Showing posts with label Mere Apne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mere Apne. Show all posts
Jackie Shroff did not even know how to grow a flower, but now he gives me lectures on gardening-Danny Denzongpa
8:13 PM
Natasha Coutinho (BOMBAY TIMES; August 4, 2024)
They may be a decade apart in age, but Danny Denzongpa (76) and Jackie Shroff (67) have been best friends for years. Danny lives in Sikkim now and travels to Mumbai only occasionally, but neither distance nor work commitments can keep these dosts apart. This Friendship Day, the veteran actors share their little-known buddy stories with us. Excerpts:
How did the two of you meet, and what were your first impressions of each other?
Danny Denzongpa: I met Jackie when he was working on his launch film, Hero. We met at a hotel, where I saw him wearing cowboy boots, with his feet up on the table. He was looking very shabby, because that’s how the character was. We shook hands and I hugged him, wishing him the best and I liked his confidence. Though he was a newcomer, he was very likable, and we clicked. After Hero became a big hit, I went to meet him at Teen Batti chawl in Mumbai, where he stayed. I was already a star then and a crowd had gathered around me. Jackie stepped out shirtless with just a towel around his waist, asking people to step away. He was like a dada those days. I was surprised to see that he lived in a one-room chawl, though his movie had become a hit, and he could have moved out. I met his mother as well and we became close friends. Later, I also met his then girlfriend, now wife Ayesha, and she became my rakhi sister.
Jackie Shroff: The first time I saw Danny saab on-screen was in Mere Apne and I identified with him – the kurta-pyjama, long hair and bag on his back. (Not the bomb in the bag, but the rest of the look!) When I became an actor later, we got the opportunity to work together in films like Andar Baahar and we really bonded. We were shooting on an oil rig near the Gateway of India and for a week, we would travel together by boat. Post shoot, Danny saab would often drop by and have a cup of tea with my family. He calls me “sangeet ka dushman”, because he likes to sing while I just hum my lines. Both of us share a common interest – cooking.
Danny: We shot for Yudh in Kathmandu and travelled to Pokhara, where we shot for 15-20 days. I would take off for a nearby lake after the shoot, and park myself in a boat in the middle of the lake. When Jackie found out about it, he started joining me. We would go off to beautiful locations, watch the sunset and sing songs, and that’s how our friendship progressed - Danny Denzongpa
Danny, you were one of the few people invited to Jackie and Ayesha’s wedding and now both of your children are friends too.
Danny: When they got married, Jackie invited just five-six close friends, including Subhash Ghai, Rajinikanth, Anupam Kher and me. A year later, Tiger was born, and Jackie called me up at 4 am to give me the news! I took glasses and champagne bottles in my icebox and went to the hospital. Then, Jackie, some of his friends and I went to a dhaba for an idli-vada breakfast, and we popped the champagne there. When my kids were born, the four children – Tiger-Krishna and Rinzing-Pema – would spend time together at his home or mine.
Jackie: Rinzing is more like my son; for me, there is no difference between him and Tiger and it’s the same for Danny saab. Both of us see Pema and Krishna as sisters; they are in the same age group and buddies as well.
Both of you share your enthusiasm for growing organic plants and vegetables and protecting the environment.
Danny: I ran away from Mumbai’s polluted air and water and now I live in Sikkim. While spending time with me, Jackie started taking an interest in nature and started planting organic fruits and rice. He did not even know how to grow a flower, but now he gives me lectures on gardening (laughs).
Jackie: He is the one who made me learn all about respecting nature, and that every plant and tree is different. That’s how I started propagating the message about being environmentally conscious.
How do you keep in touch despite the distance?
Danny: Jackie visited me last October and stayed for a week. When it gets cold in Sikkim I come and stay at Jackie’s farmhouse near Mumbai.
Jackie: We go down to Mahabaleshwar or Matheran together and every memory is special, or I go to Sikkim sometimes. We have a lot to talk about, be it jhaad-paan (plants), waterfalls and other facets of nature. I’m waiting for him to finish his work and come meet me soon.
What has kept your friendship strong even after all these years?
Danny: The best thing about our relationship is that we have no expectations from each other – it’s pure. We sit together for hours without talking; it is the kind of relationship I had with my mother. I used to lie down in her lap as she said her prayers and our communication would go on though we weren’t talking. Jackie, too, isn’t very talkative and that is why the relationship is special.
Jackie: We are more than brothers and ours is a friendship that will never change. He is a pure soul. It's difficult to find a person like Danny saab – so dignified and with no malice towards anyone. He has a sense of decorum and grace, wherever he is. He is very smart and refined, and I’m surprised he is my friend. I'm not polished at all like him, but we are the best of buddies.
Ramesh Deo passes away at 93
8:02 AM
Avijit Ghosh (THE TIMES OF INDIA; February 3, 2022)
Actor Ramesh Deo, who enjoyed a popular and prolific career in Marathi and Hindi films over a staggering seven decades, died of heart attack at a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday. He was 93.
Several roles performed by Deo remain vivid as ever. The only and wily distant relative who sweet-talks an elderly Meena Kumari to move in with them, only to reduce her to a house help in ‘Mere Apne’ (1971). The amiable but worldly-wise doctor, who sits with his wife (real-life wife too, Seema) in ‘Anand’ (1971) as Rajesh Khanna sings ‘Maine Tere Liye Hi Saat Rang Ke Sapne Chune’.
Who would have forgotten the scene where ‘Jumping Jack’ Jeetendra sings and whips him in the same breath, belting out the title track in ‘Jaise ko Taisa’ (1973). Only a first-rate actor could have displayed the different shades that these roles required with such effortless ease. Deo, also a performer of repute in the Marathi theatre world, did it with ease and elan.
Born in Kolhapur, Deo went to school and college there and got a break in the Marathi film industry as a junior artist in the early 1950s. He went on to set up his own production house: Ajinkya Theatres. Deo became a top star. ‘Umaj Padel Tar (1960), ‘Vardakshina’ (1962), ‘Molkarin’ (1963) and ‘Aparadh’ (1969) are just four of his memorable films.
Director Phani Majumdar’s superhit, ‘Aarti’ (1962), the first film produced by Rajshri Films, was among his early Hindi films. He got the much heftier part of a senior police officer in the thriller ‘Love And Murder’ (1966) directed by the famous Marathi director Raja Paranjpe. The veteran was to play a cop in dozens of other Hindi films, ‘36 Ghante’, a desi remake of Hollywood’s ‘The Desperate Hours’, being one of them.
Deo was the lead villain in the Amitabh Bachchan-Hema Malini starrer ‘Kasauti’ (1973), a box-office hit. Deo continued to be a familiar face in Hindi films over the decades. Some years ago he was a regular on TV, endorsing products like Surf Excel, Vijay Sales and Lufthansa. It helped that with his sons, he also ran a vastly successful ad production house. According to IMDB, his last film, ‘Jeevan Sandhya’ (Marathi) was released in 2021.
Deo’s grandfather came to Kolhapur to work as an engineer for Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj and his father worked as a legal advisor to the Kolhapur Sansthan. According to his company website, Deo acted in over 285 Hindi films, 190 Marathi films and 30 Marathi dramas. He is survived by wife Seema, and sons Ajinkya and Abhinay. Ajinkya is an actor too and Abhinay is known for directing films such as ‘Delhi Belly’.
Deo contested the 1996 Lok Sabha election from Kolhapur at the insistence of Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray but lost in a triangular fight.
When I came into the industry, I was like an alien as I looked different!-Danny Denzongpa
7:57 AM
Hiren Kotwani (BOMBAY TIMES; May 21, 2018)
In a career spanning over four-and-a-half decades, Danny Denzongpa has essayed a variety of roles. The 70-year-old, who has declined offers for want of novelty in characters and films, now spends most of his time at his farmhouse in his home state Sikkim, where he has a successful brewery business. When he’s not acting in movies, the Padma Shri recipient paints, carves, treks, till an interesting role and project beckons him to Mumbai. With his next, Bioscopewala releasing on May 25, we catch up with the actor. Excerpts...
In the recent past, you have been a part of movies like Jai Ho and Bang Bang (2014), Baby (2015) as well as Naam Shabana (2017). But it has been long since you have had a full-fledged role in a film…
Maybe you feel that because you’re used to seeing me in powerful roles. But in Baby, I had maximum scenes, and we shot according to the script. Having said that, there has been a gap, but during that time I was shooting for Bioscopewala and then I took up Manikarnika - The Queen Of Jhansi. The latter is mounted on a huge scale and took time to make. I still have to do some patchwork on it. That’s my other release this year.
Do you attribute your missing-in-action to lack of good scripts, interesting characters and films?
Many offers that came to me were conventional roles, which I had played before. Most new directors have that image of me from the movies, which I did in the ’80s and ’90s. That was too monotonous and I wanted to do something different. So, I chose these two movies.
What made you take up Bioscopewala?
It’s based on Rabindranath Tagore’s story Kabuliwala. When I was a kid, I had seen Bimal Roy’s Kabuliwala, in which Balraj Sahni played the protagonist. It’s a nice emotional story, which revolves around the relationship between the protagonist and the little girl. That film really moved me. In the ’70s, I wanted to do a film on Kabuliwala and requested Bimal Roy if he could part with the rights. But that time, it didn’t materialise. So, when this offer came to me, I was excited as I wanted to do this role.
It’s been 47 years since you started as an actor with Mere Apne (1971). How do you look back at the journey?
It has been a pleasant journey. When I came into the industry, I was like an alien as I looked different (laughs). Filmmakers would make movies on subjects in which I didn’t fit in. Somehow I got a chance to act in Gulzar saab’s Mere Apne. Then B R Ishara chose me for Zaroorat (1972). Finally, B R Chopra cast me in Dhund (1973), which made me a star. People have been kind after that. Then filmmakers started making lost-and-found stories. Manmohan Desai made many of them, which became huge hits. I couldn’t fit in them as I couldn’t look like anyone’s son or brother. So, I didn’t accept many of those offers. Then, N N Sippy offered me Fakira (1976) and interestingly, I was supposed to play Shashi Kapoor’s brother. It became a golden jubilee hit. That’s when I realised that once the public accepts you, they will accept you in any part. Thereafter, I played everyone’s brother or father (smiles).
In hindsight, do you think you got your due as an actor?
I have been blessed to be successful. However, sometimes I feel I didn’t get the kind of roles I wanted to play. I did Frozen (2007), which was a nice subject and a different take on cinema. It won two National Awards, bagged honours and won acclaim at several international film festivals, but it didn’t do well commercially. I was still waiting for interesting parts. Bioscopewala is one of those films that has a simple, yet different story and is made very well. Director Deb Medhekar and his crew have worked hard. The response to the trailer is good and I hope people like the movie, too.
Having started in 1971, you wanted to quit acting around 1980. Then again sometime in 2003, you wanted to take a break. Why did you want to quit and what made you change your mind?
When the roles got monotonous, I took a break. In fact, I wanted to quit and attempt something different. I went through that phase several times. In the ’70s, I was doing many films and suddenly I got so fed up with the routine work that I stopped signing movies. I directed a horror flick, Phir Wohi Raat (1980) with Rajesh Khanna. Then I took a break for two years as I was fed up. I went trekking, started painting, carving... I do all these things as they give me immense pleasure. Cinema is an expensive art form whereas painting requires just some paint and a brush. If you don’t like it, you can trash it and restart. So, it doesn’t cost much. I follow my heart. Fortunately, people accepted me when I resumed working in movies.
Phir Wohi Raat is still considered as one of the best Hindi horror films. Why didn’t you direct again?
I had some scripts when I got more acting offers from major filmmakers. While shooting those movies, I discussed the subjects that I wanted to explore with those producers. But they felt the stories were either like Hollywood movies or not too commercial. Since I got good acting offers, I took them up and didn’t pursue direction the way most people do. Someday, if I feel like, I might make a different movie.
You played some of the most memorable antagonists on screen... With heroes playing negative roles, do you think it’s the end of villains in Bollywood?
I think so. I remember, many years ago, before I joined films, Dharamji played a character with grey shades in Aayee Milan Ki Bela (1964), which starred Rajendra Kumar and Saira Banu. He was even nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Those days, heroes never did negative roles. In the ’70s and ’80s, villains became the most important characters after heroes. In the stories, their roles were written larger-than-life. They had wonderful dialogues, they were loud and seemed gimmicky, but it made a lot of impact on the audience. There was Pran saab, Prem Chopra, then I came in, then Amrish Puri, Amjad Khan, Ranjeet, Gulshan Grover, Shakti Kapoor, everyone had their own parts. But when heroes started playing grey characters, the parts for villains gradually diminished. Now, if it’s written in a believable way, we can still do it.
Most star kids follow their parents’ footsteps into Bollywood. Is your son, Rinzing, too gearing up for his debut?
Rinzing has been training himself. He’s even getting offers, but he will have to decide for himself what is right for him. For a newcomer, picking a wrong movie at the beginning of his career can prove to have an adverse effect for a couple of years. He’s a grown-up boy who can look after himself. What’s the use if I have to make a film for him or call friends to cast him? He should achieve his goal on his own merit.
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