Rebel star' threw off father, brother's shadow to shine

Shammi Kapoor the star was born when, after a series of flops, Shashadhar Mukherjee changed his image with Tumsa Nahin Dekha in 1957. Recalls the late producer’s son, Subir, “My father asked him to shave off his moustache.” Adds Kapoor family friend JP Chowkse, “Shammi also cut his hair in the famous ducktail style of the 1950s. His looks and style were heavily influenced by James Dean and Elvis Presley.He took the country by storm and became a rage with the audiences.”
Shashadhar Mukherjee also told the young actor to stop copying his father and brother Raj Kapoor, after which he acquired his ‘rebel star’ image. Kapoor did stop copying his brother Raj, but like him contributed to the music of most of his films. Recalls Saira Banu, “I remember, Shammiji wanted a song that Shankar Jaikishen had composed—Teri pyaari pyaari soorat ko—for Junglee, as he felt it suited the situation. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. The song went later into Sasural. But he taught all us artistes to get involved in the music of a film.”
“He even went and met Mohammed Rafi, who used to sing for Dilip Kumar, and told him to help him with his songs,” says Chowkse. Rafi became his voice in almost all his films. Shammi loved western music. When we were shooting for Harjaee (1981)at a Juhu bungalow, he played the piano for two hours after pack-up.”
Shammi Kapoor worked with his elder brother Raj Kapoor only when he started playing character roles. Says Chowkse, “He was dying to work under Rajji’s direction but got a chance only in Prem Rog in 1982.”
Shammi Kapoor was not a very easy star to handle. Uday Shankar Pani, who worked with the actor on Shalimar, recalls, “It was an allnight shoot at the Bangalore palace. The entire unit came, finished dinner and went. Everyone had forgotten to call Shammiji. At about 2 am, I ran to his room to check if he had had dinner. Strangely, he was calm and was chanting and told me not to worry and said that once one got into the spiritual mode all this did not matter. A complete contrast to what Nasir Husain had told me about Teesri Manzil when he had to go to Shammi Kapoor’s house every day before the shooting.”
Shammi Kapoor did a small stint with television as well. Director Anubhav Sinha recalls, “We were making a serial, Shikast, and wanted Shammi Kapoor to play the main lead. I called him—first he got angry and asked me how dare I ask him to do telelvision but then invited me over, saying that if I had, the project better be good. He agreed and fixed his shooting hours and a certain amount to which we all agreed. It was not easy shooting with him. I wanted him to walk in a particular manner and he just wouldn't listen to me—but with the final take, he gave me the walk I wanted for the scene.”