It is not very clear how Manoj Kumar landed from Delhi to Bombay. There are stories that he was accompanying some friends on a mission to the dream city and fantasized that it would be wonderful f he could somehow make 3 lakhs in a project because that would be sufficient for his family to live comfortably ever after. The universe heard him because he literally strolled inside a film studio one day and asked a stranger for work.
The production department was looking for assistants and engaged him to carry the lights on the sets. Slowly, one thing led to another and Hari Kishen was now assigned assistant duty on the sets. One day, the filmmaker made him stand in the frame to check the lighting and liked what he saw from behind the camera.
Hari Kishen Goswami was only 20 years old when he was introduced in Fashion and in the coming few years, Manoj Kumar had eight films (Panchayat, Sahara, Chand, Honeymoon, Suhaag Sindoor, Kaanch ki Gudiya and Reshmi Rumal) in pipeline. All these films were heroine-oriented films and mostly unsuccessful, until Vijay Bhatt re-introduced him with a new name Manoj Kumar in Hariyali Aur Raasta.
To be continued