Page 16 - Seniors Today - Oct 2019
P. 16
treat his actors. He was very particular about
his work and didn’t take it lightly. If someone
took their work lightly, he didn’t like that. He
was very passionate; he gave it all and expected
the same.
Back then most of the Muslim actors would
change their real name to a Hindu name. Before
him Yusuf Khan changed his name to Dilip
Kumar. But my father was the first Muslim
actor to keep his real name, Feroz Khan and I
admire that he chose to keep it real. Although The poster for Qurbani
I feel he should have done more movies. I and a maulvi on the set. However, he introduced
remember after he finished Qurbani, he had the Western genre to Bollywood with his cow-
so many offers and he refused most of them boyish stagger and flamboyant masculine style,
because he wouldn’t do things just for money. I being referred as the Clint Eastwood and a
asked him one day, why are you refusing these style icon of the glam industry. Also he brought
films? To that he said, “I will have to work under many firsts to Indian cinema – the disco genre,
someone else’s production and vision, I don’t flew down international dancers at that time,
want that happening.” When he made his films, created beautiful, Hollywood-inspired sets, he
he would not only produce, direct, edit but also brought in that disco music – aap jaisa koi. His
be involved in the music and writing. We never films were very slick, fast-paced with dynamic
saw him while he was filming, he would be so angles and sharp cutting patterns; the quality of
engrossed. production value was refined. His filmmaking
He was a very secular man and before his was unique and ahead of the time. He was very
movie mahurat he would always have a pandit much into the sensuality of women. His movies
had a lot of passion involved but they were
never vulgar, he handled it artistically.
He had a lot of talent but he wasn’t a show-off;
he was a reserved guy. He didn’t like too much
attention. He gave his interviews only when
his movies were being released. Because that’s
the time he wanted to talk about them. Rest of
the time he would keep the publicity away. And
when he was out if it, he was out of it. If you
notice between all his films there are breaks for
a few years because that’s how he worked.
He lived his life, did whatever he wanted. He
would take care of his food, never over-ate, did
not have a strict diet but he would always get
up when he was half full. During his breaks
he would meet his friends, travel, read, write,
recite poetry. We would go to our farmhouse
in Bangalore, he loved spending time with us
over there. We had horses there, so we would go
racing. Also, he loved them and most Sundays
would be a race day for him. At times he would
go for shikaar – hunting, he was fond of it.
Feroz Khan with his daughter Laila We have some lovely memories of us being in
16
