Bombay to Goa is a 1972 Indian adventure-comedy film directed by S. Ramanathan, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Aruna Irani in lead roles, Shatrughan Sinha as the main antagonist and Mehmood. The movie is known particularly for its catchy tunes. It was a "Super hit" At the box office. The film is a remake of a 1966 hit Tamil filmMadras to Pondicherry. The role played by Nagesh in Tamil version was reprised by Mehmood in the Hindi version. Bombay to Goa was remade in 2007 with the same title, with an ensemble cast of comedians. It was reported that the 2004 Marathi movie Navra Maza Navsacha, which was also remade in Kannada in 2007 as Ekadantha was heavily inspired by this movie. The Hindu had reported that Rajiv Gandhi was offered the lead role by Mehmood but he had turned it down.
Plot
The lives of Atmaram and his wife are turned upside down when they see their daughter, Mala's pictures in a magazine. They arrange for Mala's marriage with the son of Ramlal. Mala is opposed to marrying anyone who she has not met, and is at the same time thrilled that the two persons she trusted, one Verma, and the other Sharma had actually submitted her pictures to a magazine, and were now willing to sign her up for a Bollywood movie. Mala is not able to understand her parents' opposition on her way to fame, and runs away from home with a lot of money and hands this money to Sharma and Verma. Greed overtakes Sharma and Verma, leading to the death of Sharma. Mala, who witnessed Verma kill Sharma, now is on the run for her life. She boards a bus from Bombay which is bound for Goa. Verma soon overtakes her, and has one of his armed men onthe bus to kill her. And then arrives Mala's admirer Ravikumar, who not only protects Mala, but also accompanies her throughout the journey. Mala starts to trust and subsequently fall in love with Ravikumar. The bus journey is adventurous with the passengers, a totally mixed bunch, from all over India, different religions, cultures, and faiths, all thrown together for this journey. The bus is in the "control" of driver Rajesh, and conductor, Khanna.hence she gets her love and the reality of her trusted people.
Amitabh Bachchan has had an illustrious career that has spanned decades, but "Bombay to Goa" was his first film as the main lead. Bachchan had earlier worked in films but this film was his first as a lead hero because Saat Hindustani had 7 protagonists, Navin Nishchal was the lead hero in Parwana and Rajesh Khanna was main lead inAnand. "Bombay to Goa" was followed by Zanjeer and after that followed the super-stardom of more than fifteen years. Bachchan was picked for his role in Zanjeer after Javed Akhtar saw him in this film. As per The Hindu the role was first offered to Rajiv Gandhi, when he had not started career in Indian politics.
Mehmood specially made this movie to launch his brother Anwar Ali and Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan pressured Shatrughan Sinha to do the villain's role, although he wasn't keen on doing it. He agreed only because of their close friendship from their struggling days.
