Golden Era of Bollywood: How Badruddin Qazi Became JOHNY WALKER

Saturday 11 November 2017

How Badruddin Qazi Became JOHNY WALKER

On his 97th Birth Anniversary we look back how the legendary comedian got his new name JOHNY WALKER.He reigned the Hindi Film Industry in the 1950s and 60s. No film was complete without a cameo from the son of a mill worker in Indore.He made his audiences smile gently and laugh uproariously without resorting to a single vulgarity or double entendre.
He started life in Mumbai as a bus conductor. And he would have continued to be so if the late actor Balraj Sahni had not spotted him entertaining passengers in a bus.
Those days Balraj Sahini was penning the script for “Baazi,he thought that if he brings this character in the script it will give boost to the film.He asked Badruddin Qazi about working in films.

It was on the sets of “Baazi” that Badruddin Qazi met director Guru Dutt, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Those days it was the practice of changing the names of the actors,this was also done to him.So the new name for him was planned.It is said that the director of the film Guru Dutt was drinking the most popular brand of scotch whisky at that time,the idea came to his mind why not the brand Johny Walker should be given to this new comedian.Everybody sitting with him liked this name.So Badruddin Qazi became Johnny Walker.

There was no looking back after that. The talented actor-director and the fledgling comedian had an enduring partnership and went on to make great films like “Pyaasa”, “CID”, “Mr and Mrs 55” and “Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam”.

The great comedian once said: “If it was not Guru Dutt sahib, I would have remained a bus conductor. I had a great understanding with him that made my career.”

“Baazi” gave him a foothold into the industry and the other films, which followed, established him forever.

He was last seen in 1997 in Kamal Haasan’s “Chachi 420”, a remake of the Hollywood comedy “Mrs Doubtfire”, for which he returned to the screen after a gap of 14 years.