Masoom (1983)
The film was the directorial debut of Shekhar Kapoor, who was a flop actor before. He was trying to financers for his film. When the producer asked him to pitch his story, Shekhar Kapoor started narrating his script but he soon realised that the producer is not finding his film interesting. He saw a poster of the film Man, Woman and Child in the producer's office (some say he saw the book) and suddenly something strike him. He mixed his script with the outline of Man, Woman and Child. The producer was impressed and he gave a yes to the film.
Now the next problem was casting. Shekhar Kapoor had a long affair with Shabana Azmi innthe 70’s and then they broke up. So Shekhar Kapoor was not sure whether Shabana Azmi will agree to his film. But to his surprise Shabana Azmi very professionally agreed to do the role. Also Shekhar Kapoor refused to cast the popular child artistes of that time because he wanted children to act like children and not do dramatic acting. That's why he chose actors who were either new or actors who were used to artsy movies. Thirdly, when the makers of Mr.India were looking for a director for the film, Javed Akhtar suggested the name of Shekhar Kapoor as he liked the way Shekhar Kapoor extracted performances from the children.
Masoom was the most economical and fast movie made by Shekhar Kapoor who was otherwise known for delaying films for years and overshooting the budget. The film eventually was shot in 28 days only. But when the film was for relaease the film didn't get many distributors and the makers had to hire the theatres on rent to screen the film. For the first 5 days there was no audience, and the makers discontinued the film from one theatre. But before the film could be wiped out of theatres audiences started walking in the theatres. The film did wonders from the second week onwards and eventually became a commercial success. According to Naseeruddin Shah, Masoom was more successful than major hits of the year like Himmatwala if you factor in the profit percentage of these movies.
But there were many controversies related to the film. First, Randhir Kapoor was planning to make a film on the same book and Shabana Azmi requested him not to make it. Then Randhir Kapoor accused the makers of giving credit of the writing to Gulzar when they lifted the story from the novel.
Another rconteoversy erupted when Naseeruddin Shah went to beat up producer Devi Dutt for not paying his dues for the film. He went to the sets of Bhavna and nearly beat him up. Many people felt that Naseeruddin Shah won the Filmfare award for Best actor for Masoom but the actor who actually deserved the award that year was Om Puri for his National Award winning performance in Ardh Satya. When Om Puri was asked the same question he said my performance in Ardh Satya may have been better than Naseer in Masoom but his overall body of work in the year 1983 is far better than me