On the occasion of Father’s Day, which was yesterday, some of Bollywood’s prominent stars got talking about their respective fathers and why they are special to them.
Father’s Day Special: Saif Ali Khan, Tiger Shroff and others speak about their beloved dad
Namashi Chakraborty on his father Mithun Chakraborty
By Subhash K Jha
It was Mithun Chakraborty’s birthday yesterday. It was also Father’s Day. What better opportunity to speak to Mithun’s son Namashi about his father? Said Namashi, “He is very honest, he is very giving. and he always believes in letting his children have their own opinions and he’s a great cook. My dad is a fabulous cook. I think if we end up gaining weight for not the better of us, it’s because of his cooking.”
The quality that Namashi likes best about his father? “What I like the most about my father is that he has worked hard all his life. It’s a quality to truly admire that he has worked hard for so many years. It is remarkable what he has achieved and how he has been able to achieve such a brilliant lineage for himself,” he said.
The junior Chakraborty is proud to be known as his father’s son. “I was just shooting yesterday for a short film called Izhar and on set whoever knew me and whoever got to know me, and they realized whose son I am, they only and only had wonderful things to say about him. That’s a quality I think every, not just Indian, but every human being should have,” said Namashi.
Namashi has seen every single film of his dad’s. “I have loved Phool Aur Angaar, Agneepath, Prem Pratigya, Tadipaar, Hum Paanch, The Tashkent Files, Unees Bees and Disco Dancer. I have already danced with him on a song in Bad Boy, so that dream has already come true. But yes, I’d love to act with him. He’s a fantastic actor, after all.”
Abhinay Deo on his father actor Ramesh Deo
Abhinay Deo’s father was the legendary Marathi-Hindi actor Ramesh Deo. He worked in approximately 285 Hindi films, 190 Marathi films. He also produced feature films, television serials and nearly 260 advertisement films. He directed a number of films, documentaries and television serials.
His son Abhinay Deo who directed the recent Savi remembers his father fondly. “Baba…
A small word.. sounds like a start of a famous nursery rhyme.. sounds like the babbling of an infant.. a word that means the same in many cultures and many languages.. it means father. My baba .. the youngest old man I ever knew.. the oldest friend I ever had.. the teacher I learned the most from.. Every Father’s Day I ask myself, what’s that one word I would use to best explain the man called Ramesh Narayansingh Deo.. Strong, handsome, evergreen, actor, director, producer, visionary, wise, creative, progressive, funny, mad, determined, passionate, loving, legend…. Well I think calling him Baba is just fine .. it says it all.”
Pooja Bedi On Her Father Kabir Bedi
Pooja and her father Kabir Bedi have had their differences in the past. But it is all good now. The doting daughter said, “There’s so much to say for 54 years of being his daughter. What exactly are you looking for? He is an incredible emotionally and mentally well-travelled individual. What makes him so special is that he has always maintained his composure & sense of humor in even the most testing times. I love that he takes nothing for granted… and is always open to new thoughts and perspectives and is so well-read on every topic you can think of across generations.”
Pooja’s father is the first true global Indian superstar. Pooja remembers Kabir Bedi’s superstardom from when she was a child. She said, “Stardom, press, fans …these weren’t new to me as a child as both my parents were famous in their own right… But my father’s Italian film Sandokan released when I was 9 and I’d seen photos of the mob fans in Italy. Till date, he is a household name in Italy as his work on TV and in movies and incredible fame continue there… And of course, for me swimming in the pool with Roger Moore at age 12 while my father was shooting with him for Octopussy was an OMG experience! Happy father’s day to a truly amazing man and father.”
“I think about him every day. I don’t need one special day to do so,” Tiger on Jackie Shroff
It isn’t easy being the son of Jackie Shroff. He is and has always been overpowering in his personality without trying to be. For a very long time, Tiger was extremely awkward in his father’s towering presence. “I didn’t like being compared with my father,” he said. “There was nothing to compare! I was, and still am shy, gawky and very under confident around women. My father could charm anyone with just one look. What was I? Not even a chip off the block.”
Initially, it was a struggle for Tiger to dodge comparisons with his dad. “I would’ve never done a remake of my father’s film Hero. Not at the start of my career. Not now! The comparisons would have killed my career! My father oozed sexy confidence in Hero. In my debut film Heropanti, I could barely hold my own on camera. I got clobbered by critics in my first film. My dad was loved from the start,” he recalled.
Tiger admits he didn’t get much time with his dad during childhood. “When my sister and I were growing up, dad was out shooting constantly,” he said. “Mom chose to give up her career and look after us. But dad would still make sure he was around for all mine and my sister’s important occasions, birthdays included.”
So which of his dad’s films are Tiger’s favourites? “Oh, that’s easy. Shiva Ka Insaaf is my all-time favourite film! As a child, I’ve watched it over and over again. Every son’s first hero is his father. My dad was my first superhero. For me, he was Superman and Batman combined.”
Tiger’s greatest joy was when in The Flying Jatt he got to play a superhero like his dad had played in Shiva Ka Insaaf. “I was thrilled when I got to play out a childhood fantasy in The Flying Jatt. There was no risk of comparisons with my dad since his Shiva Ka Insaaf was a different superhero story.”
Shiva Ka Insaaf was the first 3D film in Hindi and Tiger recalls the allure of watching his dad fly across the sky. “I loved to see my dad play the desi superhero,” said the actor. “My father didn’t have to try to be a superhero, it came naturally to him. He was tall, well-built and his body-language rendered itself effortlessly to the superhero mold. I had to work hard to get into the superhero mold. I hope I’m never compared with my father.”
In fact, Tiger has been consciously working towards a career that cannot be compared with his dad’s. “I could never do his Hero. Not in this life. Not in any life. I think about him every day. I don’t need one special day to do so.”
Aditya Narayan on his father Udit Narayan
Aditya is an unabashed fan of his father Udit Narayan. Exulted Aditya, “Who wouldn’t be his fan? I am lucky to be so close to him. Papa gives a hundred percent of himself to everything. They don’t make them like him anymore. What a unique individual! That uniqueness spreads from his voice to his entire personality. Everything about him is unique. I have been observing him for 35 years. With every passing year, he feels more unique.”
Aditya dotes on his dad. “I love him. I have immense respect for him. I want him to be my father in every life. I am faintly confident that he too wants me as his son in every life. We’ve a lot of mutual love. And respect… It’s been a journey with ups and downs like any father-son relationship,” he said.
Remembering his childhood, Aditya recalled, “He was very loving and protective when I was a child. Then when he realized I want to pursue the arts and singing, he became a full-on taskmaster. He made my life miserable (laughs uproariously). At least, it felt like it. But it was all for the greater good. He was tough on me during my budding years. But as I’ve grown older, the more I have come to understand and love him. I worked really hard, put myself out there, to impress him.”
Aditya says he has inherited many qualities from his father. “I’ve learnt to work hard from my father,” he said. “He made me understand that nothing comes easy. He is an extremely hardworking man. I’ve seen his perseverance and all the changes that it brought in our lives. He is a typical Sagittarian. When he sets his mind to something, he is a horse with blinkers, he is unstoppable. You can throw stones at him, hurl abuse, but his eyes are on his target. He is very patient and determined with his work. That’s what has gotten him where he is, the adoration of millions didn’t happen overnight…He is very humble. But when it comes to his music, he knows what he is worth. He doesn’t have to say it. But he knows he is the best.”
Aditya’s daughter has changed Udit into a doting grandpa. “He absolutely adores her and talks about her non-stop,” he said. “The way he looks at her melts my heart. He never loved me so much! I now realize he is a softie at heart with a hard shell. He also has a peculiar sense of humour. His laughter can be heard from here to the moon. Even if he cracks bad joke, he laughs the hardest and you laugh because he is amused. People wonder why I am so funny. Well, wonder no more! It all comes from my father. Maybe I am not as funny he is. But I hope to get there one day.”
Speaking on Udit’s other qualities Aditya said, “He is a good husband to my mother. During the 1990s when he was at his peak, he had very little time for us. Today he is living the life of a family man. I am happy to see him content. To see me working hard and getting love and respect gives him immense joy. For me to see him being proud of me is my greatest joy…Papa kehte hain bada naam karega indeed! I wish to see him live to a 100.That’s quite probable because my grandfather died at 102 and my grandmother is 105 and alive and kicking. Yeah, I love my father.”
Saif Ali Khan on his legendary father Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi
Saif Ali Khan rarely speaks about his father. Recently, he opened up on this private topic. Whenever he misses his father, Saif finds himself drawn to old articles and videos on his father. “I find myself reading or watching things about Tiger from time to time when I miss him. When I was younger, you could pick up any book on cricket and flip to the index and find where the two Pataudis, my father and his father, are featured; and I would be very proud. He achieved some incredible feats with one eye (or two eyes for that matter!).”
Speaking on what his father was like in person, Saif recalled, “As a person he was cool under fire, very calm at all times. He told the funniest stories, and his quiet support would mean the world to us, his children, as it did to his teammates.”
Wondering what it would have been like to have the legend around on the cricket field, Saif said, “I think if he had played today, the media would have loved him and that quiet but stellar demeanour of his, that unique open batting stance, with the bat lifting unorthodoxly towards the gully but magically straightening at the last moment before contacting the ball. And that hat he wore rakishly angled across his bad eye. No one in the history of the sport has ever come back from that kind of accident and got hundreds against England and Australia. It’s the greatest sporting comeback in the history of the game.”
Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi’s legacy is timeless for Saif. “His legacy to us, his family, is always with us: a sense of honour and poise; style and dignity with all things. His had an incredible life I think: from the jungles and palaces of Bhopal to the rarefied atmosphere of Winchester and Oxford, to the great cricket grounds all over the world to his home in Delhi where he would lounge in his kurta lungi, reading and watching birds and squirrels in the garden through his window”
Also Read: Aamir Khan gets emotional in UNSEEN video from daughter Ira’s wedding on Father’s Day, watch
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