Saira Banu Recalls Shooting For Bairaag With Dilip Kumar In “Freezing Cold”: “Our Teeth Were Chattering”
Veteran actress Saira Banu keeps treating her online family to delightful blasts from the past moments. Even her Instagram bio reads, “Hamari (Saira Banu and Dilip Kumar) zindagi ke andekhay aur ansunay kissey [Unheard and unseen tails of our life].” So, what’s the latest chapter? The veteran star has shared behind-the-scenes pictures from the iconic film Bairaag, directed by Asit Sen. The film completes 47 years of release today. Along with the pictures, Saira Banu has written an extensive note. She said, “Bairaag’ offered Dilip Sahib a field day in displaying his wide range of able histrionics. Here was the opportunity for Dilip Sahib to play the Father to a pair of Twin Sons who in the story are separated early in childhood. One is a sophisticated, flirtatious eligible Don-Juan…This is Sanjay who is flirting around and romancing Leena Chandravarkar and Helenji at the same time, and the other role is of Bhola the indispensable simple household help in the big Zamindar family where he serves but has grown into a family member with them.”
Talking about one of Dilip Kumar’s characters, Saira Banu continued, “Bhola is blind, he cannot see. He is particularly at loggerheads with the heroine “Choti Maalkin” who leaves no opportunity to irritate and bother him. I loved this role because in every scene at home it was a different withdrawn relationship and when Bhola was outdoors on some errands “Choti Maalkin” turned into a saucy ‘Banjaran’ (Gypsy) with a flip of her voice and pungent dialogues with Bhola. In actuality she is in love with Bhola who is blind and cannot see. My most favourite scene is when Choti Maalkin descends into the Mandir and finds Bhola praying. Here she declares her love for him to Bhola. It is a poignant moment.”
“When we were shooting at Doddabetta peak, in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu, it was so freezingly cold that our teeth were chattering and we were lapping up a cup of coffee one after another but as soon as one took the cup of coffee out from the restaurant to outdoors 15 Feet away within 2 Minutes the coffee froze into an ice-cream. That was the extent of the cold that we worked in, In fact, that’s reflected in the second picture, where the Director of Bairaag, Mr. Asit Sen, Dillip Sahib, myself, and the Producer, Mr. Riyaz, are entirely covered in shawls and woollens. With lots of profound memories “BAIRAAG” will always be one of my favourite films, a delight!” she added.
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