Conversations with Waheeda Rehman (15 page)

NMK:
As you were saying, you did not have the script in advance, so I assume there was no chance of researching a character.

WR:
How could we? I worked on three movies a month—ten days on one film, a week on another and six days on a third. I’d have a few days’ break in between. Where was the time to do any research?

I believe Dustin Hoffman spent days with autistic people before making
Rain Man
. Hollywood actors have that luxury because they get bound scripts and have the time to prepare thoroughly for a role. They also work on one film at a time. This is not how we used to work.

A chance meeting with south Indian star Padmini at the Hyderabad airport. Circa 1960.

Of course, I know things are changing and some actors in
India have started researching their roles. I read that Farhan Akhtar spent a lot of time researching his part as Milkha Singh in
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
.

NMK:
Did an idea of how to develop a character ever come to you in a dream?

WR:
Not really. But I have taken inspiration from the behaviour of someone I know. I was acting in a TV serial [
Katha Sagar
]
by Shyam Benegal, which was based on Guy de Maupassant’s short stories. I played a lonely Christian woman from Goa. She is relentlessly pursued by an estate agent who wants to get her house somehow. Knowing this woman is very fond of drinking, he keeps bringing her feni. I wondered how I was going to act this part because I don’t drink alcohol.

My husband, Shashi, and I used to spend a lot of time with Salim Khan and I noticed he would make a gulping sound when he was drinking. I imitated that gulping sound in the shot. Shyam was taken aback and asked: ‘How did you do that?’ I explained to him it was Salim Saab of Salim–Javed who had inspired me.
[laughs]

NMK:
Considering the fact that you would sometimes be given the scene at the last minute, what kind of scenes did you enjoy playing? Romantic? Sad or light scenes?

WR:
I liked playing romantic scenes and light scenes too. People
liked me in romantic scenes. I have a very serious face, not a
chulbuli
[mischievous] face. I thought I could do light scenes quite well. My acting wasn’t too bad in
Ram Aur Shyam
,
Aadmi
and in a few scenes in films like
Patthar Ke Sanam
and
Ek Phool Char Kaante
.

NMK:
When you were filming a reaction shot, did your co-stars stand in?

WR:
Many did. Dilip Saab, Sunil Dutt, Dev Anand and Rajendra Kumar always stood in. Hearing their tone helped me get the right expression in the reaction shot.

If my co-star was away from the set, an assistant would read the lines to me. We had such amusing assistants—they read the lines without any emotion whatsoever—and everyone would laugh because I performed very badly.

NMK:
You have worked with a variety of actors and directors, and with some directors like Yash Chopra you played both heroine and mother in his films. What were his strengths as a director?

WR:
He was a master at portraying romance on the screen, and his technical execution was very good.

I remember Yashji came to see me about
Kabhi Kabhie
. When I heard the story, I agreed to do the film. Then Gulshan Rai, the producer of
Deewaar
, a film that Yashji was also directing, asked him to offer me the role of the mother—the role Nirupa
Roy eventually played. I told Yashji: ‘I don’t mind doing it. The mother in
Deewaar
has a few good scenes and in any case I am not the romantic lead in
Kabhi Kabhie
, and so why not play the mother?’

Yashji thought otherwise and advised me to say no—he said how could I play Amitabh Bachchan’s mother in
Deewaar
, if I was playing his wife in
Kabhi Kabhie
? He reminded me both films were going to be released at more or less the same time, but added if Gulshan Rai were to ask me I should say I was the one who had refused the
Deewaar
role.
[smiles]

NMK:
Was there any director you wish you had worked with?

WR:
Bimal Roy. His production company offered me a role but it was going to be made by another director. I would have liked to work with Mehboob Saab too.

My husband and Saira Banu were cast in Mehboob Saab’s last film
Habba Khatoon
, but when Mehboob Khan passed away in 1964, the film was shelved.

I was keen to work with Hrishikesh Mukherjee. We were travelling on a flight together and were sitting next to each other. He said he had read a story he wanted to adapt and thought the lead role would suit me. I was very happy. I expected him to get in touch but heard nothing. I believe he told someone he had offered me a role, and it was I who had not called him. I didn’t realize I was supposed to call.

NMK:
Some actors have a reputation of being difficult and fussy and having tantrums on set. Were you ever like that?

WR:
[smiles]
I was most dutiful.

The first time I worked with Raj Kapoor was in
Ek Dil Sao Afsane
—R.C. Talwar was directing. We were shooting in someone’s bungalow. Rajji came late as usual, and then didn’t want to start filming. We asked him: ‘What is it, Rajji? The whole unit is waiting, what are you doing?’ He said: ‘I am not in the mood. Sorry.’ The owner of the bungalow was a friend of Rajji’s and had the courage to tell him: ‘You are paid to get into the mood, my dear. Please get into the mood and start filming.’

My personal hairdresser Mrs Solomon would sometimes say:
‘They make you wait for hours, why don’t you make a fuss? Why don’t you complain?’ I used to tell her: ‘I am paid from 9.30 to 6.30. If they don’t call me for a shot, they’re wasting their time and not mine.’

Mrs Solomon was with me for ten years and when I had more or less stopped working, she moved to America to join her sisters who had settled there. She has passed away but her family still lives in the States.

NMK:
If you had to wait on set for hours, what did you do?

WR:
I read. But if it was past 6.30, I felt I had the right to ask what was going on. Are you going to take my shot today?

Sometimes the director would say: ‘
Jam nahin raha hai.
[It isn’t working.] Let’s call it a day. We can sit and have tea together.’ That kind of thing happened too.

I am reminded of an incident during the shooting of
Patthar Ke Sanam
. We actors knew the director Raja Nawathe was not a very forceful man and could be easily bullied. Manoj Kumar, Pran, Mehmood and I got together and decided to pull his leg. We took the producer A.A. Nadiadwala into our confidence and said we were going to have some
masti
[fun] and upset the director.

When the director had placed the camera into position and the lighting was ready, he asked us to rehearse the shot. First Pran, looking furious, told Raja Nawathe: ‘Dada, I’m Pran after all! What is this? My back is the only thing you can see in the shot. I am sorry, I don’t like it at all. You must change the angle.’ The director asked for the camera position and lighting to be changed. It took almost an hour.

When the shot was ready, Manoj Kumar said: ‘Hello! I’m the leading man. How can I enter the shot like that?’ One after the other, we took turns making some kind of fuss. Raja didn’t know what to do. Then we all burst out laughing. The poor director!

Sometimes we misbehaved on the set, but today there is no way you can do that because there is too much money involved.

NMK:
The budgets are enormous now and it would be difficult to delay a shoot for fun. But what if an actor just can’t get the emotion right?

WR:
It can be a struggle. When I used to set off for the studio in the mornings, I knew the scene I was going to shoot, and would try to get myself into the right frame of mind.

Being prepared isn’t sometimes enough. I was shooting an emotional scene with Nirupa Roy for
Mujhe Jeene Do
, but neither of us got it right. We filled our eyes with glycerin, and so it appeared we were crying, but the emotion wasn’t there. We were phoney and artificial and giggling under our breath. We tried very hard but nothing worked. Finally we asked the director Moni Bhattacharjee for a short break.

Nirupa and I sat outside the set. After a few minutes, I said:
‘I think I’ve been doing too many emotional scenes in the past month. I feel empty.’

‘You are absolutely right. I feel the same.’ Nirupa and I realized we had become drained of feelings and needed a few days’ break from playing highly charged scenes.

There is a limit to your ability of expressing real emotions no matter how fine an actor you are. You may be acting, but you also need to feel something as a person.

NMK:
It shows on screen when a performance is heartfelt. I am thinking of you as Radha in
Khamoshi
.

WR:
The director Asit Sen was very good and the only time I worked with him was in
Khamoshi
. He had made many Bengali and Hindi movies, including
Mamta
. I liked him very much because he was a sensitive man and had a great understanding
of cinema. He guided me to deliver the right tone.

NMK:
Many people confuse the director Asit Sen with the comedian Asit Sen. But they were entirely different people. The director Asit Sen was a former assistant to Bimal Roy and came from Calcutta with Bimal Roy and his team to live in Bombay in 1950.

Apparently
Khamoshi
was the Hindi version of the 1959
Bengali film
Deep Jweley Jai
that Asit Sen made with Suchitra Sen in the role of the psychiatric nurse that you ultimately played. Was it a tough role?

WR:
Khamoshi
was a demanding film and so was the role. The character I played, Radha, had intense but suppressed feelings. She has great self-control and was not the kind of person to demand that the man she loves must love her in return. It would be out of character for her to behave like that. Acting quieter emotions is far more difficult.

On the other hand when I played Chamelijaan in
Mujhe Jeene Do
, I was required to express loud emotions. She starts off as a
tawaif
and later becomes a dacoit’s wife. She yells and shouts. That kind of behaviour suited the character and background she came from.

NMK:
Did rehearsals help you achieve the right pitch of performance? Did you have camera rehearsals?

WR:
No, not in the early days. Before we put on our costumes and did our make-up, all the artistes were called on the set and the director would explain the camera positions. This was about rehearsing movement, not performance.

Say an actor had to walk over and sit on a chair while talking. We would then rehearse just that movement and not necessarily the whole scene. The idea was to get familiar with our cues and make us feel comfortable. They call it ‘blocking the scene’.

NMK:
Actors talk of becoming the character; was it something you believed in?

WR:
Yes. I became Gulaabo [
Pyaasa
] or Shanti [
Kaagaz Ke Phool
]. I think I knew how to act but relied on the director to help me stay in character throughout the story:
‘Shanti aise nahin karegi. Shanti aise hi karegi.’
[Shanti would not do this. Shanti would do that.] Consistency in performance is important.

NMK:
You’re right. We’ve got to believe that when we meet someone on the screen, they are the same person from the first to the last scene. That can be tricky when a film has a lot of dialogue. Do you think Hindi films tend to overdo the talking?

WR:
Indian films are too verbose. There’s too much talking. I have told my writers and directors many times: ‘Saab, this whole scene is a repeat. Why don’t you cut it down?’ But they didn’t listen to me.

I think emotions expressed through songs and music are a good way of taking the story forward. They’re emotionally more effective than endless dialogue.

NMK:
I think Hindi film songs are the glue that binds us to Indian cinema, especially the old songs—they are the most original aspect. It’s interesting that the audience tolerates the repetition of storyline, but they will not tolerate the same song being used again and again.

That said, songs today have less purpose in the story. I am sure you agree they don’t seem to fit in the current mood of today’s films.