Are you really as big in the advertising world as people make you out to be?
I don’t know. I am not saying any of these things. You see, people think I am just a photographer. Very few know that I make ad films. Whether I’m king or not, it’s for the agencies to decide. But yes, I do charge very heavy fees and I make sure I deliver the goods. My client is seldom disappointed.
There seems to be an aura about you ever since Rekha mentioned you in an interview. Is this deliberate?
I don’t think there is any aura. A little curiosity, maybe, and that’s mainly because the film world has always had a strange love-hate relationship with the ad world. The ad world has always been considered the step sister of films. Of course, looking at the present turnover of ad films, it should be the other way round. In the advertising world, nobody is bothered. Once in a while when they catch some headline on the hoardings and a colleague may ask, What’s hot baby? but that’s about all. They are quite snobbish towards the film world. There are reasons for this. The pressures of deadlines in a design world are too many. The operative line here is, ‘You live your life and I live mine.’
Tell us where and how did you first meet Kimi?
In ’80-’81, during a Thums Up shooting. Initially, she was like any other girl I had worked with. Of course, she was very sweet and I liked her a lot but I had not singled her out for my affection. Neither had she. There were no immediate vibes. No love at first sight. We continued to work together for calendars and other product shoots. Especially for Thums Up. Kimi has a different version, though. She maintains that I did not respond to her. But that’s just a joke. The truth is that she was involved with Mohnish Behl those days and I too hadn’t settled down in my profession. I was involved in trying new techniques, doing a lot of experimental shoots. My studio was in those days an open den for struggling models.
Then what happened?
Nothing. I went to America for my course and when I got back, my friends told me that Kimi was on her way to becoming a star. I said, what? Kimi, in films? My first thought was, God, she is such an introvert, how is she going to handle this? And that’s a fact. For all her independent exterior, she has had a very protected upbringing. Even in those days, Kimi was not very ambitious. She wasn’t too hot on modelling either. She was doing it because she had to do something, so with her one foot in the ad world, it was only a normal move on her part to stretch the other foot into films and see what came of it. Anyway, back to the story, I called Kimi one day and said, ’What’s happening? What are you doing these days? She laughed and said that she was making a fool of herself, as always. This was sometime in April ’88. From then on, I don’t know how we began talking regularly over the phone, and slowly we began meeting everyday.
A case of friends turning into sweethearts?
See, there has to be some kind of liking, otherwise why would you date somebody? Nobody meets somebody to waste time. Kimi and I were not entertaining each other. The attraction was mutual. I liked her as a person and it was interesting to watch how much she had changed in the interim. Also normally, models are very defensive about seeking a film career.
And had she changed?
Oh yes, she was more mature, less anxious she still had the same wacky sense of humour which even today makes her so widely misunderstood. But then that’s something that will never change. I have to keep checking her, keep explaining to her that the brand of humour was okay in the modelling world. Not so in the film world. The levels of sophistication are different.
Why do you think she is so bonkers about you?What do you think attracts her to you?
I don’t know how to react to that one. It feels great. I’ll be dishonest if I deny it. I made it very clear to her that I don’t want a working wife. Marriage is a full-time job and after kids, it gets further demanding. When the woman is working, she can’t do justice to both. It becomes a fifty-fifty affair.
And what attracts you to her?
Her basic honesty, her integrity, her decision to want to give it all up for the sake of a relationship. It’s something I cannot be indifferent to.
The grapevine describes you as a Casanova.
People say a lot of things. My job calls for beautiful women to surround me 24 hours. But all this means nothing.
(to be continued)
The 90’s were full of surprises.
* Kimi Katkar, the emerging sex symbol of showbiz had decided to quit films and got married to ace-photographer, Shantanu Sheorey. She had stopped giving interviews and it was a challenge making Sheorey discuss their marriage. He was forthcoming and confessed that what attracted him to Kimi was her honesty.
* Rekha’s late husband, Mukesh Agarwal had died under mysterious circumstances and the press had been hounding the actress. When the pressures became too many, Rekha decided that however painful, she’d have to give her version. She did, with dignity and pride.
* Rishi Kapoor was unable to decide whether he should switch to character roles or wield the megaphone. His interviews had begun to sound like a long playing record of unending career conflicts. For fresh insights, I interviewed his wife Neetu Singh, who analysed her husband’s eccentricities. When the interview appeared in print, he denied being as difficult as he was made out to be.
* Aamir Khan and Pooja Bhatt, the hot pair of Dil Hain Ke Maanta Nahin, had been denying media link-ups. All I did was to reproduce their interaction during the course of our photosession with them. The chemistry was unbelievable!
* Anupam Kher provoked by a hostile story, slapped a journalist and it turned into a major scandal. Condemned universally for the premeditated act, the actor refused to apologise or feel guilty. Alienated and anguished, it was a low phase for the actor.
* Equally turbulent time was for Saif Khan and Amrita Singh, madly in love but frightened to say so. They deliberately misled the media inquiring about their marriage, and all hell broke loose when a week later, their nikahnama leaked into the press. To their credit it must be said that they bravely admitted to their foolishness and second time round, told no lies.
* Sridevi was ruling the roost for over a decade. The first tremor came with Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja and her interview in the wake of Gumrah was indicative of the shifting equations.
* My conversations with Aamir Khan conducted on our drive to Manmohan Desai’s funeral and Anupam Kher in a suburban farm house, after the slap controversy were full of insights.
* South whiz-kid Mani Ratnam was put up at Centaur Hotel, Juhu, by A B Corp., distributors for the bi-lingual Bombay. Programmed to give interviews by the film’s PRO all day, when it was my turn to drop by at the hotel, a drained Ratnam staring at the sun setting into the sea said, ‘I have never spoken so much in my entire life.’
* Salman Khan was not talking to the press for a long time, but in a surprise gesture agreed to meet me. It proved to be the most enchanting encounter and I recall the magical afternoon after all these years with fondness.
* It was a decade of revelations. Meenakshi Seshadri got married. Nana Patekar emerged as the new sex-symbol even though I found him exceedingly diffident, admitting to talking to the walls. Tabu was the neo-realistic actress, but lacking in self-esteem. To a certain extent, so was Madhuri Dixit, facing an identical crisis that Sridevi underwent early in the decade. Only Anil Kapoor, Kamal Haasan and Ram Gopal Varma sounded upbeat and optimistic about their current projects.
* The senior stars were back with a vengeance. Sharmila Tagore in a one-woman show Aparajita in Bengali. Jaya Bachchan after an 18-year break in Hazar Chaurasi Ki Maa. Kiron Kher in Darmiyaan after packing up her stage career over a decade ago and Deepa Mehta, the director from Toronto having the country in flames with her controversial film Fire.