This film was based on iconic love story, actors and director died midway, was released incomplete 23 years later

After the 1960 epic historical drama Mughal-e-Azam based on Mughal prince Salim and Anarkali's love story turned blockbuster, director K. Asif wanted to adapt another legendary love story of Laila and Majnu for the big screen. He cast Guru Dutt as Kais aka Majnu and Nimmi as Laila for his passion project, which he titled Love and God.

K. Asif started production on the film in 1963. A year later, the film suffered a setback when Guru Dutt was found dead in his bed in his rented apartment in Bombay (now Mumbai) on October 10, 1964. After his lead hero's death, Asif decided to leave his dream behind and shelved the film.

But, the legendary love story of Laila and Majnu continued to haunt the filmmaker for the next six years. In 1970, he went to Sanjeev Kumar and asked him to come on board as Majnu. The Sholay actor accepted his request, and Love and God was resumed in the same year. However, K. Asif himself passed away in 1971 and the film was left incomplete again.

After 15 years, Asif's fourth and last wife Akhtar Begum, sister of Dilip Kumar, decided to release the incomplete version of Love and God with the help of prdoucer, director, and distributor KC Bokadia. In few months, they stitched together portions of the film from three different studios and released Love and God on May 27 1986, a year after Sanjeev Kumar's death in 1965.

Love and God was the first and only K. Asif film, which was made completely in colour. The filmmaker wanted to make his passion project even bigger than Mughal-e-Azam, but due to its long and troubled history of production, it turned out to be just a forgettable affair in the history of Indian cinema.

READ | Meet actor, who was once Aamir, Shah Rukh's rival, never became superstar, worked as hotel manager, is now...

The DNA app is now available for download on the Google Play Store. Please download the app and share your feedback with us.