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    HOME | MOVIES | THE TOWERING INFERNO  

    He must be the most envied man today

    Neetu Singh

    It is difficult to decide which aspect of him to talk about -- Amit, the peson, the actor, the costar?

    Let me start with the last. He has been my favourite costar. You can go on talking about him, but that will still not be enough.

    He is such a great actor. I was very young when I started working with him. I was just in my teens. I remember how frightened I was, how nervous, when I had to shoot with him.

    MY very first shot with him was for Yaarana, in which I had to say, "Dekho Kishen, koi aa gaya hai." (Look, Kishen, someone has come.)

    I was so flustered that I said, "Dekho Amit, koi aa gaya hai."

    The director said, "He is not Amit in the film." Amit, for his part, was so sweet about it.

    Most people see him as this rather reserved person.

    But he is the biggest comedian in the world -- he has a fantastic sense of humour. He would keep me in splits all the time. I would laugh so much that tears would roll down my cheeks and I'd fall off and roll to the ground. I would tell him to stop. He just wouldn't.

    When we were working together, he would come and tell me, "Shweta said this", "Nikhil (brother Ajitabh's son) said that." He would mimic them to perfection that you couldn't stop laughing.

    THERE was this joke we shared. There was this costar, whom we both found very funny. Both of us would imitate him. This was such a secret between us that whenever, wherever I met him, I just have to look at him and I know what he's thinking. Even today, when we meet -- it might be at a big function or an auditorium -- I know!

    I loved working with him so much that I used to look forward to our shoots together. As a dancer he was so good -- in the sense that he had a great sense of rhythm. He didn't require much else.

    Even then the day we had to shoot for a song he'd say, modestly, "Arre yaar, aaj gaaana hai. Yeh gaana-wana nahin hota mujhse." (Today is the shooting of the song. I can't do it.)

    I remember we were in Calcutta shooting for that stage song in a stadium (Yaarana). We were sitting together, and I was crying, tears rolling down my cheeks.

    I had just got engaged and I didn't want to be away from Chintu (Rishi Kapoor).

    The phones in Calcutta weren't working. And Chintu was upset that he couldn't get through to me.

    Amit asked me why I was crying. I said, "I want to go back."

    He replied, "You will."

    He called the producer, asked him to book my ticket back to Bombay, and said they'd manage the song without me. They did. You will notice I am there for half the song and then I disappear.

    Another time in Calcutta, a football match was on. We were being escorted in a police van and the van broke down.

    Somehow word got out that we were in the van.

    My God, the whole town was on top of the van! It was the most frightening experience. I don't know how we got out or reached the hotel. It was unnerving.

    I did a lot of films with him. Some of them were Yaarana, Adalat, Parvarish. Kasme Vaade, Kabhi Kabhie, Kaala Pathar, Amar Akbar Anthony. He was a fantastic costar and is a fantastic human being.

    Today, when I watch him on Kaun Banega Crorepati, I find he is so down to earth. He comes down to the level of the contestants.

    I told Jaya this, and she said, "But he is like that."

    Once the camera is on, one tends to put on an act. But Amit doesn't even do that. He just levels with the contestants so beautifully.

    This quality has made him so popular today when all others his age have retired. He must be the most envied man today.

    We meet often because his daughter Shweta is married to my sister-in-law's son.

    Wherever he is, he rings me -- and my family -- unfailingly to wish us on our birthdays. Amit is such a gem.

    Neetu Singh spoke to Lata Khubchandani

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