Chhoti Si Baat | |
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Film Poster
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छोटी सी बात | |
Directed by | Basu Chatterjee |
Produced by | B. R. Chopra |
Written by | Sharad Joshi, Basu Chatterjee (dialogue) |
Screenplay by | Basu Chatterjee |
Starring |
Amol Palekar Vidya Sinha Ashok Kumar Asrani Dharmendra Hema Malini |
Music by | Salil Chaudhury |
Cinematography | K. K. Mahajan |
Edited by | V N Mayekar |
Release date
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January 9, 1976 |
Country | India |
Language | Hindi |
Chhoti Si Baat (Hindi: छोटी सी बात) is a 1976 Hindi romantic comedy film directed by Basu Chatterjee. The film's title means "A Small Matter" in Hindi. Considered one of the best Hindi comedy films of the 1970s, it is a nostalgic favourite for its quirky take on pre-hypercongestion Bombay. The film became a box office hit and also earned Filmfare nominations and a Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay for Basu Chatterjee.
It also established Amol Palekar as having an uncommon comic talent for playing mousy characters, a role he would go on to repeat several times in his career. As with other Basu Chatterjee films, moviestars have small cameos playing themselves: Dharmendra and Hema Malini (whose mother Jaya Chakravarthy helped produce the film) are in a movie-within-a-movie for the song Janneman Janneman, while Amitabh Bachchan plays himself in another scene, where he seeks advice from Ashok Kumar's character. He is dressed in costume from Zameer, whose film poster is prominently displayed at the bus stop scenes in Chhoti Si Baat. B.R. Chopra is the producer for Zameer, just as he is for Chhoti Si Baat.
This movie is based on "School for Scoundrels", a 1960 British Comedy which itself was based on the Gamesmanship series of books by Stephen Potter.