Happy choices

IPTA groupies in Garm Hawa
I am a Mumbaikar and a BA LLB from St Xavier’s and Siddharth Law College. No one else from the family has been associated with cinema or the performing arts.It was through a chance encounter that I landed up becoming a film actor. But I must admit that I am happier to be in films than practicing law. I had no intention or motivation to be an actor, I was studying Law when I took to amateur acting. I was a part of Indian People’s Theatre Academy and MS Sathyu, our senior member, was casting for Garm Hawa. That was in 1973.
Since the Film Finance Corporation would give out measly sums of money on very difficult terms to filmmakers, he had to cast artistes who would allot lots of dates and charge very little. Obiviously he was going to approach the group members first! So the film starred IPTA groupies mostly. The atmosphere was full of friends - with the brilliant cinematographer Ishaan Arya and the rest. We shot over a two-month long schedule in Agra, it was like a family making a film by themselves. Interacting with Balraj Sahni was another plus factor, we shared adjoining rooms and he being so well-informed and a wise person, listening to his experiences about the phases of his career was very interesting.The film came in for lot of acclaim and it remains a cult film of all times.

Breaking into giggles in Faridaji’s bed
Satyajit Ray saw Garm Hawa and called me for Shataranj Ke Khiladi as did Muzaffar Ali for Gaman and the ball started rolling. I became a full- time professional actor. I was holidaying in US and Canada when I received Ray’s call so I thought he would not cast me because I was going to be away for a couple of months, but he was kind and said that he would wait and shoot my portions later. It was a great privilege and pleasure to work with a maker of his stature. The foremost lesson that I learnt from him was that work has to be done systematically and punctually, it has to be done as a proper professional commitment. Ray had everthing planned out right upto the last punctuation and he saw to it that everyone from the artistes, make-up man to dress man knew what and how he wanted on the sets and we just went along with his vision.
Farida Jalal sahiba and I were doing a scene in which we get caught by her husband in bed, I try to hide under the bed. Both Faridaji and I are given to breaking out into giggles at the wrong moment and for that to happen on Ray’s set was quite unusual but neither of us stopped laughing. Raysaab in his sombre couteousness waited for us to finish and then carried on with the shot. He knew exactly what he wanted and that was a big relief.

Embarassed about my work in my first big hit - Noorie
Writer Sagar Sarhadi and director Ramesh Talwar are my friends of long-standing. Rameshji directed me in plays while in college. So when he was casting for Noorie, he had decided to cast me as the male protagonist and a new girl from Chandigarh who had a done a small role in Yash Chopraji’s Trishul was to be heroine. That was the beautiful, innocent Poonam Dhillon. Noorie also had a large assembly of IPTA groupies like Bharat Kapoor and Javed Khan. The location and 60-day schedule in a small Kashmiri village of Bhadarwah was bit of a trial. Shooting in the winters for over two months without any heating facilities was a cold experience indeed. But it was a lovely place with very hospitable people. All of us were so involved in the film that it shows up on screen. Noorie had excellent music, Bharat Kapoor was scintillating in it. The film was a huge success but I am more than embarassed at my work which was very amateurish, we were groomed for realistic acting, the song and dance and fight sequences of mainstream format were unknown to us and I was so raw - it shows. Nonetheless the film is a pleasant watch.
Producer Gul Anand wasn’t ready to pay my price in Chashme Buddoor
I didn’t do any film for two years after Noorie although it was a super-hit only because everybody was giving me good, bad and indifferent versions of Noorie and I didn’t want to repeat what I had already done. I always feel, if you don’t enjoy what you are doing - don’t do it. What’s the point in going to a film set like doing a job in Mantralaya - yawning from nine to five?
Two years later Sai Paranjpye called me to read out a script called Chashme Buddoor. It was a delightfully engrossing script and she had the right sensibilities about the film, I immediately said yes! The late Gul Anand, the producer, met me and in our first meeting our terms didn’t meet but Sai prevailed upon him and I got my price. It was a two-month schedule in Delhi and the film turned out to be so good because of Sai who was the writer-director and the spirit behind it. 80 per cent of the credit for the film should go to Sai and the rest to the team and the music etc. Working with Rakesh Bedi is always a delight and Ravi Baswani was a local guy from Delhi, also a fun person. I had known Deepti Naval after she came back from New York and I was to be her hero in Ek Baar Phir, her debut film but Vinod Pande changed the dates at the last minute and I couldn’t do the project. Pradeep Verma replaced me in it. Deeptiji is a talent far undermined. This film was also a hit and since this industry reacts to you as the box-office reacts to you. I was flooded with offers however, I was already on the parallel cinema track.

Bazaar in the pleasurable city of Hyderabad
Next on my list was the film written by Sagar Sarhadi and we were excited that he was also going to direct it. Naseer, Bharat Kapoor and Supriya - all of us were friends. Hyderabad was such a lovely city to be in those days. It was a pleasureable city and people were so laid-back and hospitable. We stayed on top of Banjara Hills in a quaint hotel called Rock Castle. The Fine Arts Society of Hyderabad was a magnificent institution that introduced my talents. It was a quiet city with lovely eating houses that offered the best of Hyderabadi cuisine. We enjoyed our evening strolls so much.
Khayyam Saab’s music in Bazaar is one of his memorable scores and most significantly it was the flow of the emotional narrative of the film that worked, as did the comfort level between the actors - Naseer, Smita, Supriya and I - we worked for the film never once trying to upstage each other. I have very fond memories of Smita, a lovely person with tremendous talent which she herself managed to portray in totality. She always pretended to be a strong person when she was just a softie.

On-screen hit jodi with Deepti and Naseer
Deepti Naval and I worked in a number of films that fared well - we starred in 6 to 7 films together (Chashme Buddoor, Saath Saath, Katha etc). Of these Katha was very interesting, when director Sai Paranjpye narrated me the script - she asked me which of the two roles would I like to play. Since I had already played the goody-goody role in Chashme Buddoor, I preferred the other one which was mischievously negative.It was a character whom you enjoyed inspite of what he did. We shot most of the film in a chawl in Pune which Sai chanced upon.
Naseeruddin is a friend and a great professional who is ready to go that extra mile for the film. We have acted in many films together - he’s a delightful co-star. It’s not as if we meet regularly now but when we do, it is just like the old times.

Rekhaji, Muzaffar and Khayyam are the film
I had done Gaman with Muzaffar Ali earlier and when he offered me Umrao Jaan, I was rather happy to do it. I had read the autobiographical account by Mirza Ruswah and it was a language I was comfortable in, Naseer was there and Khayyam Saab was at his peak. What he brought out of Asha Bhosle in that film was her best ever. The ambience and the look of the film is to the merit of Mauzaffar because he belongs to a family of that period and culture and being a painter and artist himself has sense of great aesthetics.
Rekhaji was someone we had heard slightly alarming stories about. But our experience was completely to the contrary, I don’t think anybody took more pains during the shooting of the film, she was a great co-star. Rekhaji, Khayyam Saab and Muzaffar are the film. Look at the outstanding lyrics of Shahryar!
I never really thought about awards, we were having such a good time working on interesting films and we were riding high on want we were doing. I always wanted to do one thing at a time…it depends on what you want from your career and life and what you are willing to pay for it. Hrishida (Mukherjee) used to say, you don’t have any control over the outcome of your work but you have a control over the process of making so you should enjoy the process. That was profitable wisdom, I have followed so far.

Television came to rescue as parallel cinema was dying out
You shouldn’t take yourself seriously. Remember you are a hero only on screen and not off the screen - if you think people should do you favours off-screen then it is a self-invite to trauma. You are just a monkey in the zoo, you aren’t the zoo - people won’t remain outside your cage all the time. I worked with Hrishida on Rang Birangi, Kisise Na Kehna and two serials. He was such a happy person that we would leave anything to be on his sets. To be a director you need a lot of patience and a lot of brains. I am short of both so I never aspired to be a director. If I managed to go through a film without killing my director with stress and tension that was good enough for me.
Then the parallel cinema movement was drying up - a low moment for us. TV was opening up those days. Content-wise TV was good so I did a substantial amount of TV in those days. I enjoyed doing Shrikant for a good two years - the core material of the autobiographical novel was magical - director Pravin Nischol was very committed. I did Chamatkar and over the top comedy A-haa! with Shekhar Suman and Farah. Himesh Reshammiya was just the producer then. I enjoyed doing the talk-show Jeena Issi Ka Naam Hai for two years - it was done without a script and we looked into the lives of achievers and re-lived their life experiences - it was a great peek into the life of achievers and a very rewarding experience.

Tumhari Amrita romp the world over
Tumhari Amrita was planned as an experimental show for the Jennifer Kapoor Festival in February 1992, thinking we will do four or five shows, but much to our pleasant surprise it took off hugely right from the start and we have taken it all over the world now. We also did a sequel of it - Tumhari Soniya with Sonali Bendre and myself. We have stopped counting the number of shows we have done which only producer director Feroz Khan may be able to say. Except Australia we have performed it everywhere to an overwhelming response - such is the power of that script. Next year I might do one more play - theatre is one of the things that I enjoy doing.
The entertainment industry is growing at an exponential rate - with a demand of 900 films every year and software for over 200 channels 24/7 - there is so much work in both cinema and TV that everybody is flooded with offers. In my career of 35 years this is the best time with a great quantum of offers. But for me - I will continue to do what I enjoy the most - I will pick and choose - it’s too late to change my old habits now!

Saas Bahu & Sensex for late Gul Anand’s sister
I took up Saas Bahu & Sensex only because it is being produced by the makers of Chashme Buddoor. The late Gul Anand’s sister Jayashri Makhija is the producer of the film and his niece Shona is directing it. Unfortunately I couldn’t do anything in her debut film Chupke Se... but when they offered me the role of the stockbroker this time - I was happy to do it.
Neither of my two daughters are interested in anything to do with films. They are happily into careers of their choice. Looks as if I am the only one from the family to have digressed into films.