Lessons Life Taught Me, Unknowingly by Anupam Kher

Author:Anupam Kher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hay House
Published: 2019-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

I also have great memories of working in Subhash Ghai’s other multi-starrer, Saudagar, in 1991 and which was advertised as the ‘Clash of the Titans’ as it had Dilip Kumar with the so-called temperamental Raaj Kumar. They had acted 32 years earlier in S. S. Vasan’s Paigham in 1959.

I was intrigued to make acquaintance with Raaj Kumar. There was a good deal of mystery surrounding him with any number of stories about his temperament, mood swings, whims and fancies and eccentricities.

It is not in my nature to judge people. That’s not in my DNA. Working in cinema has taught me that everyone has two sides, the public image seen by all and the other which is kept very private. Only when one has a preview of both aspects does the total picture emerge.

Once we started shooting for Saudagar, I, realised that though he was a natural in his role of Rajeshwar Singh, the aristocrat landlord, it was his everyday personality I was drawn to. Like the others, I too noticed his quirks and eccentricities. Apparently, one of his conditions with Subhash Ghai was that during the making of the film, two large vehicles would follow him to the shooting locations carrying his complete wardrobe of costumes created for him for the entire film along with the other accessories like his footwear, walking sticks, wigs, bags containing his smoking pipes and all the paraphernalia that went with it including three briefcases containing the various spectacles he would use. Everything was under the charge of his own attendant. He would always travel alone in his car, without even his personal Jeeves, who would follow him in a separate one. Naturally, it amazed all of us in the unit and initially, whispers flew all around. Subhash Ghai dismissed it all ‘stoically’ and had ‘given standing instructions to his assistants to see that the vehicles were ready each day and the clothes and accessories were transported exactly the way Raaj Kumar had wished.

I used to be quite disappointed that I had never heard him use the legendary word jaani on me. But I didn’t have to wait for long. Once during a shoot in Manali for Saudagar, I said: ‘Bhook lagi hain sir, bahut zyada. Aapko lagi hai?’ (Sir, I am feeling very hungry. Are you as well?)

His reply was: ‘Jaani, hamesha to sirf jaanwaro ko bhook lagi hoti hain’ (Jaani, only animals are always hungry). That made my day. Finally, he had addressed me as ‘jaani’—something I had been waiting for since long. I was amused. I could have felt hurt by what he said, but no . . . I was thrilled and went around telling everyone I met for the next couple of days or so about it. That makes all the difference. Nobody could ever say the word ‘jaani’ as Raaj Kumar said. Once we started working together, he liked me. He would normally say: ‘Kashmiri pandit, I like you.’ Born Kulbhushan Pandit, he, like me, too hailed from Kashmir. Larger than life, he had an inimitable style of walking and talking.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.