Watching the recently released Sharmaji Namkeen was a bittersweet experience for me as the film made me laugh and smile, but it also made me realise that it was the last time I was seeing Rishi Kapoor sir in something new. However, I was glad that it was his swan song as the film and character somewhere reflected his real life persona as well. The film features Suhail Nayyar in the role of Rishi ji’s son, Rinku, and as I talk to him, he has a smile on his face as he remembers the legendary actor.
As I ask Suhail to revisit his first scene with Rishi ji on Sharmaji Namkeen, he gets emotional going down the memory lane.
He recalls,
“Our first scene together was the sequence in Urmi’s house and that was my first day of shoot as well. That day we didn’t have much proper interaction, but it was during the shoot of the interior sequences of the house that we started interacting and developed a friendship. When you are working with such a legend, you realise he is so cool. Initially I was a bit scared of him since we had heard that he gets angry, but he was so cool. He would talk about food, cricket and current affairs all the time. He was highly opinionated but he would give it in such a fun way.”
Suhail goes on to rave about the legend’s acting process, informing,
“We would learn all the lines and do the scene but he was like if two pages were supposed to be done, he will do that only and that is in the bloopers also where he says ‘cut karna hai idhar’.”
While that first meeting was something memorable as it started the formation of a beautiful equation, that process was cut short due to Rishi ji’s demise. But Suhail remembers his last interaction with the legend clear as day.
The actor shares,
“I remember that I had asked him to go and watch my film Hotel Mumbai. He had then told me that it wasn’t showing near his house, but was released in a South Mumbai theatre. Then when we were shooting in Delhi, his exact words were, ‘I went and watched Hotel Mumbai and you were so good in the film. Loved your performance.’ I was so surprised that he went to a theatre to see my film. He then took mine and Taaruk’s number saying that people ask him for good actors and he wanted our numbers to share with those people. That day we crossed a level and we felt like we would chill together from thereon. But life had other plans as unfortunately that was our last conversation.”
Even though the world lost a gem with Rishi ji passing two years ago, I feel fortunate to have got this masterpiece that is Sharmaji Namkeen, to remember him by as it adds another laurel to his illustrious filmography. I feel so glad for Suhail as well as he will always have this achievement in his career that he got to work with a legend like Rishi ji in his last film ever.