Veteran actor Shashi Kapoor passed away on 4 December at the age of 79. For the last few years, the actor was being treated for a chronic kidney disease and had been on dialysis.
While he acted in over 150 films, including international ones, in the late ’70s and early ’80s he gave some of his best performances. And most of these films also starred Amitabh Bachchan. Though Roti Kapda aur Makaan was their first film together, the jodi became a blockbuster with 1975 classic Deewar. The Vijay-Ravi pair of Deewar became so popular that Bachchan was always named Vijay and Kapoor was often named Ravi in all their films together. After collaborating in 12 films as actors, Kapoor even went on to direct Bachchan in his fantasy film Ajooba in 1991.
Bachchan wrote a blog reminiscing his time with Shashi Kapoor and shared some lovely memories of his co-star, friend and samdhi.
When Bachchan was still struggling to make it big in Bollywood, he saw a picture of Shashi in a magazine and thought “With men like him around, I stood no chance", he wrote in his blog.
Among many other things, two things about Shashi Kapoor that impressed Big B the most were - how the actor would introduce himself and his hairstyle.
“The self introduction habit, was a gem. The one being introduced to, was, quite obviously, prompted to say his or her name as well, when they heard his. It was a remarkable tool to come to know the other person’s name.”Amitabh Bachchan on Shashi Kapoor (in his blog)
Big B also shared that he didn’t go to the hospital to visit Shashi when he was battling with the kidney disease because he didn’t want to see him in that state.
Kapoor’s passing in indeed the end of an era and more reason for us to go back and re-watch the films of this wonderful jodi.
Editor: Veeru Krishan Mohan
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)