Saira Banu Remembers Shashi Kapoor On His Birth Anniversary

Veteran actor Saira Banu recently paid tribute to her friend and former co-star Shashi Kapoor on his birth anniversary which falls on March 18. Saira Banu shared old photos of herself and Shashi Kapoor from their films. In the heartfelt post, Banu revealed that initially, she was about to make her debut alongside Shashi Kapoor in Yash Chopra’s 1961 film ‘Dharmaputra’. However, she ended up making her first film opposite Shammi Kapoor in Jungleem which was also released in 1961. Saira Banu and Shashi Kapoor were supposed to share screen in the 1967 film Shagird but the lead role went to actor Joy Mukherjee. Later the pair worked on Koi Jeeta Koi Haara (1976) and Sadiyon Se Hai Pyaar (1971).

She recalled how she would often share lunch with Shashi Kapoor if they happened to shoot in the same studio and wrote, “Despite the ebb and flow of our projects, our paths always seemed to converge, our shootings would often get scheduled in the same studio, where Shashi Ji and I would run into each other, and on days we would have lunch in the makeup room.”

Saira Banu mentioned that whenever she was in Pune, she would buy Kayani Bakery’s famous Shrewsbury biscuits for Shashi Kapoor. She wrote that Shashi Kapoor loved the Shrewsbury biscuits so much that he could eat an entire in one go. Describing his love for the biscuits, Saira Banu wrote, “When I was shooting for Purab Aur Paschim, our shoot was set up in Poona, at Raj ji’s huge farm. As soon as Shashi ji knew about this he immediately came to me and said “Saira, please get me Shrewsbury Biscuits from there”’

The 79-year-old actor said that she always bought Shrewsbury biscuits for him no matter how busy she was with shooting. “There are a few things you never forget about people, especially when you make them happy with the smallest of gestures, and for Shashi ji, it was a packet of Shrewsbury Biscuit,” she wrote.

This post has gathered over 3,000 likes on Instagram. An Instagram user wrote, “Shashi ji,it was one of kind! You were very lucky to know him, ma’m. Thank you for sharing beautiful memories, about him, with us.” Shashi Kapoor passed away on December 4, 2017, at the age of 79, from long-standing liver and heart complications.