SHATRU KI SABSE PYARI PHOTO DHARAMJI KE SAATH AUR USKA KYA HUVA .....

........Ali Peter John

Those days it was the in thing at the FTII to invite big stars from Mumbai to speak to the acting students and encourage them .

Dharmendra was invited on popular demand because all the students unanimously wanted him and Dharmendra couldn't disappoint them and personally drove down to Pune to be present at the function and get - together organised by the students .

A young man with a lean body and a leaner moustache and a prominent scar on his face was one of the active organisers of the evening , he did everything possible to make the evening memorable because Dharmendra was his favourite actor .

My senior Mr R M Kuntakar who was both a senior reporter and a photographer was also a Dharmendra fan and had taken on the assignment to cover the event only because he could take some exclusive pictures of Dharmendra with the students .

  It was during the function that all the students crowded around Dharmendra and clamoured to be photographed with the son of the soil hero of their dreams and the humble Dharmendra obliged them all.

But the young man with the scar on his face pleaded with Mt Kumtakar to take some "exclusive " photographs with his favourite actor and Mr Kuntakar went out of his way to satisfy the boy from Bihar and he promised the boy that he would give him the photographs he had taken of him and his hero when he came to Bombay after finishing his course .

Time passed and that young man from Bihar had passed out of the FTII and had even signed films like Dev Anand's "Gambler" and Gulzar's "Mere Apne " and was soon one of the most popular and lovable villains of Hindi films .

But he had not forgotten Mr Kuntakar and his promise to hand over the photographs he had taken at the FTII with Dharmendra and him . Shatru as he was now known kept looking for My Kumtakar at every party and function in Bombay . He also told all his friends to somehow find Mr Kumtakar and when he found Mr Kumtakar , he told him that the photographs he took with Dharmendra and him were very precious to him as he had told his family in Patna about it and Mr Kumtakar used his favourite line , "karte hai , karte hai . " . Several months passed and Shatru had grown into a very big star but he still kept chasing Mr Kumtakar who kept telling him , " karte hai karte hai " till Shatru all hope of finding the photographs . He even asked Dharmendra to talk to Mr Kumtakar , but he still couldn't find them as Mr Kumtakar kept telling him , " karte hai karte hai , agle baar zaroor kar the hai " . And Shatru made the story of his photographs taken with Dharmendra a kind of joke which he repeated and found some rare pleasure in telling this story to all his friends and any one who met him anywhere .....

 I had started attending parties and functions where I made most of my friends . And Shatru was one of my best friends , till he came to know that I was working with Mr Kumtakar in "Screen " . He kept embarrassing me pleading with me to get his photographs from Mr Kumtakar .

It took me several months to talk to Mr Kumtakar about the photographs and he kept postponing the issue with the same lines , "karte hai karte hai kuch karte hai " .

I finally succeeded in getting the negatives of the photographs and was very eager to hand them over to Shatru . And when I finally met Shatru at a party at the Sun N Sand Hotel , I had lost the negatives Mr Kumtakar had with great difficulty handed over to me .

I was thoroughly embarrassed when I had to face Shatru and he in his own style said , " kitne hazaaro saal ke baad aaj mujhe mera dost Ali mere negatives mujhe dega " . And I died several deaths before telling him that I had lost the negatives and he laughed like only he could and still can laugh and said , " this is a perfect example of from the frying pan to the fire "

He must have taken it lightly , but I couldn't . I didn't show him my face for almost a year , till we one evening came face to face at the same Sun N Sand Hotel and I was trying my best to avoid him and if possible even run away from the party . But he called out my name and when I went to him , he put his arms around me and said , " are jaane de na yaar , ek ya do photographs ek dost ke muqaable mein kya hai ? Tu mere se itna darra mat kar , main tujhe woh photographs ke baare mein kabhi kuch nahi kahunga . Lekin main uss Kuntakar ke bacche ko kabhi chhodunga nahi . Usne sirf mere photographs nahi kho diya , lekin meri sabse sundar khwab churaya . "

 Shatru could never dream of working with his hero , but he did not one or two films with his hero , Dharamji , but five films , the most important being " Dost " and "Qayamaat" among others .

It is almost forty five years since that incident about those photographs , but Shatru has not forgotten it and remembers it with all the love and affection ..

Luv Sinha did birthday wish to father shatrughan sinha

Sonakshi Sinha wished her father Shatrughan Sinha on her birthday.