Teesri Kasam

Awards

• No award information available.

Trivia

Album

• Lyricist Shailendra turned producer with this film. The film was plagued by many problems. It was five years in the making because Shailendra was not able to get Raj Kapoor's dates. The film also ran over-budget and consequently failed at the box office. A heart-broken Shailendra died soon after the film's release, not knowing that it would go on to win the National Film Award for Best Film and be considered a classic. When asked about the film years later, Raj Kapoor blamed director Basu Bhattacharya for its failure - "Basu is a pseudo, and I didn't like the film. He was risking somebody else's money. What did he have to lose?".[1][2]
• This film was based on Phanishwar Nath Renu's short story "Maare Gaye Gulfam". Shailendra and Basu Bhattacharya got to know each other through Bimal Roy - Shailendra was Roy's favourite lyricist and Basu Bhattacharya was his assistant director. It was during the making of one of Bimal Roy's films, possibly "Madhumati" (1958), that Basu Bhattacharya, an inveterate reader, introduced Shailendra to "Maare Gaye Gulfam". Fascinated by the story, Shailendra decided to make a film based on it and brought on board Basu Bhattacharya to direct it and Renu to write the dialogues. This was Bhattacharya's directorial debut and Renu's only screenwriting credit.[3]
• Mehmood and Meena Kumari had originally been cast in the film for the roles that were eventually played by Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman. Kapoor reportedly charged a fee of only one rupee from his friend and the film's producer, Shailendra. The actor asked Shailendra to give the film a commercial treatment but the first-time producer did not compromise on his vision.[4]
• Shailendra had wanted to shoot the film in the Terai region of Bihar where its story was set. However, concerns about the law and order problems in the region forced him to shoot it in Igatpuri, Maharashtra instead.[5]
• In 2013, Bihar's rural development department organised screenings of this film across the state to publicise the state government's rural health and development schemes. According to producer Shailendra's heirs, these screenings were illegal since the government had not obtained their permission for them. They sent a legal notice to the Bihar government seeking compensation of Rs. 15 crores for what they said were unauthorised screenings. However, Bihar's Information and Public Relations Department claimed that the state government had purchased the film's rights in 1979 and did not need anyone's permission to screen it. It is not clear how the dispute was eventually settled.[6]
• In 2004, three of Shailendra's heirs assigned their rights for this film to Shemaroo Entertainment. They claimed later that they had made it clear to Shemaroo that each of them owned only a one-sixth share of the rights. Based on this transaction, Shemaroo went ahead and started distributing DVDs of the film and later broadcast it on various streaming platforms. They were taken to court by two of Shailendra's children, Dinesh Kumar Shailendra and Amla Shailendra Mazumdar, who said that Shemaroo could not distribute the film without their permission. Taking their complaint into cognisance, the Delhi High Court ruled in 2017 that Shemaroo Entertainment could not distribute the film or broadcast it on any platform.[7]

Song

• Aa Aa Bhi Ja Raat Dhalne Lagi - The opening lines of this song - "Rahega ishq tera khaak mein mila ke mujhe" - were from a couplet written by Dagh Dehlvi. Shailendra had used these lines previously in the first antara of the song "Hum Haal-E-Dil Sunaenge" ("Madhumati", 1958).[8]
• Duniya Banane Wale Kya Tere Man Mein Samaai - Majrooh Sultanpuri was arrested by the Congress government in 1949 for his leftist writings in general and for a poem he wrote targeting Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in particular. The poem in question was - "Aman ka jhanda is dharti par kisne kaha lahraane na paaye / Yeh bhi koi Hitler ka hai chela, maar le saathi jaane na paaye / Commonwealth ka das hai Nehru, maar le saathi jaane na paaye". When asked to apologise, Majrooh refused and was consequently sent to jail, leaving behind his family at home. Understanding Majrooh's predicament, Raj Kapoor visited him in jail and asked him to write poems for him for a generous fee. It was then that Majrooh had written the mukhda of this song. Hasrat Jaipuri developed this mukhda into a full song. Another poem Majrooh wrote for Raj Kapoor in jail was the song "Ek Din Bik Jayega Maati Ke Mol" ("Dharam Karam", 1975).[9][10]
• Duniya Banane Wale Kya Tere Man Mein Samaai - The film featured a short, female version of this song sung by Suman Kalyanpur. The female version was not part of the film's music release.
• Chalat Musafir Moh Liya Re - The Hindi film song "Badri Ki Dulhaniya" ("Badrinath Ki Dulhania", 2017) was partly inspired by this song.[11]
• Laila Majnu Nautanki (Kissa Hota Hai Shuru) - This song was not part of the film's music release.

1. ^ People's poet
2. ^ Raj Kapoor: Sex as an art form
3. ^ Madhumati (1958)
4. ^ Teesri Kasam (1966) - The Hindu
5. ^ Teesri Kasam (1966) - The Hindu
6. ^ 'Teesri Kasam' lands Bihar govt in trouble
7. ^ HC stops Shemaroo from selling or showing Teesri Kasam film
8. ^ Hum Haal-E-Dil Sunaenge (Madhumati, 1958)
9. ^ Twenty facts you did not know about our film music
10. ^ Ek Din Bik Jayega Maati Ke Mol (Dharam Karam, 1975)
11. ^ Badri Ki Dulhaniya (Badrinath Ki Dulhania, 2017)