Bengaluru: For 1986 film "New Delhi Times",
which revolved around the nexus between politicians and media
barons, veteran actor Shashi Kapoor took a bare minimum of Rs
101 as the signing amount.
Kapoor won the National Award for Best Actor for his
performance of an honest journalist in the film.
Kapoor, a superstar in commercial films, was one of the
few actors in the industry who loved alternative cinema and
went to great length to nurture it as a producer and actor.
"New Delhi Times" was one such film and is considered way
ahead of its time in its realistic portrayal of politics,
crime and media.
At the 10th BIFFES, film's director Ramesh Sharma
presented the drama on Tuesday as an homage to the Bollywood
superstar, who died in December last year at the age of 79.
Sharma recalled his meeting with Kapoor , whom he met
through Subroto Mitra, the cameraman in all of Satyajit Ray
films.
"When I went to meet Shashi Kapoor, he took me out to
dinner at Bombay's Golden Dragon restaurant at Raj. I narrated
the story to him while we sat and told him I wanted him to
play the lead in the film.
"To this he counter questioned, 'How much money do you
have in your pocket?' I thought he wanted me to pay the bill.
I replied, 'I have a thousand rupees'. The actor said, 'Take
out Rs 100. It's the signing amount. I'm working in your
film."
The director, who was debuting with "New Delhi Times",
said when the film was about to go on floors, he received a
call from Kapoor, saying his wife Jennifer was dying with
cancer and it was no longer possible for him to do the film.
"I told him it was difficult for me take another actor at
this point. I had visualised the whole film with him in my
mind," Sharma recalled.
Kapoor even suggested the names of "usual suspects"
Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher but the director refused.
"I waited for him. Unfortunately, Jennifer died within
the week. Shashi came back and it took him around six months
to recover. His family then forced him to work so that he
could get out of his grief. And this was the film in which he
worked," he said.
Sharma remembers Kapoor as a thorough gentleman and a
great artiste, who could deliver dialogues in a single take
and wanted to contribute to good cinema.
"I was lucky Shashi agreed to work in the film," he said.
PTI
