Sharmila Tagore got miffed with her co-star Sanjeev Kumar when the latter ended up six hours late on the first shooting day of Mausam.
When you look at Sharmila Tagore’s rich filmography, you simply cannot miss talking about Gulzar’s 1975 film, Mausam. Featuring her in a double role and the supremely talented Sanjeev Kumar, the movie told the tale of a prostitute who harbors feelings for an older man, unaware that he was once in love with her mother.
However off screen, Sharmila’s working equation with Sanjeev Kumar started on a rather bumpy note. Back then, the Aradhana actress was working on two films simultaneously, Faraar and Mausam, both of which featured Kumar as the leading man. She used to get annoyed with his habit of making it on the film’s sets on time. In fact, on her first day of Mausam‘s shoot, she lost her temper when he arrived almost six hours late on the sets.
In Sanjeev Kumar’s biography, ‘Sanjeev Kumar: The Actor We All Loved’, Sharmila recalled, “On my first day’s shooting as Kajri, I was extremely excited, and all keyed up. I was portraying this kind of a character for the first time and was really looking forward to the day’s shoot. I was ready with my make-up and dialogues by 2 pm, and guess at what time Haribhai came? 8 pm. I had been waiting for about six hours, and by the time we went to the set, I was exhausted and livid. I was so angry that I had a meltdown and said very nasty things to him, which had absolutely no effect on him. He remained totally calm, and that made me more angry.”
“Finally, Gulzar sahab, in a very conciliatory tone, said, “Can we at least take one shot?” Haribhai had no problem doing the scene. He did his part perfectly, and I, on the other hand, kept giving retakes after retakes. I don’t remember how the day ended, but again I learnt a valuable lesson—that you shouldn’t allow your temper to get in the way of your performance. We continued to work together for 14 hours a day, for Faraar in the morning and Mausam in the evening, but I refused to talk to him. I was still very angry,” the actress narrated in the book.
However, ten days later, Sharmila Tagore went to watch his film, Aandhi and was completely bowled over by his performance. The next day, when she went to shoot for Faraar with him, she went and knocked on his dressing room door and told him that while she finds him an ‘awful and very irritating’ person, she would like to shake hands and make up with him because he is such a brilliant actor. She also requested him to let her know well in advance if he would turn late on the sets.
She continued, “He heard what I had to say calmly. If he felt anything, he didn’t show that, and of course, he didn’t apologize. But he had a twinkle in his eyes. I think our friendship became stronger from that day on. I had accepted him the way he was.”
Sharmila Tagore and Sanjeev Kumar worked together in several films like Namkeen, Mausam, Satyakam, Faraar, Charitraheen, Griha Pravesh and Shandaar.
