Vikram Bhatt remembers the National Award winning editor Waman Bhonsle who passed away today

Veteran film editor Waman Bhonsle whose career spanned four decades in Bollywood passed away yesterday due to age related issues. The

National Award winning editor

, who was in his late 80s worked on movies across 1960s to 1990s, including films like Mausam, Hero, Karz, Kalicharan, Saaheb, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Mera Gaon Mera Desh,

Inkaar

, Dostana, Ghulam, Do Raaste, Agneepath, Aandhi,

Parichay

among others.

Post the news break, the film fraternity was quick to post condolences and share memories on social media. Vikram Bhatt was one of the firsts to share a few words on social media about the man who was his friend, philosopher and guide. When BT reached out to the filmmaker, he said “He is the first genius that I came across in the film industry. He was so good when it came to editing. He was my friend, philosopher and guide. He’s taught me so much. I was a Chief Assistant on Agneepath (1990) when I first met him. He took me under his wings. He taught me the finer points of film editing. That was the time when the process used to be different as there were no computers.”

About his top-notch editing skills, Vikram adds, “Once he saw a shot he would remember it well. He would know the exact number of frames he has used and the number of frames that were left. Like, if a director told him ki thoda shot badha do, he would say nahi frames nahi hai. If he said frames nahi hai, toh frames nahi hai. That would be the last word.”

After Vikram turned to direction, he continued to closely working with Waman but soon the latter made an exit. “He edited my films all the way till Ghulam (1998). Then, computers came in, however he didn’t want to take the leap. When I was making Kasoor (2001), I told him that I will hire a guy who he can sit with and do the editing. He said, ‘No, Vikram, if I cannot hold a film in my hand then I can’t edit it. I missed him. There was a time when he used to be so busy with film projects that he used to give filmmakers 3-4 hours everyday. The who’s who have worked with him, right from Subhash Ghai, Raj Khosla, Shekhar Kapur, Mahesh Bhatt, Gulzar saab, Boney Kapoor, Mukul Anand, and the list is endless.”