When Madhubala, her father sued BR Chopra for Dilip Kumar’s Naya Daur; director said ‘things went horribly wrong’

In a 1997 interview with Sharmila Taliculam, BR Chopra, who had studied to be a lawyer before entering films, had spoken about this phase in his career and said that Madhubala was a “fine person” but in the case of this film, “things went badly wrong.” “For my film, she did about ten days of work and then her father refused to allow her to go outdoors for the rest of the shoot – I was never sure why. So we took Vyjayanthimala for the role and her father filed a suit against us,” he said.

The judge asked the filmmaker if the film could be shot indoors, and BR Chopra refused as the film required extensive shooting in the village surroundings. BR Chopra won the case and later Madhubala apologised to him. “Madhubala did come to my house to apologise and say she was really helpless, but that’s okay. I have no complaints,” he recalled.

Dilip Kumar, who was the lead hero of the film, had also written about the incident in his memoir Dilip Kumar: The Substance and the Shadow. The Mughal-e-Azam couple’s real-life break-up was all over the tabloids during this time and many perceived that Madhubala’s exit from the film was the doing of Dilip Kumar. It was implied that he had gotten her replaced but the actor wrote that this was not the case.

“Much of what appeared in the media was misreporting by gossip writers who twisted and twirled facts to make them palatable to readers. I took it all in my stride, though it caused anger and pain at times when I was made to appear as if I had got Madhu out of the film while the truth was that her father pulled her out of the project to demonstrate his authority,” he wrote.