Death anniversary: ​​My first interview with V.Shantaram

I joined “Screen” in the year 1973 with great reluctance. I was happy with my Rs.100 job as an assistant to my guru, K.A. Abbas, which I got occasionally and sometimes had to wait for months, but I didn’t mind because working with him meant the world to me! While I was with him, I met some great personalities in every language and also people like Raj Kapoor and Balraj Sahni. He first told me how his criticism of a film made by V. Shantaram had infuriated Shantaram so much that he challenged Abbas to make his own film and thus started his own film-making company ‘Naya Sansar’.

This happened when Abbas told me that I would have no future working with him as an assistant but I joined him only when he recommended me to the editor Mr. S.S. Pillai. Seeing that I was a good poet who had nothing to do with work in 'Screen'. Nevertheless, Mr. Pillai liked me immediately and offered me a job and I made him wait for four months and he waited without giving the job to anyone else. His family had to threaten me that if I did not join on 2 January 1973 he would definitely give the job to someone else. I joined just with the hope that he would throw me out in 15 days and I would get some money. But he took me on a staggering salary of Rs. 450 a month which made me so rich that I used to go back home from Andheri station in a taxi every evening and my whole village was surprised to see the change in my lifestyle...

Mr. Pillai, however, was the only person who stood by me while all the others who were much more senior to me were constantly conspiring to drive me out by branding me as a communist and a rebel because they knew that I was a disciple. Abbas the chief reporter made it a point to give me some of the most difficult assignments, which I successfully coped with and surprised them all.

One morning, he called me and with a sly smile on his face said, “Ali, you have to interview V Shantaram tomorrow morning at his office at exactly 11 am”. I didn’t say a word and accepted his challenge again. I had to face terrible crowds in the bus and train taking me to the station and then had to take a taxi to reach Rajkamal Kala Mandir, the place where Shantaram resided and his studio, which was considered to be one of the best in Asia. I was taken to his cabin as they were all informed about my grand arrival. The first thing that caught my attention was a pair of caged love birds which I was told was made of pure gold. I walked in to see a man sitting on a throne and the way he was dressed in white with a fur hat strengthened my belief in him being some kind of emperor of the past. He first looked at his wrist watch which was completely made of gold and said, “Young man, you are a minute late”. Before I could sit down, he asked me a very strange question, “Are you sure you are the same guy that Mr. Kuntakar sent me? Are you sure you will be able to interview me?” And before I could say anything, he called Mr. Kuntakar and made sure I was the right guy.

He began to speak and hardly had I asked him the first question, he asked me, “Why are you not taking notes? Why have you not brought a tape recorder?” I told him that he should be assured that I would quote him exactly as he said and retain all the facts and figures. He said, “I have met many great journalists, but you seem to be a very strange man.”

For the next one and a half hours he and I talked and I got the full story of his extraordinary life. He was Vankudre Shantaram, the son of a farmer somewhere in Kolhapur, but he was interested in theatre and what he called 'moving images', which meant films. He told me how he had started as a collier in various units carrying cameras and other heavy equipment from one place to another and how he had gradually learned the basics of filmmaking. He had started 'Prabhat Studio' in Kolhapur with some of his colleagues, but they had differences and came to Bombay, where they built their own studio in an area called 'Lalbaug', which was mostly known as the mill area. Soon there were mills all around and the magnificent 'Rajkamal Studio' stood in all its glory.

This is the studio where he made some of his classics like “Padosi, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, Sehra, Boond Jo Ban Gayi Moti, Do Aankhen Barah Haath, Pinjra, and many more. Every film he made got national and international recognition. The man who never went to school could now speak English fluently and mingle with film bigwigs from across the world.

He had his own ways of working whether it was during shooting or related to office administration. He was the first person to start a register which every star and spot boy had to sign at 8 am when the big bell rang. He always believed in studying and practicing.

I found it interesting when he told me how he had thought of making “Do Aankhen Barah Haath“ with Dilip Kumar in the late zone and how the day the shooting was to begin, Dilip Kumar did not report on time and how he, a non-actor, decided to play the role himself. Both roles in the film are memorable in the history of Indian cinema. He also told me how he had discovered young actors like Jeetendra, Mumtaz, and his wife Jayshree and daughter Rajshree. He was proud of his film Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, going to London to film in Technicolor.

By the time he finished, he told me the whole story of his life, including his personal life and his 3 wives, several children, and grandchildren.

I was all set to leave when the king in white stood up and came forward from his throne shook my hand and said, “I have never spoken to a journalist like this before, but how do you remember everything we have said about films for two hours?” I left his questions unanswered and left with a sense of accomplishment.

It was a Friday and ‘Screen’ had hit the market and believe me I had forgotten that I had written a full-page article on Annasaheb as he was known in the industry. I was having lunch in the office canteen when Mr. Kuntakar came running to me and said, “Ali, hey dimag kharab (this is the name they have given me for being rebellious) Santram ka phone hai, Santram ka phone hai.” I did not pay attention to his words and started munching on my oily papad when he came and forcibly took me with him. Till then I was under the impression that it was my driver-friend Shantaram who was calling and thought he might call me again. But when I picked up the phone, I was shocked, it was the emperor in white who was on the line, and for the next 10 minutes, he kept praising me for my way of writing English, my memory, and the sentiments I had expressed. I could have called that afternoon the end of my career, but his words of encouragement kept me going, and continue to do so 40 years later…

A few weeks later, we had a grand party with big people from the entire industry. I was tested again when Mr. Kuntakar, who was a close friend of Shantaram, asked me to invite him to the party. I knew he never believed in partying or joining them. But I made an effort and spoke to the great man and all he asked me was, “Where and at what time do you want me to come? I will be there. You are my friend, I will come” and he came and made me feel important. When he said he was there only because of me.

A few more days passed and I was walking alone on a road near Andheri station and I saw a ship-like car coming and stopping near me. The car had Rajkamal's logo on it, he was sitting in the backseat and he was calling out to me. He had lost his way to the set studio where he had to attend a very important meeting of industry leaders. I tried to explain the way but he asked me to sit in his car and we headed towards the studio which was a night for me!

A month later I was invited to Rajkamal Studios when Price Charles was on his first visit to Bombay and wanted to see a film studio and Rajkamal Studios was chosen. Shantaram, who was a monarch himself, made royal arrangements to welcome Prince Charles. He had a special screening of the highlights of all the films he had made and the Prince asked him, did he made all these films and he said, “Who else could make such films at such a huge risk?” The Prince was astonished.

Shantaram took Rajkumar around the studio and made front page headlines in almost every newspaper in the country when he kissed Padmini Kolhapure, who was shooting on the floor. Shantaram later introduced Rajkumar to many stars and stopped when he reached Shammi Kapoor and told Rajkumar, "You are the prince, but this man is our prince of dance. There have been many dancers but none like Shammi Kapoor." And Shammi touched his feet under the glare of hundreds of photographers from all over India and Great Britain.

He was 86 and was shooting for a new film starring Padmini Kolhapure and his grandson Sushanta Ray. While he was shooting he collapsed in the bathroom and was rushed to Bombay Hospital from where he never returned. His last wish was to be dressed the same way he was when he was alive, with his fur hat and his spectacles intact. He wanted to be cremated at Bombay's only electric crematorium in those days at Sion. The funeral procession from Rajkamal to Sion was a venue the rest of the stars or skies on earth could envy.

Rajkamal Studios has only a mere memorial to his name. Most of the floors have been sold by his son Kiran Shantaram and converted into apartments. Only two floors are left and no big filmmaker wants to shoot there and the floors are only used for shooting serials and assembling films. What a sad end to a glorious era! If I ever talk to God, I will ask him this question why people like Shantaram Bapu do not make them these days I know that God will not have any answer to my question.

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