Decades in the making, K Asif’s all-time blockbuster Mughal-e-Azam (1960) would have lumbered on incomplete were it not for an inspired financial bailout by the Mumbai tycoon Shapoorji Pallonji, grandfather of Shapoor and Cyrus Mistry. Mr Pallonji wasn’t into film production; he was only interested in Emperor Akbar. The epic hasn’t stopped being a money-spinner since, including a dazzling colour re-release in 2004. Financially profitable or not, it remains the $5 billion Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) conglomerate’s most valuable cultural asset.
In contrast, theatre director Feroz Abbas Khan’s stage musical of the movie took two-and-a-half months to be readied. “When Feroz came
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