Following the massive success of the 1960 epic historical drama Mughal-e-Azam, which portrayed the legendary love story of Mughal prince Salim and Anarkali, director K. Asif set his sights on bringing another iconic romance to the screen, that of Laila and Majnu.
For this ambitious project, titled Love and God, he cast Guru Dutt as Kais aka Majnu and Nimmi as Laila.
K. Asif began production on the film in 1963. However, a major setback struck the following year when, on October 10, 1964, Guru Dutt was found dead in his rented apartment in Bombay (now Mumbai). Devastated by the loss of his lead actor, Asif chose to abandon the project and put his dream on hold.
Yet, the timeless tale of Laila and Majnu continued to linger in K. Asif’s mind for the next six years. In 1970, he approached Sanjeev Kumar with the offer to play Majnu. The Sholay actor agreed, and production on Love and God resumed that same year. Tragically, Asif passed away in 1971, leaving the film unfinished once again.
Fifteen years later, Akhtar Begum, K. Asif’s fourth and final wife and sister of actor Dilip Kumar, decided to release the incomplete version of Love and God. With the support of producer and distributor K.C. Bokadia, she assembled the footage from three different studios and Love and God was finally released on May 27, 1986, a year after Sanjeev Kumar’s death in 1985.
Love and God turned out to be a massive commercial failure. Before Sanjeev Kumar, both Guru Dutt and K. Asif had passed away, along with several other actors linked to the film, all before it could be completed. Because of its long and troubled production history, it ultimately became a forgettable chapter in the history of Indian cinema.