In the twilight of his career, Dev Anand transitioned from being a superstar to a humble lover of cinema, disregarding box office success or public opinion. This change in attitude was evident when actor Rajeev Khandelwal had a chance encounter with him. Despite knowing he wouldn’t take on a role in Dev’s film, Rajeev was captivated by Dev Anand’s presence. During their meeting, Rajeev expressed his respect by offering to touch Dev Anand’s feet, but the legendary actor humbly insisted on reciprocating the gesture, showing mutual admiration and respect between the two talents.
During a conversation with Radio Nasha, Rajeev Khandelwal recalled, “Dev saab called me for a film. I went there but I knew that I am not going to do this film because the kind of films he was making in those days… I knew that I didn’t want to do it. But I wanted to meet Dev saab.”
Rajeev Khandelwal, typically reserved in showing deference by touching someone’s feet, made a heartfelt exception when it came to Dev Anand. His desire to demonstrate respect and admiration for the legendary actor led him to humbly bend down to touch Dev’s feet. However, in a poignant moment, Dev Anand gracefully intervened and halted Rajeev’s gesture, “I went to Dev saab and I touched his feet. He stopped me there and asked ‘what are you doing?’ I said ‘sir, you inspire me’. He said ‘if that is the case then I should be touching your feet because youngsters like you inspire me a lot,” the actor added.
Earlier, in an exclusive interview with News18, Khandelwal who was last seen in the OTT series Showtime, had revealed that producers were ready to invest in the film with a newcomer but not with an acclaimed TV actor like him. “When I was doing Aamir, Anurag Kashyap (who was one of the makers of the film) told me later that he went to so many producers to finance the film. He went from pillar to post and told everyone that I have Rajeev Khandelwal who is very popular on television. And all of them said and they said that they didn’t want a popular face. Even if you take a newcomer, it’s fine with us but a TV actor, maybe no,” he had said.
The actor had said that it was Kashyap’s faith in him that enabled him to get a financer for Aamir, “Anurag had that conviction. He finally met Vikas Bahl from UTV. I was told later that Vikas asked Anurag, ‘Why do you want Rajeev? Is it because the budget is less?’ They thought that the budget was less, that’s why they are casting a TV actor. But both of them believed in me and that is how Aamir happened.”
Comments
0 comment