Mere Apne is a 1971 Indian Hindi-language film written and directed by Gulzar and produced by Romu, Raj and N. C. Sippy. It was Gulzar's first directorial venture and was almost a frame by frame remake of the National Award-winning Bengali film Apanjan, which was directed by Tapan Sinha. This was the first movie of Vinod Khanna as Hero. This was also debut movie of Danny. The film stars Meena Kumari, Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha in lead roles along with Deven Verma, Paintal, Asit Sen, Asrani, Danny Denzongpa, Keshto Mukherjee, A. K. Hangal, Dinesh Thakur, Mehmood and Yogeeta Bali. The music of the film is composed by Salil Choudhury. Mere Apne was declared " Hit " at the box office. Plot Anandi Devi (Meena Kumari) is an old widow who lives in a village. One day, she is visited by a distant relative, Arun Gupta (Ramesh Deo), who persuades her to live in town with him, his wife Lata (Sumita Sanyal), and a small child. She later realizes that they were looking for a maid, which results in her expulsion from the house and befriending a child beggar who takes her to his dilapidated home. Being good-natured and caring, she slowly earns the title of "Nani Ma" (maternal grandmother) among groups of youths led by Shyam (Vinod Khanna) and Chhenu (Shatrughan Sinha), who were in a constant fight with each other. The movie ends with her death from accidental gunfire in one such response. Cast Meena Kumari as Anandi Devi Vinod Khanna as Shyam Shatrughan Sinha as Chhenu Deven Verma as Niranjan, Anandi's deceased husband Asrani as Raghunath, Chhenu's team mate Danny Denzongpa as Sanju Yogesh Chhabra as Pandey part of Shatrughan Sinha’s team Paintal as Bansi Dinesh Thakur as Billoo Sudhir Thakkar as Ranbir Ramesh Deo as Arun Gupta Sumita Sanyal as Lata Mehmood as Sri Anokhelal Asit Sen as Biloki Prasad Abhi Bhattacharya as Freedom Fighter Leela Mishra as Gupta's maidservant Shashi Kiran as Neelu Keshto Mukherjee as Jattu Dev Kishan as Shyam's father A. K. Hangal as College Principal Yogeeta Bali as Urmila Kamaldeep as Urmila's father (as Kamal Deep) Fatima as Julie Amina Karim as Young Anandi Production After Apanjan, directed by Tapan Sinha, is based on a story of Inder Mitra, was both a commercial and critical success. Screenwriter Gulzar was called to Kolkata to translate the script for a Hindi remake. However, subsequently