Shatrughan Sinha, who worked with Manoj Kumar in films like Kranti and Santosh, shares, “Manoj Kumar was a Bharat Ratna in the true sense. He was rightly called the son of the soil, and he was the pride of the nation. He was not only my co-actor and director, but also a very good friend. We were regularly in touch for the last three decades. He used to fondly call me Ramayanvasi because my house is called Ramayan and when my kids Luv and Kush were born, he had come to visit us at the hospital. He had named my kids and he would say, 'Main unka mama hoon'. He used to love Poonam's cooking and we would regularly send his favourite dishes to his home. Around four months ago, we met him at his home, and I asked him about his health and homeopathy medicines because he knew a lot about it. He said, 'Arre Shotgun chhodo woh baatein, I am very fine and strong'.”

Sharing how he regretted not doing his film Shor with Jaya Bachchan, he says, “Sir had offered me a film Shor with Jaya ji, but we had date issues. Jaya ji wanted to complete the film in 4 months and I needed 8 months. So Premnath ji, who was also a very good actor, did the role. I could not act in Shor and it is my biggest regret till date.”

Sinha shared further, “We all actors would agree that there were two most handsome guys from those days - Manoj Kumar and Dharam ji. We had never seen such good-looking men who were also talented.”

Recounting their time together on the sets, Sinha says, “I was perennially late on the sets, but he never scolded me. He used to say, 'There must be a genuine reason why you are late. Let's finish our work on time now’. I remember him as a complete artiste - a talented actor, even better director and editor, and he had passion for Indian cinema. He used to sometimes write scenes on the set and shoot a song at one go. A positive mind, great sense of humour and fun-loving. Manoj sir had deshbhakti ingrained in him and I will always fondly remember him.”

"I owe Shor to Sharmila Tagore,“ asserts the film's writer, producer, director, editor and lead actor Manoj Kumar. He informs that once he'd finished the script of Roti Kapda Aur Makaan, he narrated it to his publicist friend Gopal Pandey. A few days later, he went to meet Sharmila and she surprised him by saying that she'd already heard the story from Gopal, who was also her publicist and wanted to play the role of Tulsi.

Tulsi is the poor construction worker Manoj's character, Bharat is drawn to after his girlfriend, Sheetal, ditches him for her wealthy boss. He didn't think glamorous Sharmila was suited for this role and offered to cast her as Sheetal instead. But she had set her heart on Tulsi.

“In the midst of our discussion her husband Tiger (Mansoor Ali Khan Patudi) wandered in and I pointed out to the ace cricketer that even he played each ball on its merit but yahan gadbad ho rahi thi,“ he reminisces, admitting that he couldn't persuade Sharmila to change her mind. And Roti Kapda Aur Makaan was eventually made with Zeenat Aman as Sheetal and Moushumi Chatterjee as Tulsi.

Meanwhile, Manoj Kumar took his family to Delhi and they spent a day in the farm he owned. After a lunch of bajre ki roti, when he stretched out on the charpoy for a nap, he overheard his children sighing over the silence around.“Kitni shanti hai yahan, koi shor nahin,“ they murmured. The word 'shor' stuck on his mind and by the time they returned to the hotel, he'd penned a four-page short story.

In the lobby he ran into poet, lyricist and politician Vitthalbhai Patel and narrated the story to him. And despite his friend's sceptism, assured him that he'd turn it into a film.

Back in Mumbai he met Jaya Bhaduri, the Guddi girl, and asked her if she wanted to hear the story or only wanted him to sketch out the role he had in mind for her.“Of course the story,“ she retorted.

“It's a father-son story. Beta bol nahin sakta, baap uski awaaz sunna chahta hai. Jiss din beta bolta hai, baap sun nahin sakta,“ he told her briefly and when she agreed to play Rani, explained that after the child loses his voice and his mother in an accident, his father slogs to earn money for a surgery. It is successful and the doctor assures the excited dad that in a day he'll hear his son speak again but before that can happen, he meets with an accident and loses his hearing. “It was one of Jaya's best performances,“ he applauds 43 years later.

Satyajeet, whose father Daljeet was the star of Punjabi films, played his son Deepak. On the last day of shoot, the child had high fever, with his temperature going upto 104 degrees. “He was fast asleep when I took that shot of him in the operation theatre and despite a doctor present, felt like a criminal. I was helpless,“ he sighs.

For the role of the wife, he'd first approached Smita Patil, a TV newsreader then. But she was not interested in films at the time. After that, his wife, Shashi set up a meeting with Nanda who agreed to do the role on one condition...She wouldn't charge a rupee for it.

“Reluctantly, I agreed and after that, both Shashi and I tried to compensate her in many ways but she refused,“ he says, raving about her professionalism. “With other actors, I'd look through the viewfinder of the camera while setting up a shot and see my assistant standing in. But when it was a scene with Nanda, I saw her.“

Four decades later, Ek pyaar ka nagma hai, crooned by Nanda in the film, still echoes through the corridors of time. “It was Pyarelal's favourite song,“ Manoj Kumar smiles, pointing out that Laxmikant-Pyarelal were nominated for the Filmfare Awards for their music score, along with Mukesh (best playback singer, male) and Santosh Anand (best lyricist) for Ek pyaar ka nagma hai.

“Premnath was nominated in the best supporting actor category and I was in the running for the best story, best director and best editor awards. I only won the editing award thanks to Hrishikesh Mukherjee who headed the technical jury. He sighs, “Film chali, it made a tidy profit, but very few people had anything good to say about Shor or its all-rounder filmmaker, the original perfectionist.“