Naseeruddin Shah once wrote to me saying ‘wait for me, I will play Ghalib’: Gulzar

New Delhi, Dec 5 (PTI) Legendary writer-poet Gulzar believes he was destined to make his acclaimed 1988 TV show "Mirza Ghalib" with Naseeruddin Shah, who while still a student, wrote to him declaring how he was the best man for the job.

Gulzar, whose love for Ghalib is as famous as his affection for Urdu and Bengali, said he long envisioned a screen project on the 19th century poet and initially thought of making a film with his friend and frequent collaborator, Sanjeev Kumar.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the 10th Jashn-e-Rekhta Festival, Gulzar revealed how destiny brought him to Shah and television. “Sanjeev Kumar used to say, ‘I don’t need to listen to the script because I know you will not waste me.’ But the producer changed his mind and it didn’t work out," Gulzar recalled at the session hosted by Divya Dutta. His friend and fellow poet Javed Akhtar was in the audience.

The project was stalled for years until the era of television serials opened the possibility of telling Ghalib’s story over several hours and Gulzar jumped at the chance to explore the story in multiple episodes.

Gulzar said he first noticed Shah’s performance in a diploma film at the Film and Television Institute of India and believed the actor had the depth required for the role.

However, when he suggested Shah's name to the producer, he asked the filmmaker-writer to cast an actor who would be "handsome".

"I told him that I need a good actor for this and he will play the role very well. I remember that a lot of people objected to his casting. The producer didn't agree. So I said 'I will not do it'," Gulzar said.

What complicated the situation further was Shah's demand for a fee that was unusually high for the era.

"One day, I was in a meeting with the producer when Naseer entered the room. He told me, 'Gulzar sahab, I was in college when I wrote a letter to you, saying that Sanjeev Kumar can't play Ghalib because Ghalib wasn't fat. And I wrote in that letter that you wait for me. I am coming to the industry.' "I told him I don't have that letter. He said, 'I know, it must have been lost in the fan mail. But do you think if I am told that I can't play the role, I will let anyone else do it?' And he (Shah) said, '...I will not take a penny less than what I have said. I will take that and do this role. Otherwise, I will not let anyone else do it.'" Gulzar said the producer was quite upset but he, in turn, was impressed and won over by Shah's attitude.

"The producer, who we used to call Babuji, said, 'Gulzar sahab, did you see that.' I told him, 'Yes, I saw it and I saw that this was Ghalib who got up and left just now. This man has the attitude of Ghalib. This is him'," he said.

Praising Shah’s versatility as an artiste, Gulzar said the actor disappears completely into his characters.

“I can name three of his films -- 'Pestonjee', 'Sparsh' and 'Mirza Ghalib'. I don’t see Naseeruddin Shah in these, I only see those three characters,” he added.

The cinema icon also revisited his association with Sanjeev Kumar, whom he directed in movies such as "Parichay", "Koshish", "Mausam" and "Aandhi". He said he used to call Kumar as Haribhai, a short take on his real name Harihar Jethalal Jariwala.

Gulzar said he first noticed Kumar when he played the role of a father in the stage adaptation of Arthur Miller's play "All My Sons".

"He was 23 at the time... He was such a performer. I remember that it was a very good play and it was appreciated. I remember that Prithviraj ji came to see the play. After the play, when he was walking towards his car, he turned around and asked director P. D. Shenoy, 'who was the person who played the father?' "The director pointed towards Haribhai, who was standing right there. Prithviraj ji was impressed and even blessed him. It was also my first introduction to him." Gulzar said he then collaborated with Kumar on a number of films.

"He used to often complain 'why do you cast me as an old man in your films?' But that is how we became friends. And we had a long association." He remembered how he was left impressed by Kumar's acting in one of the scenes of his 1972 movie "Parichay".

"It was a very long shot. In that scene, Sanjeev coughs and the daughter sees that there is blood in the handkerchief. It was such a beautiful shot. I said, 'Hari, I am not a king or a Nawab, but I will give whatever you want.'" What Kumar asked him left Gulzar in awe of his friend.

"Hari looked at me, and said, 'you stop eating 'paan'.' I was like, 'what has paan got to do with the shot'. I used to occasionally eat paan but I told him that I will stop," Gulzar said while remembering his friend who died in 1985 at the age of 47. Kumar had suffered a massive heart attack.

At Rekhta, Gulzar regaled audiences with poems from his vast repository, taking them on a journey through his childhood to his career highs in movies and his love for languages.

Gulzar also spoke about how he never saw his mother and carries that vacuum even today and how his father always told him off for being mad about poetry and yet secretly felt proud to read his son's name in the newspaper. PTI RB BK BK BK