In 2012, Amitabh Bachchan spoke about his memories of working with his favourite actor, Dilip Saab. Dilip Kumar died today at the age of 98...
Thanks to BollywoodHungama.com for the footage.
Thanks to BollywoodHungama.com for the footage.
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00:00Whenever the history of Indian cinema will be written, it will always have before Dilip Kumar and after Dilip Kumar.
00:08If Dilip Kumar couldn't get it for Ganga Jamuna, who the hell are you?
00:16Who do you think is the best actor ever in the Hindi film industry?
00:18Well, to me Dilip Saab, Dilip Kumar. And I've never really looked beyond that because he's been my idol and I've watched every one of his works.
00:29I always feel that whenever the history of Indian cinema will be written, it will always have before Dilip Kumar and after Dilip Kumar.
00:39That's almost like a yardstick. He's been phenomenal. My greatest regret though was that one of his films which I thought was his best work and most brilliant was Ganga Jamuna.
00:51And he never got an award for that. Many a times, you know, some of our artists and sometimes you also feel that, you know, you deserved to have got an award but you didn't get it.
01:01And you console yourself by this fact that, you know, if Dilip Kumar couldn't get it for Ganga Jamuna, who the hell are you?
01:07You worked together with him in Shakti. There were many confrontational scenes between the two of you and it was said that both of you had wonderful moments and it was difficult to decide as to who's better.
01:17How do you remember Shakti now, sir? First of all, with a lot of disbelief because somebody whom you've grown up watching and suddenly find yourself, you know, in the same profession, in the same frame, in the same film is very frightening.
01:32For a very long time, it was obviously not believable that I was actually working with Dilip sir. When you start evaluating the performance of an actor in a film, I feel that it's very important to evaluate the person that is standing in front of him.
01:46Because if they are performing well, their good performance will reflect on you. I could be giving the most fantastic performance ever. But if my colleague, my partner, my co-artist is not responding to that, my performance will look weak.
02:01That is the greatness of Dilip sir. Irrespective of whether he has something to do in the frame or not. But if he is responding commensurate to your performance, then your performance comes out looking good.
02:13And that, in a sense, is good for the film because the entire scene works. He's very considerate. He's a very considerate co-artist. He's always conscious of the fact that the other artists require space and time.
02:26And I particularly remember when we were doing the death scene, my death scene in the film, I was preparing for it and he just came up individually and said, you know, I'll prepare with you.
02:36I said, no, Dilip sir, let me do it on my own. He said, no, no, no. These are things that encourage a young artist at that point of time. For him to come and just assist you in your rehearsing is a great gesture.