When Shammi Kapoor SCOLDED Saira Banu On Sets And Left Her Crying: ‘You Should Have Been At Home…’

Saira Banu’s contribution to film industry has been immense. It was in 1961, she made her film debut starring opposite Shammi Kapoor in the film Junglee. Now, years later the veteran star recollected several anecdotes from the film, and also went on to reveal the time she vowed to not work with Shammi.

On Tuesday, Saira took to her Instagram handle to share the story about shooting the song Kashmir Ki Kali Hoon Main from the film. Sharing the song’s clip, she shared, “After that hilarious incident and my confident affirmation that “Main Kar Ke Dikhaungi,” Subodh Uncle prepared for the shot with Srinivas, the cameraman, and the music began, believe it or not. I got it right and performed the shot beautifully! So, I was filled with a sense of determination that, God willing, I would never give up like this. Shammiji walked up to me, held my shoulders, and laughed. “You see, you needed a little bit of a push and some scolding.” I was quite a sensitive girl, and I was deeply hurt, so I promised Shammiji that I wouldn’t work with him until I proved myself as a good artist. True to my word, I turned down several films, like “PROFESSOR” and “JAWAAN MOHABBAT,” until decades later when B.R. Chopra Sahab cast me opposite Amitabh Bachchan, and I played Shammiji’s daughter in “ZAMEER.” We both used to laugh about this unique casting turn of events!”

She added, “You see, this was the first time I met Shammi Sahab, one of the greatest actors and the first ‘Rock Star’ of Indian Cinema. With his fantastic sense of music, he created his own style of emoting songs. However, at that time, I didn’t know much about him. I had once seen him at the premiere of “DIL DEKHE DEKHO” when I had come to Bombay for my school holidays. He was sitting behind us, and for some reason, whenever scenes between the hero and heroine were on the screen, he would loudly exclaim, “Hamam Sabun Say Nahaatey Hain Sabhi!” So, my mother and I would turn around to see who was making this noise. It was Shammiji, sitting there so regally! Well, Shammiji was much more than just this, and I must talk about it in the days to come.”

Speaking of Junglee, Subodh Mukherjee produced and directed the film, and the entertaining music album was composed by Shankar-Jaikishan. Apart from the lead stars, the movie also starred Shashikala, Anoop Kumar, and Lalita Pawar in key roles. This was Saira Banu’s debut film. She even earned a Filmfare nomination for Best Actress for this film. The popular Hindi song Yahoo was part of this film and featured the two leads. Saira Banu and Shammi Kapoor then worked together in the 1963 film Bluffmaster which was directed by Manmohan Desai. It also starred Lalita Parwar along with Pran, Mohan Choti and others.