{"id":650976,"date":"2026-08-22T16:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/650976\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T16:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:45:13","slug":"kamal-amrohi-charged-rs-10000-per-scene-as-a-writer-for-mughal-e-azam-went-on-to-earn-rs-2-lakh-for-the-film-reveals-his-son-opens-up-on-fall-out-with-k-asif","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/650976\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamal Amrohi charged Rs 10,000 per scene as a writer for ‘Mughal-E-Azam’, went on to earn Rs 2 lakh for the film, reveals his son, opens up on fall-out with K Asif |"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kamal Mughal-E-Azam remains one of the most celebrated films in Indian cinema, renowned for its spectacular scale, lavish sets and memorable dialogues. Directed by K Asif, the period epic was also among the costliest Indian productions of its era, reportedly made on a budget of around Rs 1.5 crore. Adjusted for inflation, that would amount to well over Rs 150 crore today.Yet, decades after its release, questions surrounding the film\u2019s writing credits continue to draw attention. Tajdar Amrohi, son of filmmaker and writer Kamal Amrohi, has claimed that his father played a far greater role in shaping the film\u2019s dialogues than the official credits suggest.Tajdar said Kamal Amrohi wrote the dialogues for virtually every film he worked on, including Pakeezah, Mahal and Razia Sultan. He maintained that Mughal-E-Azam was no exception.\u201cEvery dialogue in Pakeezah was written by my father. Nobody else could write dialogues in my father\u2019s movies. Be it Pakeezah, Mahal, Razia Sultan\u2026 even the dialogues in Mughal-E-Azam. With all due respect to K Asif, he didn\u2019t want Kamal Amrohi to get full credit,” said Tajdar in an interview with Vickey Lalwani.Asked why Asif allegedly chose to share the writing credit, Tajdar suggested that giving Amrohi sole credit could have led audiences to believe that he had written the entire film.\u201cThen people would think Kamal Amrohi has written the entire film. The film also had Aman Khan, Vajahat Mirza, who are not credited with any other film than Mughal-E-Azam as a writer. However, Kamal Amrohi has proved time and again that he is a writer. He is a big writer.\u201dTajdar also portrayed his father as a figure who helped elevate the status of screenwriters in Hindi cinema. He recalled a period when writers were commonly referred to as \u201cmunshis\u201d and were paid comparatively modest sums.\u201cEarlier, writers were called Munshis, the ones with pencil on their ear. People who wrote dialogues and stories for movies, they were widely referred to as munshis in the industry. None of them ever charged over Rs 2000. Kamal Amrohi was the only man who charged Rs 10,000 per scene in Mughal-E-Azam.\u201dAccording to Tajdar, the unusually high fee came after Amrohi had a falling-out with Asif and initially walked away from the project. He claimed that Asif subsequently realised that he was struggling to find someone who could replace Amrohi\u2019s writing.Tajdar recalled a meeting at the Amrohi residence, where Amanullah Khan, Zeenat Aman\u2019s father, reportedly acted as an intermediary between the two men.\u201cHe accompanied Zeenat Aman\u2019s father, Amanullah Khan and came to our house. Baba came out. But none of them were speaking. They used Aman as the mediator. While sitting in the same room, Asif told Aman to communicate to Amrohi that he has to complete his film Mughal-E-Azam. A confused Aman sahab looked towards my father, who said: \u2018Tell him I can\u2019t write it.’\u201dThe standoff, according to Tajdar, continued until Asif eventually expressed how strongly he wanted Amrohi to return.\u201cFinally Asif sahab got up from his place, shouted at baba, and hugged him. You will have to complete my film Amrohi, nobody\u2019s writing is impressing me.\u201dTajdar said Asif then asked, through Amanullah Khan, what it would take for Amrohi to resume work on the film. Still angry over the dispute, Amrohi allegedly demanded Rs 10,000 for every scene.\u201cMy father in anger said: \u2018Tell him I would charge Rs 10,000 per scene.\u2019 Asif sahab quickly agreed to it.\u201dTajdar claimed that this eventually resulted in Amrohi earning approximately Rs 2 lakh for his work on Mughal-E-Azam\u2014a substantial amount by the standards of the time. He contrasted the figure with the Rs 200 to Rs 4,000 that writers were generally said to have earned then.\u201cAt a time when people charged between Rs 200 to Rs 4000, Kamal Amrohi earned about Rs 2 lakh for Mughal-E-Azam. When the producer raised concerns, Asif put his foot down and said, \u2018I can\u2019t let anyone else write the script.’\u201dDespite this, Tajdar claimed that Amrohi was unhappy when the film was released because the writing credit was shared with Vajahat Mirza, Amanullah Khan and another writer.\u201cAsif sahab divided the credit. My father was too hurt. He was so hurt that he confronted Asif and asked him to pull his name completely from the film. When Asif said that it will reduce the value of the film, my father said then let me warn you that these three writers won\u2019t get any work because the writing is completely mine. They won\u2019t be able to recreate it. Even choti ammi (Meena Kumari) noted that it was my father\u2019s writing.\u201dTajdar further emphasised his father\u2019s distinctive writing style, claiming that even legendary actor Prithviraj Kapoor admired his work.\u201cMy father\u2019s way of writing was extremely unique. Prithviraj Kapoor was a huge fan of my father.\u201dAccording to Tajdar, Kamal Amrohi\u2019s reported Rs 2 lakh earnings from Mughal-E-Azam would be worth roughly Rs 2 crore today after adjusting for inflation. His account presents Amrohi not merely as a contributor to the film\u2019s writing, but as one of the key figures behind its celebrated dialogue and a writer who commanded an unusually high fee in an era when screenwriters were rarely valued at comparable levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mughal-E-Azam remains one of the most celebrated films in Indian cinema, renowned for its spectacular scale, lavish sets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[275105,18,117,19,275106,17,275100,275102,275101,275099,275108,327,275103,275104,275107],"class_list":["post-650976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-asif","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-indian-cinema-screenwriters","tag-ireland","tag-k-asif","tag-kamal-amrohi-biography","tag-kamal-amrohi-earnings","tag-kamal-amrohi-mughal-e-azam-writer","tag-movie-writers","tag-movies","tag-mughal-e-azam-behind-the-scenes","tag-mughal-e-azam-dialogues","tag-screenwriter-earnings-for-mvoies"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117140175431724447","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}