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the latter was on an inspection and he director at times. Gufi got his first big break
was surprised to see him there. “I was as an assistant director when he assisted
only a gunner in the artillery division of HS Rawail in his film Laila Majnu starring
the Territorial Army and even my uncle’s the heart throb Rishi Kapoor. Later he
younger brothers later on retired as LT got to work with his son Rahul Rawail in
Gens. I told him that I had become an the classic hit Love Story starring Kumar
engineer because dad wanted me to do Gaurav. Then came his big break when he
so,” he revealed. In 1967 he left the army got to assist Raj Kapoor in his films and
and returned to the engineering college, managed to learn a lot from the showman.
wrapped up his studies and joined Tata The film, that however changed his
Engineering and Locomotive which was life, was the BR Chopra backed and Ravi
the time when he connected with Ratan Chopra directed one – The Burning Train.
Tata. “I met him at the hostel. He was and Gufi had joined BR Films – a company that
still is a fine young man. There was one was to give him his permanent identity.
more Bakshi in my college who was related He was assisting in the movies and also
to the Kashmir Prime Minister Ghulam involved in the casting, took care of the
Mohammad Bakshi,” Gufi had told back newly formed Ad department in the
then. company and started acting as well. He also
One day Gufi received a call that changed got an opportunity to direct many tv serials
his life and that was when his brother under the BR Films banner.
Paintal a.k.a Kanwaljit Paintal popularly
known as the king of mime back then called
him up after becoming an actor in the Hindi
movies. Paintal told his brother to stop his
“nuts and bolts” job and enter films.
Life did change when the time came to
cast for the role of Shakuni in Mahabharat.
Gufi was already the casting director of
the serial and would show the auditions of
several people who were to be introduced
one after the other in the show to enable
the team led by BR Chopra, which included
That is when Gufi decided to become Ravi Chopra, Dr Rahi Masoom Raza, Satish
an assistant director because he always Bhatnagar, Hasan Kamal and Mahavir
wanted to be a director as he along with Adhikari pick out each character.
Paintal indulged in shadow play during It was only when the scene to be shot was
childhood. He also did a bit of modelling that of the wedding of Dhritarashtra and
for money and even doubled up as a casting Gandhari when Gufi realised that they had
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #48 | JUNE 2023 43
