Film Trivia.

I loved collecting trivia at school and college. And Film trivia was something I always looked up to. A certain sense of realism got into me after graduating from college. Though I still adore films, perhaps my sense of inquisitiveness regarding trivia has faded.

Here is a little collection of trivia I found over the years.

1. This series of picture messages appeared in the magazine Variety over a period of many years. They have a connection. Guess what ( You might figure out if you can read out the blurred text. Sorry for the quality). 

When George Lucas’ “Star Wars” eclipsed Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” as the all time box office leader back in 1977, Spielberg took out a full page ad in Variety to congratulate his old pal. Once Spielberg’s “ET: The Extra Terrestrial” reclaimed the box office title in 1982, Lucas returned the favour by taking out an Ad in the same magazine Variety. Lucas kept the tradition alive by taking out a full page Ad when, in 1998, James Cameron’s “Titanic” sunk the re-issue of “Star Wars” to become the top Box-Office movie of all times.

2. Once the director of a famous movie was driving his car when he noticed the movement of a glass of water on his dashboard due to the sound emanating from his speakers. He immediately went back to his studio to incorporate that effect into his movie.

The movie was Jurassic Park ( 1993 ). The person was Steven Spielberg. The effect being talked about was the ripples caused in a glass of water upon the entry of the dinosaur T-Rex . That effect was actually created by connecting the string of a guitar to the dashboard over which the glass was placed. And then the guitar was played. Thus, an iconic effect was born.

Watch it here.

3. Taxi Driver (1976) formed part of the delusional fantasy of John Hinckley Jr. that triggered his attempted assasination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Hinckley stated that his actions were an attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster, on whom Hinckley was fixated, by mimicking Travis's mohawked appearance at the Palantine rally. His attorney concluded his defense by playing the movie for the jury.

4. It's well known that Robert De Niro auditioned for a number of roles in The Godfather, alongside fellow "failures" Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman. You can see him auditioning for the role of Sonny on YouTube.

5. On March 5, 1973, Marlon Brando declined the Academy Award for Best Actor for his gut-wrenching performance as Vito Corleone in "The Godfather (1972)" - for a very unexpected reason. On the eve of the 45th Academy Awards, Brando announced that he would boycott the ceremony and send Sacheen Littlefeather in his place. A little-known actress, she was then-president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee.

On the evening of March 5, when Liv Ullman and Roger Moore read out the name of the Best Actor award recipient, their gaze fell on a woman in Apache dress, whose long, dark hair bobbed against her shoulders as she climbed the stairs.

Moore extended the award to Littlefeather, who waved it away with an open palm. She set a letter down on the podium, introduced herself, and said : "I'm representing Marlon Brando this evening and he has asked me to tell you ... that he very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award. And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry -"

Watch the complete scene here

6. There is a sound effect called the Wilhelm Scream that has been used in over 200 movies and TV shows since 1951. Listen to it here.

7. The charcoal drawing of Kate Winselet in James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) was actually drawn by James Cameron.

8. Alfred Hitchcock has made a stunning 39 cameo appearances in his 52 major movies like appearing in photographs, crossing a building etc. This is a scene from 1963 movie 'The Birds'. But so did Subhash Ghai in almost all of his famous movies.

9. Lata Mangeshkar's song ‘Ae Malik Tere Bande Hum’ from ‘Do Aankhen Barah Haath’ (1957) which was an original composition by Vasant Desai, was adapted by a Pakistani school as the school anthem. 

10. ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ (1960) was a trilingual – with all scenes shot thrice in Hindi, Tamil and English. When the Tamil one flopped miserably, the English language one was aborted.

11. Aamir Khan's ‘Lagaan (2001)’ had the maximum number of British actors ever to be cast in a single movie in the history of Bollywood cinema.

Originally written here.