‘I Became An Actor, Only To Earn Money, Not To Fulfill Any Creative Desires,’- Confides Evergreen Icon Jeetendra

December 2, 2019

Chaitanya Padukone

The evergreen, rejuvenated veteran (77 year old) agile actor Jeetendra ( Ravi Kapoor) is having an ecstatic time playing with both his young grandchildren at home and going out with them. Exudes jovial Jeetu, “Tusshar’s son says that he loves ‘Dada’ ( that’s me ) much more than his own papa..That’s my biggest joy and glorious moment. Normally I wake up daily at 12 noon. That’s because if I wake up early morning, what will I do, as I am neither shooting nor acting.” reacted Jeetendra candidly in response to comedian-host-TV superstar Kapil Sharma’s questions on his super-popular Sony TV stand-up comedy show. Asked what is the major difference he had observed during his career era of ‘70’s and ‘80s, Jeetu-jee smiled as he responded. “ In our times there were no air-conditioned shooting studios and we were cooled by huge fans. These days there are only air-conditioned sets. Most actors report on the sets with gelled or sprayed set hair-styles that remain in tact during the entire shoot.,” smiled the affable ‘Farz’ actor, who although being a Punjabi, speaks fluent Marathi. That’s because he spent his childhood in a chawl tenements complex at Girgaum ( central Mumbai) where most families are Marathi-speaking.. Asked to share his mantra on fitness, the outspoken Jeetendra admitted that he was slightly overweight yet healthy while shooting for movies such as ‘Caravan’ (1971) but later trimmed his weight while shooting for his sober tutor’s character Gulzar-saab’s ‘Parichay’ (1972). “Maybe we were not so health-conscious and I have never ever picked up weights at the gym. That’s because we were not body-builders, but actors who looked healthy. During my times, if you went to an actor’s personal room, in the morning, you would probably find plates of chutney and soda-water bottles. These days in the rooms of young actors one would possibly see dumb-bells.” insists Jeetendra, who also confides that it was thanks to his flair for speaking fluent Marathi, that he was instantly noticed by his mentor, the iconic maverick film-maker V. Shantaram. Who in turn cast him initially as a body-double junior-artiste in ‘Navrang’ (1959) and five years later launched him in ‘Geeta Gaya Pattharone’ (1964). As a parting shot punch, the honest Jeetendra shares, “ Other star-actors often claim that they became actors to fulfill their desires-dreams or to showcase their acting talent. But in my case, as a last resort, I became an actor, only to earn money.”