Veteran actress Shabana Azmi recently shared a unique anecdote about her experience working with the late Shashi Kapoor. In a Zoom interview, Azmi revealed a surprising encounter that showcased the late actor-filmmaker’s unconventional approach to acting and his underlying care for his co-stars. Shabana Azmi recalls Shashi Kapoor’s “Crazy” behaviour on Fakira set: “I looked at my hairdresser, and I said, ‘How mean is he?’” The veteran actress, a self-proclaimed admirer of Shashi Kapoor since the age of nine, detailed her experience on the sets of the 1976 film Fakira .
She described Kapoor's initial behaviour as “mean" but ultimately helpful. Shabana recalled, “He was crazy. I will give you an example: We were shooting for Fakira, and the song was 'Dil Mein Tujhe Bithakar '.
Now, I went on set before he arrived, and Satyanarayan ji was doing the choreography. I saw that the moves were very intimate. I was very young at that time, and I had tears in my eyes.
I left the set, and my heart was thudding because I really didn’t want to do those shots.” “So I went in, and I told my hairdresser that I couldn’t do those shots, and I started crying. Suddenly there was a heavy knocking on the door, comes Shashi Kapoor, he was like, ‘What’s wrong with you’, so I said, ‘I can’t do those scenes’, he said, ‘Why, when you became an actress, didn’t you realise this when you told your mother you want to become an actress, stupid girl’, and he left.
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