‘Black’ featuring Rani Mukerji and Amitabh Bachchan in the lead roles, received global acclaim and was hailed as one of twenty five Bollywood must-see films.
The film inspired by a Hollywood film, The Miracle Worker depicted the story of a blind and a mute girl and her relationship with her teacher, who himself develops Alzheimer’s at a later stage. Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the film went on achieve an iconic status and was screened at several international film festivals. The film grossed close to Rs. 22.5 crore at the box office.
Take a sneak peek at some of the interesting facts of the film:
Sanjay Leela Bhansali was inspired to make the film after he read Helen Keller’s autobiography and visited the Helen Keller Institute for research. He also read the autobiography of deaf-mute pianist Geraldine Lawhorn for ideas.
Rani Mukerji initially turned down the role of Michelle McNally, as she thought she could prepare herself for the role.
She wore deep tinted contact lenses to hide her light green eyes!
Amitabh Bachchan watched documentaries to prepare for his role.
He and Rani both studied sign language and Braille for 7 months.
The film was largely shot in Shimla and Mumbai.
A fire broke out on the sets in Mumbai that destroyed costumes and props and everything had to be rebuilt again.
Zamir Dhale, who was blind and deaf was constantly around while the film was being shot. He helped Rani Mukerji and Amitabh Bachchan to understand the world of the blind and the deaf. He also taught how to communicate with such people through sign language.
While shooting a sequence in Shimla that required snow fall, there was no snow. So bags of salt and snow making machines were brought in from Mumbai to create a snowy landscape.
