Black Friday at 15: Interesting facts about the film
Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday has completed fifteen years. The film, chronicling the 1993 Bombay blasts and its aftermath, has a cult status. It was premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2004. Its Indian release was stalled due to the pending trial of the bombings. It was eventually released in theatres in 2007.
The film is based on Hussain Zaidi's book Black Friday: The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts. Aparna Chaturvedi, Dr. Tushar Patel and Devashish Makhija did the additional research.
Black Friday was financed by Mid-Day. Producer Arindam Mitra approached Anurag to make a TV series on Zaidi's book. However, they later decided to make a film.
Anurag also referred Voices, a collection of testimonies of the accused in the case
The names of cops, politicians and bombers are real in the film. Kay Kay Menon played DCP Traffic Rakesh Maria, who probed the case
Naseeruddin Shah refused the role of Tiger Memon. He was replaced by Pavan Malhotra in a searing performance
The film coralled the best actors of our times – Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Aditya Srivastava, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Gajraj Rao
Much of the film was shot with hidden cameras. Since it depicts the early 90s, mobile phones and billboards had to be framed out or masked
It's an incredibly funny movie in parts. A police officer pulls a banana from a crime scene to eat.
Anurag had a suit tailored for the premiere. The film was banned the same day. 'I just went in to my room and started drinking. And I stayed in my suit for a month,” the director had said
- The standout 7-minute chase sequence around Dharavi inspired Danny Boyle on Slumdog Millionaire
Vijay Maurya played Dawood Ibrahim in the film
Indian Ocean gave the music, including the haunting 'Bandeh'
Anurag appears in one scene, on the boat landing
The film begins with the Mahatma Gandhi quote - 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.' It also closes the film.
According to one story, a Supreme Court judge saw the film privately and took initiative to lift the ban
Yakub Memon, Tiger Memon's brother, was played by director Imtiaz Ali
