Passionate is how Pahlaj Nihalani’s collaborators and friends from the industry describe the veteran producer, who passed away on June 4, at 76. In his close to four-decade career, he not only backed several mainstream entertainers, but also gave Bollywood two stars in Govinda and Chunky Panday.

When mid-day reached out to Panday, the actor remembered how a chance meeting led Nihalani to cast him in Aag Hi Aag (1987). “We met under hilarious circumstances at a hotel bathroom in Juhu. Pahlaj ji helped me out of an awkward situation and asked me to meet him at his office the next day. Then I did two films back-to-back with him — Aag Hi Aag, and Paap Ki Duniya [1988]. I owe him a big thanks for launching my career,” he said.

To him, Nihalani was a father figure. But on set, he was always a hands-on producer first. “He made me do 32 retakes for my first shot; he wanted it perfect,” recalled the actor.

Their most memorable collaboration was Aankhen (1993). “He made it under tough circumstances. Nobody had dates available except Govinda, David Dhawan, Anees Bazmee, and I,” added Panday.

Bazmee, who wrote Aankhen and collaborated with Nihalani on several hits, also attests to this unrelenting passion.

According to the writer and director, talking films till 4 am at the producer’s house was a regular affair. “Once, he knocked at my door at 5 am. He wanted to tweak the scene we were to shoot that day. Since everyone was asleep at my house, we sat at a nearby tea stall and I wrote the changes on a tissue paper. He was a dildaar producer!”

Ilzaam’s leading lady Neelam too remembered the producer as “large-hearted and kind”. She said, “When I first met him for a narration, he told me, ‘Baby, we will do many hit films together.’ I had no idea I’d go on to have so many hits with him.”

While production brought him much success, Nihalani’s run as the chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification was controversial. In his tenure between 2015 and 2017, he was infamous for demanding cuts in many movies, most notably in Udta Punjab (2016).