This film took 23 years to be made, actors and director died midway, was based on iconic love story, it starred...

Many Bollywood films take years to be made and released. A lot of people invest time, money, and energy to make their dreams a reality. Today, we are going to tell you about a Bollywood film that took 23 years to be made. Not only this, there are some things related to this film which will surprise you. We are talking about the film Love and God, also known as Kais Aur Laila. This film was released in theatres in May 1986. This was the last film produced and directed by K Asif. This was his only directed film which was made completely in colour.

Through this film, the director wanted to show the mythological love story of Laila Majnu, in which Nimmi played the role of Laila and Sanjeev Kumar played the role of Kais aka Majnu. As per Wikipedia, the film was a long and difficult one to make, with shooting beginning in 1963 with Guru Dutt playing the role of Kais and Nimmi as Laila, however, due to Guru Dutt's sudden death in 1964 the film remained incomplete, and was shelved.

For the unversed, in October 1964, Guru Dutt was found dead in his bed in his rented apartment at Pedder Road in Bombay. He is said to have been mixing alcohol and sleeping pills. His death may have been suicide or just an accidental overdose, there is no clarity about the same. 

After Guru Dutt's death, K Asif re-cast Sanjeev Kumar as Kais, and the film went into production again in 1970. Unfortunately, director K Asif also died in March 1971 at the age of 49 and the film once again remained incomplete.

Fifteen years later, K Asif's wife Akhtar Asif decided to release the unfinished film with the help of producer-director-distributor KC Bokadia. In a few months, they managed to salvage some usable parts of the unfinished film from three different studios and pieced them together.

Eventually, the film was released in theatres on May 27, 1986. By the time of the film's release, many of the film's cast had died, including its lead actor Sanjeev Kumar, who died in 1985.

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