Redefining Ravanas

Gurnaaz Kaur

A hero is a hero only if there is a villain. There are innumerable books and biographies on Bollywood heroes, but hardly any anecdotes on the industry’s villains. A fact that led to Fazle Ghufran’s research into the subject and finally came up with a book called Main Hoon Khalnayak. 

Published by Yash Publications, this one has identified and narrated the stories of more than 100 antagonists of Bollywood from year 1913 till 2018. “In these hundred golden years of Bollywood, we have seen many legends playing negative roles with utmost sincerity. I feel it’s they who make heroes worthy of being noticed and this made me write about them,” Fazle tells. The book includes Pran, Amrish Puri, Prem Chopra, Amjad Khan, Ajit, Ranjit, Gulshan Grover and many more who dedicated their entire lives playing negative roles. It also has stories of 10 women vamps. This author believes the antagonists not only reflect the cons of our society but also help us learn many aspects of life.

“This is my endeavour towards projecting the real learning from these reel-life villains. They are real gems who took upon themselves to portray negative, conflicting situations on the big screen and educated us what to be and what not to be. I am of the opinion that they definitely deserve our admiration and respect for taking up such a job.” Fazle explains. 

He says while putting Main Hoon Khalnayak together, he also stumbled upon a truth that every person has his own interpretation of an antagonist or a protagonist. There are many similarities as well as dissimilarities between these two. “But the real dilemma lies in defining the parameters to identify a villain. Analysing all these years of Indian cinema, my understanding is that a villain is someone who doesn’t abide by the ethics and morals of a society, doesn’t follow its law. Realising the importance of a villain in the storyline is very important.” 

He further poses a pertinent question when he says, “Can you imagine Lord Rama to be as magnificent if Ravana wasn’t there? An antagonist is therefore as important as a protagonist.” Fazle, an entertainment reporter for 20 years, spent a year in collecting information for this book. He claims this book has details that no internet site or Wikipedia page can provide. 

Add to that, “In fact, many of the names that I’ve included, you won’t find them on Wikipedia. I contacted many artistes who then helped me get in touch with many others. A lot of information on the Internet about them is wrong. To make sure I didn’t give any incorrect detail, I would send them the rough drafts and they would make corrections. My experience is they are even better than heroes, so down-to-earth and helpful.”

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