‘The adoration made me feel like a fraud’

On being Dilip Kumar | I used to feel disturbed about the adoration of the crowds, and I felt that I was cheating them in some manner. I felt like a fraud…this was getting to be a serious problem, so I decided to seek psychiatric help. The question was of reconciling the filmi personality of Dilip Kumar with my own.


On film-makers | The film-maker subsists on a paltry 15% of the box-office turnover. Even this is the share only when the film is a success. And how many films are successes? Out of 100 films released, only 6 or 7 are hits…do you know how great film-makers like Bimal Roy and

Mehboob

fared? Bimal Roy died within 15 days of the attachment of his house. Mehboob died in debt. So did Debaki Bose.

Why he never made films after Ganga Jamuna | It’s painful to look for financiers, deal with them, pay high rates of interest and at the end, expose yourself to the indignity of going through censorship. Members of the

Censor Board

do not realise that as a quasi-judicial body, they owe an obligation to the better picture maker...my own film was hanging fire for more than 6 months.

On living with Saira Banu | I think I’m a much pampered husband – she calls me jaan…we never had a disagreement which lasted a whole day, and she has put up with a lot of nonsense from me. You know, she’s a very good Dilip Kumar customer, or “fan”, and seeing me at close quarters has not diminished her enthusiasm for him.

On what he regrets | I deeply regret that I never learnt to sing, because I love music. I did learn to play the sitar, but just a little bit. I learnt a bit about a lot of things. Ultimately I've come to the conclusion that one has to be a master of something. I’m just a jack of many trades.

On his work | If people believe that I’m a great actor, it’s nice. But I don’t agree…the great ones are Ingrid Bergman, Paul Muni, James Stewart, Robert de Niro, Dustin Hoffman…

(From interviews to TOI,

Filmfare

and Gentleman)