‘She never said don’t touch me’: Shekhar Suman on filming Utsav with Rekha

He also gives credit to director Girish Karnad, who was an actor himself. “He told me, ‘Look, you’re just playing a character. Don’t treat her as Rekha, but just as Vasantasena, another character,'” said Shekhar. He also praised Rekha for her professionalism while filming intimate scenes together. “Being a big star, she never said, ‘Don’t touch me here’ or ‘I don’t want to give another retake’. She was very, very normal,” added Shkhar.

On working with Madhuri Dixit

The second film Shekhar Kapur signed was Sudarshan Rattan’s Manav Hatya (1986) opposite Madhuri Dixit. While Madhuri had already made her debut with Hiren Nag’s Abodh (1984), she was still not a known face, as her breakthrough with the song “Ek Do Teen” in N Chandra’s 1987 romantic thriller Tezaab hadn’t happened by then.

“I remember working with Madhuri in my second film. The director called me and asked, ‘Would you work with a new girl?’ I said, ‘If Rekha could work with me, why would I not work with a new girl?,'” recalled Shekhar. “She stayed close by to me in Andheri. I wanted to meet her, so we both went to her place on a motorcycle. When I saw her, I thought, ‘Oh my god! Such a pretty looking girl!’ She was a huge discovery,” he added.

Madhuri Dixit and Shekhar Suman in Manav Hatya.

On doing women-led films

Whether it was Utsav, Manav Hatya or Jyoti Sarup’s 1985 romance Rehguzar where he was cast opposite Simple Kapadia, Shekhar Suman didn’t shy away from doing films where the female lead enjoyed a bigger or as big a role as him. But he maintains that decision wasn’t conscious. “I just picked everything that came my way. Utsav was such a delight. To be chosen as the hero opposite Rekha! She was the bigger star and had a bigger role, but I was equally important and noticed,” said Shekhar.

He cited another hit female-led movie, T Rama Rao’s Naache Mayuri (1986), headlined by Sudha Chandran, and based on her own life. “It revolved around the protagonist losing her leg, but she still comes out as a winner. I played the hero, but he was negative. When she loses her leg, he leaves her in the lurch, but comes back once she becomes famous,” recalled the actor.

Sudha Chandran, Dimple Kapadia, and Shekhar Suman in Pati Parmeshwar.

“Even Pati Parmeshwar, the film I did with Dimple Kapadia, I came back and asked for forgiveness. I remember my father watching it in a theatre in Jaipur, where the audience said, ‘Maaro saale ko!‘ He was very upset! He asked me, ‘Why would you do a role like that?’ I said, ‘But that’s the victory of the character. I wanted people to hate me,'” said Shekhar.

When his father asked Shekhar why he’d do such a grey role in Madan Joshi’s 1990 film Pati Parmeshwar after having debuted with Utsav, the actor said, “Yes, that’s the challenge — to get away from any image to conform to and do something diametrically opposite.” In the film, Dimple played his girlfriend, while Sudha Chandran portrayed his wife, who forgives him after he cheats on her.

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Pati Parmeshwar was initially not cleared by the Censor Board, as it claimed Sudha Chandran’s character Rekha was in “ignoble servility” of her husband. “I wonder why they did that because there are so many films and shows like that coming out, where men have really badly treated women, and they get away with it. I have no idea why Pati Parmeshwar wouldn’t get passed and was called regressive,” argued Shekhar. Bombay High Court eventually cleared the film for release, and noted that the ‘ban’ was ‘unjustified.’

Speaking about Pati Parmeshwar, Shekhar Suman also looked back on his association with both Dimple Kapadia and her sister Simple Kapadia. “They were completely different. Dimple was very glamorous, a huge star! You could always see a Bobby (1973) and Saagar (1985) in her, along with all of the images that entailed her. Simple was not as successful as her sister. She’d done three to four films, but wasn’t ambitious at all! Dimple would try very hard for her performance,” recalled Shekhar.