Amitabh unveils Dev Anand's Romancing with Life

The autobiography of legendary film actor, director and producer Dev Anand, Romancing with Life, was launched by mega star Amitabh Bachchan in a glittering function in Mumbai on Thursday night

Speaking to the scribes, the evergreen hero thanked all those present saying his autobiography is for his fans and people from film fraternity.

"My book is now in their hands, they will enjoy it," he added.

Several personalities including Bachchan, Hema Malini and the Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh were present on this occasion.

Anand's autobiography was released by the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, on September 26, the birthday of both Singh and Dev Anand.

Dev Anand's autobiography Romancing With Life coming on Sep 26

Dev Anand's autobiography, Romancing with Life which is published by Penguin International, will be launched on his 85th birthday on September 26 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Race Course Road, New Delhi.

Sonia Gandhi would also join them during the celebration as the chief guest.

The book will be released the next day in Mumbai, followed by subsequent launches in Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. The launches will then ensue to Europe, US and Canada.

The London launch will be conducted by Tina Ambani as that's where Dev Anand made the film Des Pardes and launched Tina.

The quixotic Dev Saab, for the first time writes about his 62 years in Mumbai. His zest and enthusiasm is difficult to match. His Navketan still acts as a launching platform for many debutante actresses. The veteran actor continues to work, as he believes creativity does not die with age.

The guest list for the launch is endless, as he cordially invites the whole country for his book launch.

The 465 pages book also contains some 50 exclusive pictures of the actor, taken on different occasions. It took him almost three years to draw the book to a close.

Dev Anand accepts his love for Suraiya

The evergreen star of Hindi cinema Dev Anand, who has romanced numerous beautiful women on the screen, has rarely been heard of confessing about his real life love for his co-star Suraiya.

Dev Anand has now admitted to have loved her and has made a special mention of this in his forthcoming autobiography titled Romancing With Life.

"Yes. I loved Suraiya. I am not shying away from this fact. I want to tell everything what happened during those days in my autobiography. It was a very important chapter of my life as I was growing. I was young and in love for the first time," Dev Anand said.

With his eyes lit up and face glowing while speaking about his first love, who died single, Dev Anand said, "She was a big star. I was new. But I was also strong and sophisticated. I was educated, confident and was aware that I was going somewhere in life."

Dev Anand has numerous fond memories of his first love. One incident in particular is etched in his memory. "During the shooting of a song sequence in a lake, we were sitting on a boat, and she slipped. I jumped into the water to save her from drowning," he said.
In retrospection, the actor thinks the couple were destined to get separated.

"It is all in the book. Whatever has been said about my relationship with Suraiya is false. Readers will get the true picture after reading it," the actor said. Speaking from his own experience he said that emotions were important in life as it made one more matured. But career was also important to grow in life.

"One has to be on top. It has to be there on your mind. But for that one needs to make lot of sacrifices. Someday you have to break away from your loved ones against your wishes. You will be heart broken. But you have to bear the sorrow to grow and belong to the world," Dev Anand said.

Dev Anand's Hum Dono is coming..in colour!

Evergreen actor Dev Anand has started work on colouring his last black and white film Hum Dono that released in 1961.

Says the evergreen actor, “Hum Dono is a timeless classic. It is a recognized film and everybody knows about it. It is being coloured to recreate the magic.”

Hum Dono which was one of Dev Anand's most successful films was also nominated in the Berlin Film Festival in 1962. It is the only film where Dev Anand plays a double role.


Under his Navketan Films banner, Dev Anand along with Goldstone Media Ltd. has already started working on the colourization process. Goldstone Media Ltd. is a Hyderabad based company into the colorization business for the past 5-6 years.

The technicians behind this refurbished film claim that the coloured version of Hum Dono will be much superior to Mughal-e-Azam that was coloured in 2004 and Naya Daur which will be released soon. They are using enhanced technologies, reportedly the best in world today, to get optimum output. While the earlier films that were coloured only had around 16 to 32 colours in a frame, the technology used in Hum Dono will enable them to virtually align 65000 shades of colours in one single frame.

So confident are the makers that they will soon be giving out a demo to the media of a small portion of the film that they have already coloured by now. Dev Anand is equally positive and says, “Goldstone technicians know what they are doing. So they will handle any problem whatsoever”.

Dev Anand says no to Om Shanti Om

He might be 83 years old but even at this age, Dev Anand retains his attitude and style. As we all know by now that for her upcoming film, Om Shanti Om, Farah Khan shot a special song sequence with some of the biggest stars of Bollywood, who play themselves in the film.

Though some stars readily agreed and shot for the song, there were some who kept themselves away from this whole deal. Dev Anand is one actor who didn’t shoot for this film, but unlike some actors who gave weird excuses, Dev Anand stated honestly that he never does cameos.

It is said that Farah Khan was keen on having Dev Anand in the song, however, the actor declined the offer as he never does special appearances. Dev Anand says that, till date, he has always played lead roles and he does not wish to break his tradition by doing something like this. He therefore politely declined the offer, gave regards to Shah Rukh Khan and gave his best wishes to SRK and Farah for their film.

Coming to Dev Anand’s films, the man is currently busy planning next film titled Charge Sheet. The film is based on corruption in the Police department. The casting of the film is yet to be done.

Here is an evergreen song of Dev Saab from his movie Gambler..

Dev Anand’s new romance

For a creative person, every day is a new chapter. And nobody exemplifies this better than Indian cinema’s evergreen hero Dev Anand.

On the occasion of formally handing over the manuscript of his autobiography, temporarily titled ‘Romancing with Life’ to Udayan Mitra of Penguin Publishers, Anand said that the book contained some of the most precious moments of his cinematic and personal life.

Elaborating on the title of the book, Anand said, “Romance is not merely an equation shared between a man and a woman, but it encompasses the big and small facets of life.” He added, “This book is about Dev Anand as in the minds of people and in my own.”

Lawyer Mohan Diwan, Anand’s close friend, was also present at the occasion. Incidentally, Diwan has helped him edit the 83 years of his life into a book. Diwan said, “The book is an extremely interesting read which made me cry at times.”

Informing that he had dedicated the book to his friends and acquaintances, Anand added, “The book urges people to live life on their own terms.” Presently, Anand is working on two projects — an English film to be shot in Croatia and the Hindi film, ‘Chargesheet’, which is a murder story.

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‘Remakes show you lack creativity’

According to Ranjan Das Gupta from DNA India, Dev Anand is already on to his next film, ‘Where Heartbeats Are the Same’. “It is a 100-minute English film with an international cast. It is about a father-son conflict.”, Dev says. This is an Indo-Croatian venture and is a gift to his countless fans on his 60th anniversary in films.

Anand admits that his film, ‘Prime Minister’, was a mistake saying, “I targeted the multiplexes instead of cinema halls. That was a wrong decision. I should have improved the script at certain points. The film was bold and contemporary.”

He says one can never predict why a film is a hit or a flop. “Some of the most brilliant films in history were flops. But now, I will ensure that there is no lacuna in script and direction,” he explains. Dev believes in moving on. “The heroine in my new film is world class. I am busy with the rest of the casting,” he reveals.

In the meanwhile, his autobiography is ready and is with the publishers. He says, “I don’t want to reveal too much about it now. It will be out early next year. It covers my entire life span, India before and after Independence, my family, my films and people whom I have come across.”

Dev is against remakes. He says, “Why remake old classics? Why not attempt untouched themes? Remakes show you lack creativity.”

Dev Anand has yet another film lined up after ‘Where Heartbeats are the Same.’ He says, “I have a murder mystery, ‘Charge Sheet’ lined up next. It will be about corruption in the police force.” At 83, Dev Anand is obviously unstoppable.

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Dev Anand felicitated at IFFI

Actor Dev Anand, who completes six decades in the film industry this year, was felicitated for his contribution to Indian cinema at the 37th India International Film Festival in Goa.

His latest film Mr Prime Minister was screened at the festival on Saturday evening.

Although the film has bombed at the box office, the actor turned filmmaker remains unfazed.

He's busy working on his next film Chargesheet which will be shot in Croatia next summer.

During the felicitation, to the delight of the packed conference hall at the festival, Dev Anand shared anecdotes and answered every question put to him.

Be it on his past successes, recent failures or his love affair with the late Suraiya, the actor was very candid.

Often called the Gregory Peck of India, the actor explained on how and why the similarities between the two were drawn.

"They said I looked like him and I was happy because my girlfriend Suraiya liked him. But later I realized, oh God, its not me but he who looks like me," said Dev Anand.

Dev Anand is all set to add yet another feather to his illustrious cap, that of a writer - although he has been refrained from discussing what the book is about.

However, what the actor does say is that he has miles to go before he sleeps.