‘I found inspiration for Dilruba in a groom at a wedding I had attended’

Rakesh Bedi has played a host of memorable roles but he is best remembered as Dilruba from the TV series Shrimaan Shrimati. The show continues to be consumed on YouTube with the actor saying that it is perhaps more popular today then it was when it was first telecast.

In a candid chat, Rakesh — also a theatre actor — opens up about his character, and actors Sanjeev Kumar and Raj Kapoor.

How did you come up with the character of Dilruba in Shrimaan Shrimati?

The only brief the director had given me for the role of Dilruba was that he is supposed to be a henpecked husband. An evening before I was supposed to shoot for the serial, I attended an actress’s wedding with my wife and found inspiration in the groom. He was exactly the kind of character I was looking to portray. I started observing his mannerisms while he was on the stage and based my character on him.

You started your career with the 1979 film Hamare Tumhare, starring Sanjeev Kumar. What were your interactions with him like?

I don’t think I have met a more natural actor than Sanjeev Kumar. His greatness lay in the fact that he didn’t carry the burden of his greatness on his shoulders or tried to impress people with it. After shooting the last scene for the film in Lonavla, the producer had given me a bus ticket to go back to Mumbai. Hari bhai (as Sanjeev Kumar was called) asked me when I would be done with shooting. I told him I wouldn’t finish before 5pm, while he was wrapping up at 11am. When I finished the shoot, I saw Hari bhai’s Mercedes parked by the side. His driver told me that he had finished shooting in the morning but was waiting for me. I was very moved by this. He didn’t just drop me off in Mumbai, his car dropped him and he instructed his driver to leave me at my place. For a newcomer like me, this was a very big thing.

Any tips you picked up from Raj Kapoor?

He was a legend. When I was in Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Raj Kapoor sahib had come to take a class, after which he invited all of us over to his farmhouse for dinner. That day whatever he told us about acting, actors, preparation and the process — I wrote all of that down, and I still have those notes.

Is it true that theatre does not pay?

Theatre doesn’t pay much. Ghar ke kharche chal rahein hai utna hi bahut hai. [However] the good part is that in the last 10 years, things have changed. If you are offering something good, people will come to watch it.

PHOTO: MANOJ VERMA/HT