Long before a shirtless Salman Khan and a towel-shedding Ranbir Kapoor defined “chocolate boy” for Bollywood, a young Bengali actor embodied the term for Hindi film audiences in the 1960s.
Joy Mukerji, son of producer Sashadhar Mukerji, charmed the country with his handsome looks in romantic comedies and soon came to be compared with Hollywood’s golden-era “heartthrob” Rock Hudson.
On his 7th death anniversary, ThePrint takes a look at Mukerji’s meteoric rise to fame.
The boyish charm
Mukerji was born into a film family in Bombay on 24 February 1939. Apart from a studio baron father, his mother, Sati Devi, was the sister of actor-singer duo Ashok Kumar and Kishore Kumar.
At a time when “nepotism” wasn’t quite a talking point, Mukerji was served his debut film Love in Simla (1960) opposite another debutant, Sadhana, by his father, who produced the movie under his production house Filmalaya Studios. The hit romance drama pushed him and Sadhana into the limelight. A new generation of Indians who were growing up in a free India took an instant liking to Mukerji’s boyish charm.
Mukerji’s form-fitting suits gave a fresh sense of style minus the khadi kurtas and pajamas. Mukerji also showed off his fit body on screen — a first for the Hindi film industry.
Veteran actor Dilip Kumar once recalled how Mukerji’s father hired a wrestler to keep his son fit.
“For Joy’s physical fitness and part of his ‘gyming’, Mukerji sahab had hired a wrestler, a tough pleasant guy who knew his job well with oiled curly hair falling over his forehead. A wrestling ring was created a regular sand ‘akharda’ and it was the wrestler’s duty to see that Joy and his brothers take regular lessons from him… Joy had no option but to obey his father and I guess he knew what his father expected from him.”
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A known prankster
Several of Mukerji’s co-actors openly spoke of him as an absolute prankster on the set. His wife Neelam once revealed a mischief on the sets of Love in Simla which almost made Sadhana stop the shoot for the movie’s hit song, Haseenon Ki Sawari.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhEvIXWLOkQ
“The two were always squabbling and that day as the song blared from the speakers and director R.K. Nayyar shouted ‘action’, Joy let go off the handles, and the rickshaw, perched on an incline on Mall Road, started hurtling down with a screaming Sadhana. Unit members rushed to her rescue, but tall, well-built Joy was faster. Lunging forward he blocked the freefall, but Sadhana insisted he’d planned to kill her for mocking him earlier and refused to shoot. A telegram was dispatched to producer S Mukerji. He dashed across from Mumbai, convinced Sadhana to finish the song, monitoring Joy to ensure he didn’t do any more mischief,” Neelam told The Times of India in 2013.
Mukerji’s biggest success was Shagird (1967), produced by his uncle Subodh Mukerji. The comedy film starring Joy and Saira Banu saw the actor pull off his share of comic stunts off-camera too.
Banu told Daily Mail, “I enjoyed the friendly scuffles we would have. While filming Shagird in front of a nariyal paani kiosk in Juhu, he continuously distracted me by making faces while I was giving a shot. On top of it he kept teasing me, saying, ‘You are not doing it right.’ I drove straight to Subodh (Joy’s paternal uncle) Uncle’s house and declared I wouldn’t work with this ‘mad man’.”
He romanced several of Bollywood’s leading ladies of the time like Nutan, Nanda, Rajshree, Mala Sinha and others. His chemistry with them was immortalised through songs like ‘Aanchal Mein Saja Lena Kaliyan’, ‘Dil Ki Aawaz Bhi Sun’ and ‘Aap Yun Hi Agar’.
Mukerji acted in several hits like Ek Musafir Ek Hasina (1962), Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon (1963), Ziddi (1964), Door Ki Awaz (1964) and Love In Tokyo (1966).
But the actor had his share of issues that came along with the success.
“Many a time I have had to play a role in a manner distasteful to me. But I had to do it because the director wanted it,” Mukerji said in an interview in 1963.
In 1968, he set out to write, produce and direct Humsaya which is believed to have started his downslide.
After its failure, he had other projects that tanked and he had to “settle for B-Graders” in the 1970s.
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Love in Bombay debacle
In 1972, Mukerji intended Love in Bombay to complete the trilogy of Love in Simla and Love in Tokyo. But financial troubles meant the film couldn’t get a release despite having a Censor Board of Film Certification nod.
It finally saw the light 41 years after it was completed, a few days after his death in 2012.
“Though Joy is not alive to see the film, I am happy we were able to fulfil his dream. This effort is a tribute to everyone who worked on the film, particularly Joy, since I feel Love in Bombay turned out to be his waterloo,” Neelam told The Hindu.
Mukerji breathed his last on 9 March 2012 in Mumbai at the age of 73.