The announcement of the 61st National Awards last week brought back a flood of memories for Mahesh Bhatt whose 1982 directorial Arth bagged the national honours for actress Shabana Azmi and editor Keshav Hirani. For long though, the now cult favorite did not find buyers because of its pathbreaking finale which had the heroine turning her back on her husband and her admirer to walk alone as a single mother to her adopted child reports Times of India.

"It's DNA was perceived as a threat to the established narrative of a man-woman relationship and distributors would walk out of a screening to tell me that the film was a disaster," says Bhatt.

Then he ran into Hrishikesh Mukherjee at a USIS event in honour of The Sound of Music director Robert Wise. "I believe you've made an unusual film called Arth?" Hrishida asked him. Bhatt dejectedly admitted that he was having problems selling it and the veteran filmmaker retorted, "Then it must be really good."

Hrishida was the chairman of the National Award jury that year and when Bhatt informed him that his producer Kuljit Pal, who wasn't clued into the festival and award circuit, had missed the application date, he was told to enter the film promptly. Hrishida promised him that it would get a viewing if it was a deserving film.

"As soon as the news was out that Shabana had bagged the Silver Lotus for Best Actress, Arth became the focus of media attention, Rajkumar Barjatya asked to see it and immediately after, bought the film for distribution. And that paved the way for me making Saraansh with the Rajshris," informs Bhatt.

Over three decades later, a scene from the film where the long suffering wife has a drunken confrontation with her husband's mistress, still remains memorable.

An inebriated Pooja (Shabana) totters up to her husband (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and his mistress (Smita Patil) and tells them, "Pati ki seva mein aurat ho kabhi ma aur kabhi behan banna padta hai aur bistar mein kabhi randi." Shocked and speechless the duo turn tail, a lecherous guest (Dalip Tahil) tries to paw Pooja who is finally rescued by the ghazal singer (Raj Kiran).

"We picturised the scene towards the end of the day and I was in a hurry to can it because being on a shoestring budget, I couldn't afford to pay the junior artistes over-time. But Smita who was suddenly a star after signing a film with Amitabh Bachchan, had second thoughts about letting Shabana get away without her retaliating. But what could she say to a drunk, wounded woman who had lost her husband and was shaming herself in the bargain. To my relief Smita understood and told me to get on with the scene," says Bhatt