Akbar Khan: “Smita Patil Seemed to Possess an Instinctive Understanding of The Human Soul”

Smita was an extraordinary actress, an artiste who seemed to possess an instinctive understanding of the human soul behind every character she portrayed. With films like Manthan, Bhoomika, Aakrosh, Chakra, perhaps confined either to that of an oppressed lady or a village rebel. And she was always mostly dressed in sarees or, you know, village attire.

I would like to believe that Haadsaa was the first film which tried to unshackle her from the stereotype. It’s unfortunate the film took five years to make. But during the making itself preview circles had seen her glamorous avatar and I’d like to believe that she signed up for films like Namak Halal and Shakti because of the buzz about Haadsaa. It was her eyes and her movie face which struck me

I vaguely recall, I think it was Vinod Khanna who had mentioned her name to me. It’s possible that he may have shared her phone number with me. I have a feeling, I’m not too sure. I had considered Shabana Azmi too for the role but something about Smita made me plumb for her. I had brought out for her to be a modern, seductress. I had to break her image. To play the high society, schizophrenic woman with an impotent husband. She would have to swing from absolutely normal to raving crazy all in one shot. And that only a trained actor would have been able to do. She took to the character like fish to water and my gut instinct proved right about her.

Me and her designer sister Manya worked on her look, we used seriously glamorous make up. Her make over was intense. In addition the fact that she was intense and intelligent kept me on my toes as a debutant director. She would imbibe the character, the narration of the character she’s portraying. She would internalise it, vulnerability, the sensuality that the character demanded, its fears and its darkness. She delivered every nuance of my character and maybe added tons to it.

I recall her dad Shivaji Rao Patil at the trial of the film saying it’s one of my daughter’s best Performances. I remember Mahesh Bhatt used to come and sit on my sets to meet her. In those days, he was making Arth. And my film was launched much earlier, but Arth released earlier.

A little digression. NN Sippy was keen to produce my film, and it was sort of my debut with me acting ( I had done Anjaan Rahen before that ) and directing, but that came unstuck. Mr Sippy was busy with Fakira and another film with Subhash Ghai, so my film went on the back burner.

So as a beginner I could shoot only when the money came in from financiers, and that’s why it took five years to release. Don’t forget, until then I was just an assistant director to director Mohan Bijlani and then to my older brother Feroz Khan, barely making a few thousand.

So I started my career with 35,000 rupees in financing from a friend’s father, Manubhai Desai. I made the first reel of my film, and I had to show one reel after another to get more and more financing. But nobody could tell that this film took five years to finish. It was a very highly, what should I say, technically advanced film with a story ahead of its time. It had some great music also.

I remember a scene where we shot at Marine Drive with Smita chasing me all over Bombay, coming out of the car and yelling her head off. It was all in real time. There was such a traffic jam; she gave her shot and then had to be bundled back into the car. There was a bottleneck because of the traffic jam. It was a close shave for us. I remember being so emotionally moved by her in that shot, and I stood transfixed.

We had also shot a film called Mr Aashiq with Parveen Babi and Smita. I was shooting with Parveen for a song sequence and I remember looking into her eyes and it looked like a graveyard. She was so lost in that schedule. Alas, Parveen had a nervous breakdown and she went away, and the film came unstuck. Then Smita too passed away. So Tanvir Ahmed, the director of Mr Aashiq, took sequences of Smita and Parveen from there and added them to Aakarshan, which he was making with Sonu Walia and me. So if you see Aakarshan, you will see both the actors in that as well. It was a nice story of an actor and actress set against the backdrop of showbiz. Tanvir was a sensitive and talented man, but luck wasn’t on his side. Perhaps he was also pressured deeply by the producers to release a hastily put-together film.

It was all so tragic because in my personal life too, there was a tragedy. Just two days before Smita passed away, my sister Dilshad lost her husband. It was a bitter winter in Kashmir when all this happened. My brother-in-law passed away on the 10th of December, and Smita passed away three days later.

Also Read: Exclusive: Priya Banerjee on Mother-in-law Smita Patil: “She Was a Lot Like Me”