Upala KBR (DNA; March 13, 2014)

Anil Kapoor is all set to shoot with the man with whom he started his career 32 years ago in Woh Saat Din — Naseeruddin Shah. They will be seen together on screen in Welcome Back.

Before flying off for his schedule, Anil got nostalgic. “This will be my fourth film with Naseer. The first one was Woh Saat Din (1982) followed by Karma (1986) and then Rajkumar (1996). So we will be sharing screen space after 18 years. If Naseer hadn’t said yes to working with me at the beginning of my career, it would have never taken off.”

Anil recalls, “When the makers of Woh Saat Din first approached Naseer for the role, he refused to do the film with me in the lead. Then Boney spoke to him and emotionally blackmailed him into taking up the film.”
He first met Shah on the sets of Hum Paanch (1980) when Naseer was already a star and he was a lowly assistant director in his home production. “My job was to pick up Naseer from the airport and give him company. I have always been a huge fan of his, and I would speak to him whenever I got a chance.”

Anil admits that he learnt a lot from Naseer, “My first lead role as an actor, after Hum Paanch, was a Telugu film called Vamsa Vruksham. I remember Naseer wrote me a note when I was starting to learn Telugu and that really pepped me up. He told me that acting doesn’t need any language. He also taught me the trick to learn different languages — I wrote down in Roman numerals and remembered the sounds in English. I was feeling very insecure but his letter pumped me up.”

They haven’t worked together for almost two decades. Anil smiles, “It will be like old times. When we did Rajkumar, things had changed and the whole situation was different. The film wasn’t going in the right direction and it was not the best atmosphere... Naseer and I didn’t interact much at the time. But I am expecting Welcome Back to be fun. It’s been 18 years and we will start all over again.”

They may have started out on an unequal footing 32 years ago but now when they will meet as equals as Anil has become an international star since. He humbly says, “Naseer and I can never be equals. I will always look up to him as I admire and respect him too much.”