New Delhi: Amitabh Bachchan is known for his memory and cordial relationship with fellow actors. He recalls about his camaraderie with Pran during the shoot of 'Don'(1978). He has written a post about his friendship with Pran on his Facebook page.
Amitabh Bachchan writes, "Pran Saheb and I came together for the first time, in Zanjeer and from then on our presence together in endless films. He was a most dedicated artist, changed his look and actions in almost each film he worked in, and was most professional."
He further writes, "Invariably his make up involved wigs and beards of different nature, but irrespective of the intricacy of its bearing and the time consumption in putting them on, he was always the first person on set, and never went back to his make up room even if he was not required for the shot."
Amitabh Bachchan adds, "He never argued or disagreed with any procedure on the film, never interfered, just quietly went about his work and left. He has a great repertoire of 'shayari' and would often entertain us with the choicest works through his fantastic memory of them. 'Don' was directed by a dear family friend Chandra Barot, his first film as director. He had been an assistant director to Manoj Kumar, during the making of 'Shor', which had Jaya in the lead. She introduced me to him and since then our friendship has remained."
"Don was written by the fantastic duo of Salim-Javed and produced by the most gentlest of humans that I encountered in the Industry, Cameraman DOP, Nariman Irani. He was a giant of a man, but with a heart of gold. Soft spoken with a continuous smile on his face, he always, for some reason kept addressing me with the words 'Keys of the Kingdom'. It was only later, much later that I discovered that it was the title of a Hollywood film he liked, and wished to produce next. Unfortunately he did not live to see it through. At the shooting of one of the films he was doing as DOP, he, seeing a portion of the set breaking and about to fall on a little child that was working in the film, ran to save the child, saved him, but fell in doing so and broke his hip bone. He was hospitalised, one complication followed another and he never came out of it. Sadly he passed away in his prime," recalls Amitabh very vividly.
Amitabh shares an interesting story about the song 'Khaike paan' from 'Don', "This scene that you see in the picture was shot at Mehboob Studios, in its drive way where this wall set was put up. The waistcoat that I wore continued for a long sequence including the song 'khaike paan banaras wala' and also the climax. The song was an after thought. Chandra showed the rough cut of the film to Manoj Kumar ji, and he suggested that the second half needed a song, and Kalyanji Anandji came up with that hit number, written by lyricist Anjaan, father of lyricist Sameer. 'Khaike paan ...' was shot at a floor on Mehboob Studios too, in my second shift - we did two shifts a day in those days, for two different films. The morning shift from 7am-2pm was an action sequence at China Creek, during which I had hurt the palm of my feet and developed huge painful blisters. The song was done bare feet as you may see, and with the blisters was an impossibility. But, because 'Don' was on release, I had to do it. How? Hmmm ... Pain killing injections, every hour during the shoot that numbed the palm of the feet! Not something that I would recommend for anyone!"
####
Comments
0 comment