We have all seen the stardom of stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, and Salman Khan, whose fans wait outside their houses just to get a glimpse of their houses. However, before them, there was another superstar whose stardom was unmatched. 

The superstar we are talking about had impressed everyone with his exceptional acting skills and magnetic on-screen charm, which made every woman her die-hard fan. In fact, once he became the reason for the disappearance of the taxis on Mumbai streets. He is none other than Dev Anand. 

While shooting for his film Taxi Driver, which was made on a small budget due to the financial burden of two flops-Aandhiyan and Humsafar, the superstar was mistaken for a taxi driver by a foreigner. One of Dev Anand’s close associates, Churiwala recalled how Dev was mistaken for a real cabbie when he had stopped outside the Taj Mahal Hotel to pick up Sheila Ramani who plays the role of a club dancer Sylvie, and told Mumbai Mirror, “A foreigner jumped in and directed Dev saab to take him to the red light area. It took our hero a few minutes to convince him that they were shooting a film following which the apologetic guy got off.” 

However, after the film was released, it became the reason for the disappearance of the Taxis in Mumbai streets. Dev Anand mentioned in his biography that when the film was released in theatres, all the taxi drivers along with their union leaders parked their taxis outside a popular cinema house and watched his film Taxi Driver together. Because of this, that evening, there were no taxis on the streets of Mumbai. 

The film was by the youngest Anand, Vijay, fondly called Goldie, who was still studying at St. Xavier’s College, and fine-tuned by Chetan Anand’s wife Uma. Taxi Driver is a 1950s musical romantic film that starred Anand and Kalpana Kartik, Johnny Walker, and others in key roles. The film was directed by Chetan Anand and during the shoot of the film, the lead actors fell in love with each other and got married secretly during lunch break at the shooting of this film.

Read This superstar came to Bombay with Rs 30, worked as clerk for Rs 65 per month, became ‘Bollywood’s first style icon’

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