This Bollywood Movie Holds Guinness World Record For Longest Production Of A Hindi Film, Took Over 20 Years To Make, It’s Lead Actors And Director Died Before Release

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Not all movies have a smooth production process. While some shoot from start to finish, the fate of others is not so good. Actors have talked about how many of their projects would just run into a dead end due to lack of budget and other constraints. However, one Hindi movie surprisingly took over two decades to make and release and now holds the Guinness World Record For Longest Production Of A Bollywood Film.

According to Guinness World Record, Love And God (Qais Aur Laila), released in 1986, took more than 20 years to make after running into a series of difficulties, including the deaths of lead actor Guru Dutt in 1964 and director K Asif in 1971. Some reports claim that the movie released 23 years after it first went on the floors. Going by the timeline, it began production in the early 60s. The first hurdle came in the form of Dutt’s death in 1964, a year after the film began rolling. This came as a major jolt to the makers, halting production. A few years passed by and Asif revived Qais aur Laila by recasting Sanjeev Kumar in the movie in 1970. However, in 1971, Asif passed away, leaving the project unfinished and without a climax.

Fifteen years later, Asif’s senior widow Akhtar Asif decided to release the incomplete film with the help of producer-director-distributor KC Bokadia. In a few months, they managed to salvage some usable portions of the incomplete film from three different studios and pieced them together. This cut-paste incomplete version was finally released on 27 May 1986. By the time of the film’s release, its leading actor Sanjeev Kumar had also died in November 1985.

Before Qais And Laila, K Asif made the iconic movie Mughal-e-Azam with Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Madhubala. Released in 1960, it took over 14 years to make.