Aruna Irani reveals why a romantic duet with Amitabh Bachchan was deleted from ‘Bombay To Goa’, as the film completes 50 years | Hindi Movie News

Versatile actress-dancer Aruna Irani finds it difficult to believe that her 1972 landmark hit ‘Bombay to Goa’ (BTG) completed 50 years of its release this week. The musical, jubilee-hit, directed by S Ramanathan starring Amitabh Bachchan, Aruna Irani, Shatrughan Sinha and an ensemble of ace comedy talents lead by legendary actor and co-director Mehmood is hailed as a benchmark. It was also a career-turning-point for Big B.

Previously, in a conversation with author Chaitanya Padukone, Aruna had narrated about not getting the dance steps right in the romantic duets with Amitabh Bachchan. Speaking to ETimes, Aruna elaborated on the story and said, “Back then, neither I nor my hero Amit ji were good dancers. But our choreographer PL Raj was a tough task-master and he made us diligently slog and rehearse. All that effort resulted in the final outcome, which was so impactful. Particularly in my favourite duet song ‘Dil Tera Hai Main Bhi’, composed so beautifully by genius RD Burman”. She also revealed why yet another romantic duet, the melodious song (‘Tum Meri Zindagi Mein’) was excluded from the film. Since the road-trip movie ‘Bombay To Goa’ was also a gripping crime-thriller, the producer-director felt that this song, which was even shot, would drag the build-up and affect the suspense and tempo of the movie. Unfortunately the tough decision to delete it had to be taken.

Incidentally, ‘BTG’ is also inspired by a 1966 hit Tamil film ‘Madras To Pondicherry’.