were noticing Ranbir's age inconsistency. Did someone notice in mughal e azam?
Mughal-E-Azam Box Office: It has been 68 years since the release of Dilip Kumar and Prithviraj Kapoor ‘s Mughal-E-Azam, and no film till date has come close to the screenplay and picturization of this cult-classic, directed by K.Asif. In the recent years, Bollywood has made several period films, but none of them could match up with the perfection of the 1960’s epic saga of love.
Back then, when the directors were busy exploring various format of film making, and mainly stuck to the cinema that revolved around the lives of middle class people, K.Asif had the vision to make an epic period drama, Mughal-E-Azam.
When the concept of Visual Effects was not even introduced in totality in India, K.Asif visualized and shot a war sequence featuring 8000 troops, 2000 horses and 2000 camels. As a viewer, you will be bowled away with the way the director has shot the war sequence between Akbar (Prithviraj Kapoor) and Salim (Dilip Kumar). Mughal-E-Azam is rightly considered one of the most historic films to have been made in India, and the journey of making the film and the sweet story of success is mentioned here under:
· After getting inspired by a play set in the reign of Emperor Akbar, Mughal-E-Azam was conceptualized by K.Asif in 1944. He started working on the script and screenplay of the film and took approximately 2 years to lock the first cut of the complete screenplay. The shooting of the film started in 1946 with Chandra Mohan, D.K.Sapru and Nargis in lead, however it was stalled owing to the India-Pakistan Partition in 1947 as the producer of the film back then migrated to Pakistan. The principal photography of the film started yet again in early 50’s with Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Madhubala and the shooting of the film went on for nearly 9 years. Mughal-E-Azam holds the record for taking longest time to get made in history of Indian cinema.
· K.Asif had initially planned to make the movie in black and white, however after the introduction of colour technology in India in 1953-54, the director shot a the iconic song, Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya and a few other sequences of Sheesh Mahal in colour. Bowled away by the result, K.Asif wanted to scrap the entire film, and re-shoot it in colour format, however owing to pressure from producers and distributors, he couldn’t re-shoot the entire film. The movie was eventually released on 5th August 1960, with a few pivotal sequences in colour format, one of which was the Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya sequence fea
... keep reading on reddit ➡Both K. Asif and Naushad sahab approached ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan sahab inviting him to participate in the Mughal-E-Azam's soundtrack, but he refused, explaining that he disliked working in films.
Asif, adamant about the presence of ustad ji, asked him to name his fee. Khan sahab quoted a fee of ₹25,000 per song, at a time when Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar (the best paid playback singers of the time) charged ₹300–400 per song, thinking that Asif would send him away.
Instead, Asif agreed, and even gave Khan sahab a 50 per cent advance.Surprised and left with no excuse to turn down the offer, he finally accepted.
Khan sahab sang two songs, "Prem Jogan Ban Ke" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aob1I_Ifee0
and "Shubh Din Aayo" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WKwU4HNk_0
; both were included in the final version of the film and demonstrated the artist's vocal virtuosity.
In the era of the Khans, there are multiple blockbusters that earn 100s of crores every year. However the first Bollywood movie to earn 100 crore (Adjusted for inflation) in history was released in 1960. It became India's highest grossing movie of all time and hasn’t been toppled from that honor in the last 6 decades. This Epic production was made for an unheard budget of INR 1 Crore in 1960 which is more than 100 crores adjusted for inflation in today’s date. It grossed more than INR 2,200 crores adjusted for inflation in India alone, a record which no Indian movie has ever come close to even in today’s global market. One of the movies most iconic set took 2 years to make with a budget more than most movies of that era. This is the only movie in history to feature India’s most treasured classical voice at an astronomical cost of 50 times more than any singer of that era. A cost which even the highest paid actors were not earning for an entire movie. Another song from the movie used 100+ singers in the backup chorus. The leading actress of the movie fainted on the set due to exhaustion several times and the main actors suffered multiple injuries and blisters due to the trying conditions and heavy costumes. Each movie sequence was shot three times in Hindi, Tamil and English. The film’s famous battle scene used more than 6000 horses, camels, elephants and 8000 troups including real soldiers from the Indian Army, a number so huge that even a movie like Lord of the Ring could not recreate using CGI. The movie itself took 16 years to make. The day before its advance booking opened, more than 100,000 people showed up at Bombay’s 1,100 capacity Maratha Mandir Cinema to buy tickets. Fans stayed in the queue for days with their families bringing them food daily till they were finally be able to buy the tickets for the movie. The tickets were the most expensive sold till that time and were sold in dockets with photos and trivia of the movie. “Mughal-E-Azam” is Bollywood's Magnum Opus, a landmark movie by all standards.
The director of the movie K Asif would only complete 2 movies in his lifetime and he would spend a third of his life creating his labour of love and life "Mughal-E-Azam". The work on the movie started with Chandra Mohan, Sapru and Nargis as the original cast in 1946 during British Raj. Chandra Mohan would die during the initial years of the movie’s shooting stalling the movie till Prithviraj Kapoor would get cast for the role of Akbar. Asif would al
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