'What a talent, what an actor! Cast him as anyone, anything, and he is ready for the challenge. I get restless when I don't have him in my film.'
The late Asrani was versatile enough to carry off serious roles as effortlessly as the comedy for which he was known.
His creative partnership with Hrishikesh Mukherjee yielded a harvest of interesting characters.
They first worked together in Satyakam in 1969 in which Asrani had a brief role. So impressed was Hrishida by Asrani that he cast him in a much more pivotal role in Guddi the very next year.
In Guddi. Asrani was cast in heartbreaking role as a Bollywood struggler whose dreams of stardom are shattered.
In Hrishida's Bawarchi, Asrani was cast in the comic role of a self-styled musician dreaming of becoming a composer in the movies.
Asrani had a lot of fun with this role.
He got to sing Namaste Namaste Oh Pitaji, which he loved.
'I enjoy every film with Hrishida. But Bawarchi was a riot,' Asrani had once said.
In 1974's Abhimaan, Asrani excelled as star-singer Subir's secretary, who can't bear to see his boss turn vain. Amitabh Bachchan once told me every scene with Asrani is a challenge.
Hrishida and Asrani went on to collaborate in Chupke Chupke, Mili, Alaap and Jurmana.
When Subhash K Jha once asked Hrishida who his favourite actor was, he had said, 'It is neither Rajesh Khanna nor Dharmendra. Not even Amitabh Bachchan. It is Asrani. What a talent, what an actor! Cast him as anyone, anything, and he is ready for the challenge. I get restless when I don't have him in my film.'
'Asrani feels the same. "Cast me in the smallest of roles, but I want to be in every film of yours," he says. I try not to leave him out.'
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff