'I always wanted to work with Shashi Kapoor'

I'm saddened by the news of his death. A charming man, Shashi Kapoor was the heart-throb of many Indian women for decades. The younger brother of Raj Kapoor – a bollywood star – prepared himself well, first under Raj Kapoor Productions and then in Shakespeareana, the theatre company mentored by Geoffrey Kendal. Then he worked for his father's repertoire company, Prithvi Theatres and I have wonderful memories of watching plays with him and Geoffrey's family in Mumbai. Of course, theatre made him meet Jennifer and then they got married. Shashi was essentially a man from the theatres.

Kapoor spent quite some time at the Kolkata Film Festival in 1982 and we had a merry time together. Shashi was born in Kolkata and very fond of the city. He loved Flury's, Peter Cat and all of Kolkata's old world charm. We also spent a wonderful time at the Marrakesh film festival later.

As an actor, he was very flexible, a director's delight. He was at ease with Bollywood commercial films but he excelled in Merchant Ivory films like Shakespeare Wallah (1965) and especially in the film, Householder (1963). In Hindi films, I loved his acting in New Delhi Times (1986), which won three national awards including one for Kapoor (Best Actor). Shashi Kapoor thanked us (the jury) profusely saying that it was his first national award. Jaya bachchan was also one of the jury members that year.

Though we never worked together, Shashi had asked me to think of a project together after I directed Paar (1984). But after that, I got busy with another film and later, Kapoor's production unit shut down. We had wanted to collaborate on a project but it is indeed unfortunate that we could not implement it.