It was great to know a simple man like him

Kundan Shah was such a simple man that you won’t even believe that he’s the director of a cult comedy like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. I had been to his house, met his wife and kids and they are very simple and sweet. It was great to know a man like him.

I remember when we were shooting for the film in 1983, we were all newcomers and in fact, Kundan was also a newcomer, in a way. It was an NSD street film and a very low budget film, so we were not really getting paid. We used to take our own auto rickshaws and go for the shoot. Also, what you see in the movie, like how much fun it is, that much fun we also had during the shoot. But we had to really shoot hard. I remember once we were in Alibag for a schedule and we shot for 48 hours at a stretch.

But Kundan would not care . Sadly, I wasn’t in touch with Kundan for all these years. But we met at Nehru Centre when the film was redone and its digitised version was released. So, that’s when all of us were called for a special screening and we got to catch up after so many years. Kundan was planning to make a sequel and I even got to read the script around two years ago. Kundan wanted to have the same star cast as the original film, and only Ravi Baswani and Bhakti Bharve would not have been there, as they have passed away. Some big producer was producing it and Kundan was supposed to direct, but unfortunately that won’t happen now. I am sad this generation won’t get to see another Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro.