Shakti Kapoor: Kader saab never worked for an award, and never regretted not winning one

In conversation with BT, Shakti recalled his fondest memories of writer-actor Kader Khan whose contribution to Bollywood has been immense. He said, "It’s sorrowful and heart-breaking that Kader saab is no more, and it’s the worst possible start to the year for me. He was family, an elder and my teacher. It’s terrible that this industry has a tendency to talk about someone, praising his work and existence soon after he or she has bid adieu to the world. It would have helped so much if the industry had spoken about Kader Khan when he was still alive, but away from active work. I’ve spent half my professional life working with and learning from Kader Khan. We’ve worked together on about a hundred films or more. He was the messiah for me in this industry, who taught me so much throughout my life. He was a professor and preaching had become second nature for him. He often asked me, “Shakti, why do people show disregard for elders? Why do people celebrate when someone fails? Why are people forgotten so easily?” He always had pertinent questions to ask.

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It’s a fact that his work, although celebrated by film lovers and by the industry at large, was never awarded. It’s nothing but an acknowledgement of the good work someone has done. He never received a National Award or a Dadasaheb Phalke honour. Do you know why? He was not a social guy, who could hang out with everyone who mattered. He only focussed on delivering the work he was entrusted with. He never worked for an award and never regretted not winning one. I’m talking about the person who taught ‘Bombaiyya’ bhasha to Amitabh Bachchan. I’m talking about someone who taught a convent school pass-out like me to talk with the right leheza. If I have command over Hindi and I speak it with right diction, it’s his gift to me. Meri zubaan ko sanwara tha unhone. After a surgery for his knee, he was relegated to the wheelchair. I don’t know whether it was for health reasons or for something emotional, but he could never get off it. The last time we met was at the staging of a play. He told me, “Shakti, I want to come back and give something to this society. People have lost their command over language. I want to bring that back.” On other occasions when I would call him, he would tell me, “Shakti, main akela ho gaya hoon.” This, when he had a family around him and his kids were well-off. Perhaps, it was his sense of being left out by an industry that he gave his all to. "

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