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In search of stardom

Sabrina in Main Solah Baras Ki. Click for bigger pic!

So, finally Dev Anand's Main Solah Baras Ki is all set for release.

The film which has been extensively shot in Scotland, Ladakh, and Rajasthan, including the famous Ajmer Sharif, has shaped up well. The rushes of the film suggest that his venture is much better than his earlier production Gangster where several scenes were even out of focus.

The highlight of the film is Dev Anand playing himself. And yes, as usual, he is introducing a fresh face n this film called Sabrina opposite Jas Arora.

When he had just finished Gangster, Dev Anand has said his next film would be based on his experiences in the USA and Canada when he went there for the premieres of his film. That is just what happened.

A girl kept following him around hoping to be given a chance in movies herself.

"She was a sixteen-year-old. I was moving from city to city where felicitation programmes were being organised for me by the Asians there. And here was this little girl who kept calling me and following me relentlessly. I was intrigued by this little girl's overwhelming interest in a star who did not belong to her generation at all.

"I met her and asked a few questions, and she confessed that she wanted to be a film star. She had read and heard that Dev Anand casts new faces in his films and they went on to become great movie stars."

This wasn't the first time Dev Anand has such an experience. For many youngsters still walk into Anand, his theatre-cum-office complex in Bandra, seeking a meeting with him.

Jas Arora. Click for bigger pic!

"People tend to assume that Dev Anand is inaccessible, but it is not like that. I meet people who come here from faraway places to have a word with me or have a photograph clicked with me. But this girl from the USA set me thinking. I couldn't promise her a film because she was not star material. She did not have the potential to become a heroine. Yet her story about leaving home to fulfil an ambition enraptured me," he says.

And that is the story. He makes the heroine a star. The girl undergoes all the transformation that new entrants in filmdom go through, but plunges into an emotional crisis around the time she makes it big.

But movies about film stars or people about them have never succeeded, notable among them being Kagaz Ke Phool, Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayee and Saaz.

But Dev Anand is confident that Sabrina, his new find, is so charming and spontaneous, that she can take care of any reservations the audiences may have.

"Stories spin off just like that in my mind," he says, beyond modesty. "I have often asked myself questions about Dev Anand the star. At times I am amazed by the following I have. So I said to myself , 'Why don't I present myself before the people who care for me as myself ?'"

So the film plays attention to his characteristic gait, his twisted smile, his fetish for scarves and caps, the closed top button of his shirt, the preference for one shirt over the other...

"I have tried out an experiment. Let us see how it works out. But then I make movies for myself. To satisfy me. It is my money. When I finish one film, I move on to another..."

He talks on enthusiastically. Forever sixteen.