He had a very unremarkable career in Hindi films with two very dubious achievements which prompt me to write his story.
First he managed to give a bigger push to adoption of colour in Hindi films than any promotion by Kodak had come close to doing.
Second he managed to make movies with big stars while achieving less financial and critical success than anyone else with similar opportunities has managed to do before or since.
While Hargobind was working his dead-end job in Gaiety, brother Rajinder Krishan who had ambitions as a writer and poet gave up an even more dead-end clerical job in Shimla and moved to Bombay to try his luck in films. Starting with Janta in 1949, he would turn out to be one of the most prolific and most successful writer cum songwriters of Hindi cinema ever. Major early successes were a Suraiya and Motilal starrer Aaj Ki Raat for songs and dialogues, the popular-till-today Nagin and Albela for songs, and the song he wrote after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, Suno Suno Ae Duniawalo Bapu Ki Ye Amar Kahani.
A huge factor in his early success was his association with AVM. A V Meiyappan and others in Madras realised that one could sign on Rajinder Krishan and get a complete package of story, dialogue and songs. Casting recommendations and introductions to stars came as a bonus. In turn Rajinder Krishan learnt Tamil and ended up writing for 18 of AVM films. The Madras equation also made him something of a hero among the artists in Bombay. The fact that he won a Rs. 46 Lakhs jackpot horse racing did no harm either.
But he is only a facilitator in this story. Before long mutual need led to Hargobind moving from Gaiety in Shimla to Madras as a co-writer cum dialogue coach for films written by Rajinder Krishan. While many of the stars came from Bombay, some heroines and most of the supporting cast were local and needed help that the directors were not able to provide.
After a few years of this Hargobind decided that he had learnt enough about movie making to produce and direct films on his own. Family of wife and four kids in tow he moved to Bombay. he tied up with nephew Suraj Prakash who was similarly floating around learning film making and had made an inconsequential movie called Beti with Bhagwan and Ragini.
Between them they decided to aim big and remake in Hindi a successful Tamil film as co-producers and co-directors with emerging big stars Rajendra Kumar and Mala Sinha. K V Reddy who owned the rights was happy to hand them over on a handshake. Hargobind landed up at Rajendra Kumar's house with a bottle of scotch and no money but an unstated illusion of a home production with brother Rajinder Krishan. With Rajendra Kumar's consent, signing on Mala Sinha was no big deal. They were then doing the beyond bold for its time, Dhool Ka Phool together and were very fond of each other. Also playing a blind girl was on her bucket list.
The result was Patang, a moderate success. Made enough money and earned enough name to cause a rift between partners Hargobind and Suraj Prakash and they both went their separate ways.
Oops that is a long introduction to two very remarkable though dubious achievements.
The first of these is colour in films. In early 1960s Eastman Colour, easier to handle than Technicolour, was making inroads into Hindi cinema. Junglee was a monster hit in 1961, making Shammi Kapoor a bigger star and Saira Banu a huge huge success on debut. Unfortunately her second film was Hargobind's first solo venture Shadi, shoddily made and poorly shot.
Saira Banu's beauty queen image took a big beating and she declared, very boldly for a new comer, that she won't sign any more B&W films. And true to her word, she didn't. This made it very difficult for other, more established stars, to sign B&W films. Lo and behold B&W was on its way out!
Hargobind's second remarkable achievement was that few have produced films with stars like Manoj Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Saira Banu, Babita without making a single financial or critical success.
In 1973, having made enough personal wealth to retire in comfort, he called it a day.
