On 100 years of Dev Anand
On the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of one of the greatest and most successful actors in the history of Indian cinema – Dev Anand, veteran actress Saira Banu shared a few fond memories with the former, revealing how he used to forward roles to her in his movies.
Saira, who has become an ardent social media user, took to photo-sharing application Instagram and shared a black and white throwback picture with Dev Anand. She also posted two video clips from their movie ‘Pyar Mohabbat’.
The actress penned a long note, which read: “Happy 100th Birthday! In the 1955 film ‘C.I.D.’ Dev Saab wanted to cast my mother Naseemji but at that time Sultan bhai and I were schooling in London and she had to be there with us, so she declined. Shakilaji did the same role. A similar thing happened in the 1958 film ‘Kaala Paani’ were Naseemji’s role was then played by Nalini Jaywant. Sahib had described her as the ‘Greatest Actress’ he ever worked with”.
“We the family knew Dev Saab as an effervescent and friendly guy who loved all of us, be it Sahib, Naseemji, and myself. His favourite punchline was ‘Hey! We must meet’ but that happens infrequently,” she said.
Saira went on to say: “For Shankar Mukerji’s ‘PYAAR MOHABBAT’, Saab and I were filming on a huge ship from Bombay to Aden, shooting on board songs, romantic and comedy scenes with a houseful of foreigner Tourist laden Europeans. The journey was for a couple of days and we were to finish our work in that time. Now, would you believe it, he was so withdrawn from this crowd of foreigners that on the first day he wanted to get accustomed to the idea of them being out there”.
‘Pyar Mohabbat’ is a 1966 film produced and directed by Shankar Mukherjee. It stars Dev Anand and Saira Banu in pivotal roles.
“He was a shy, withdrawn person Dev Saab, he felt he had to get used to the faces of the crowd before starting the work. ‘Shankar I have to relax and get used to the faces of these foreigners’. The next day Shankarji and I ventured into his cabin and talked to him. I said, ‘Look you have to pick me up and throw me into the swimming pool and time is running out soon, the ship will land at Aden in a day’s time and we must pack up!’. I got him out and it has been smooth sailing since then.”
Saira shared an anecdote and revealed why she declined the 1965 romantic drama ‘Guide’, directed by Vijay Anand and produced by Dev Anand, who co-starred in the film with Waheeda Rehman.
“Fortunately Dev Saab would always forward a role to me in his film, one good example was ‘Guide’ for which Tad Danielwski came to my mother’s Nepean Sea Road House at ‘Sea Belle’ to ask me for the film. At that time I was to do Mehboob Khan’s ‘HABBA KHATOON” , the story of the Kashmiri poetess and the role of Yusuf Chak, the Kashmiri prince was to be played by Sahib. This was my priority and so I had to decline ‘Guide'”, she said.
Promising more stories in the future, she concluded: “I am happy about this because I feel I would have been too young to do this role. Similarly I could not do ‘TEEN DEVIYAAN’ or ‘JEWEL THIEF’. Now, there’s another funny incident with Devji, I will write about it tomorrow.” (IANs)