An extract from the chapter Rocky And Rock-steady Friendships from the book Anything But Khamosh: The Shatrughan Sinha Biography by columnist, critic and author Bharathi S. Pradhan
An extract from the chapter Rocky And Rock-steady Friendships from the book Anything But Khamosh: The Shatrughan Sinha Biography by columnist, critic and author Bharathi S. Pradhan
People say that Amitabh and I made a dynamic pair on screen but if he did not wish to work with me, if he felt that in Naseeb, Shaan, Dostana or Kaala Patthar Shatrughan Sinha bhari pad gaya, it didn’t affect me,” he said nonchalantly. “There were so many films that I dropped out of and returned the signing amount. There was a film called Patthar Ke Log — one of Prakash Mehra’s — written by Salim-Javed... so many films that I gave up without a backward glance because of Amitabh Bachchan.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t respect his personality. I’ve seen him as a friend, we’ve worked together as colleagues, we’ve sailed together in good times and bad, I have good memories also. For that reason, though people say she is short-tempered, you’d never hear me say a word against Jaya Bachchan... Besides, my clashes with Amitabh have always been issue-based. If I like a performance, I will praise him. But I don’t indulge in empty flattery; I’m not in awe of him. For instance, I wouldn’t praise his acting in Paa. I woul d praise him for his courage in doing a role like Paa, for sitting for hours to get his make-up done, for carrying off such a role. But it didn’t require a great actor; it required a great personality which he could impart to the role. On the other hand I thought he was superb in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black.”
Only a few people know that Amitabh Bachchan (along with Mehmood’s brother Anwar Ali with whom he used to stay), Anil Dhawan, Asrani, Subhash Ghai and Shatrughan were all great buddies at one time, and spent several evenings together in Devdoot, the Bandstand apartment...
“It is true that I also recommended Amitabh for films. I had recommended him to Late Sultan Ahmed,” SS said. At the height of his popularity as a villain, SS had done Heera and Sultan Ahmed had been grateful that despite his escalating stardom, when the film got delayed, he was the only star who didn’t hike his price. “The other actors tend to follow the maxim, ‘Different times, different rates’. For me, once my fee was decided, I’d squirm to revise it,” he revealed.
During Heera, Sultan Ahmed would ask SS, “Where are you roaming around with this camel ” referring to his buddy, Amitabh. But when the camel morphed into a saleable box-office draw, Sultan Ahmed brazenly signed Amitabh Bachchan to topline Ganga Ki Saugandh — a film he had promised SS
Unfortunately, things did go amiss between Amitabh Bachchan and SS. “During Shaan, I had my first experience of dealing with the death of someone close to me when my father passed away. I was in Delhi and that particular day I was really keen to go to Patna to see him, he had been ailing. But my secretary, Pawanji, said, ‘The set of Shaan is ready and waiting.’ It was a scene with Raakhee, where there’s firing on a bridge. So I came back to Bombay and was having lunch when Jarnail Singh, my late friend who used to rehabilitate drug addicts, came to tell me that my father was no more Baba passed away on April 10, 1979. It still seems like yesterday. I went home to Patna, I cried a lot... ‘I don’t think I’ve cried as much as I did at my father’s funeral. Even when my mother died on April 22, 2002, I didn’t cry as much as I did that day When Sanjeev Kumar died, I was standing for nine hours by his gate. My best friend had died but I didn’t shed a tear. I had matured.”
He didn’t question it but even in his grief he had noted that Amitabh had not paid him a condolence visit when his father had passed on during the shooting of Shaan. SS had a simplistic explanation for what went wrong between Amitabh Bachchan and him when they had so much going between them.
“The problem was the applause I was getting for my performances,” he said shortly. “Amitabh could see the response I was getting. That’s why he didn’t want me in some of his films.”
With a little probing, another angle cropped up — women of course.“People say that Zeenat Aman or Rekha also contributed a little to the rift,” SS dropped their names slowly. “Maybe they didn’t like something about me and they said something to Amitabh Bachchan, or maybe they said things about me because I knew a lot about them. To strengthen their position, they would be by Amitabh’s side. During Kaala Patthar, a heroine who was known to be very friendly with him, would visit him. She would come during Dostana also but not once would he bring her out and introduce her to any of us. In showbiz, everybody knew who was visiting whom. The media would immediately know if Reena was in my make-up room. Such things can never be hidden in our world.”
By the time Kaala Patthar happened, there was barely any semblance of the friendship that once was. “On the sets of Kaala Patthar, the chair next to Amitabh would not be offered to me, nor would his umbrella be ever trained to cover any of us. We’d be heading from the location towards the same hotel but he’d sit in his car and never say, ‘Let’s go together’. I found it all very strange and wondered why this was happening because I never had any complaints against him.”
The stand-off spilled over to the sets. “There was a fight sequence in Kaala Patthar which I had been told would be an equal fight,” SS explained. “But along with fight master Shetty who is no more, it was changed to Amitabh beating the hell out of me, beating me constantly until Shashi Kapoor separated us. On this point I had to put my foot down and protest that this was not what had been narrated to me I had to argue this out and shooting was stopped for three to four hours which irked Amitabh.”
According to SS, tweaking a scene was not a new trait in Amitabh. It had happened even during Dostana. “Once, Amitabh had wanted the scene done in a particular way and Raj Khosla, the director, didn’t oblige him. Amitabh had hit out so belligerently, almost abusively, that a senior like Raj Khosla was reduced to tears. Rajji couldn’t believe that he could be talked to in such a manner by an actor.”
Subhash Ghai’s sharp assessment of SS — the warmth, the warts and the wars — presented the other side of the story. “I would often go to Poona to meet my beloved Rehana and I used to go to the Institute to meet the junior students who were very insecure about what would happen to them in the film industry. Being a senior, I used to give them tips on how to conduct themselves in the film world,” Ghai mentally visited the fabulous days on the campus.
“At FTII, there was a staircase near the sound department. One day, I was standing there when I looked up and saw a guy coming down the stairs, a tall guy with a very dominating voice talking to the students This guy walked up to me and said, ‘Subhash Ghaisaab, hum Shatrughan Sinha hain aur hame khushi hai ki aap hame marg darshan denge film industry mein kaise pravesh karna hai,’” Ghai laughed.
“ What all of them did see was a strange confidence that none of them ever possessed. It was like a man who knew that popularity was his birthright. He’d shown signs of it at FTII itself. Subhash Ghai recalled, “There was a diploma film of his in which he hits a guy and checks his watch to see if it had stopped. He became instantly popular because of that shot. Maybe it was his unique style of improvisation that fetched him notice The rest of us were a bit insecure and slightly naive. His confidence made us laugh, it made us suspicious, aur achcha bhi lagta tha.”
