In focus: Flipping through Mr India’s Calendar
Satish Kaushik as Calendar
Twenty-seven years later, the clamorous refrain, "Calendar khana do", still rings in Satish Kaushik's ears. He vividly recalls filming Mr India with a bunch of mischievous kids, which included Aftab Shivdasani, Karan Nath and Ahmed Khan, whom he had to chase with a stick every day to round up for a shoot.
"As Shekhar Kapur's associate director that was my job and the kids were always up to some prank," he laughs, remembering the bungalow they had erected at Versova Village. "There were rooms for the kids equipped with TV and a garden at the back where they could play inbetween shots. We even hired teachers for them so they wouldn't fall back on their studies."
Kaushik recalls working on the script with Javed Akhtar. "There was a character of a cook and while fleshing him out, I recalled one of my father's distributors whose sentences inevitably began or ended with the word 'calendar' for no logical reason. And an amused Javed saab suggested we name our cook Calendar," he says.
Later, while working on Calendar's look, Kaushik remembered a character in a popular Pakistani serial of the'80s, Aangan Teda. Akbar, played by Salim Nasir, was a classical dancer before he was hired as a domestic help by a retired civil servant which explained his effiminate ways. "We decided to incorporate Akbar's effeminate side but instead of a kurtapyjama, Javed saab decided to give Calendar a more westernised wardrobe complete with a cap and suspenders," says Kaushik, admitting that as the associate director he pushed himself as a actor for the role.
His interaction with the kids brings back fond memories with one exception, the explosion that brings about Tina's premature end. Kaushik says that there were long deliberations on whether they should kill off the sweetest of the kids till Akhtar reasoned that it was necessary to make the audience really hate Mogambo.
"Do you know that Mogambo was to be played by Anupam Kher?" asks Kaushik. "But when we got him into costume him and screen tested him, everyone felt he looked more funny than ferocious. Then I had the enviable task of telling my old buddy that he was out of the film. We eventually signed a more menacing Amrish Puri as the comic book villain of Mr India and the rest, as they say is history."
"As Shekhar Kapur's associate director that was my job and the kids were always up to some prank," he laughs, remembering the bungalow they had erected at Versova Village. "There were rooms for the kids equipped with TV and a garden at the back where they could play inbetween shots. We even hired teachers for them so they wouldn't fall back on their studies."
Kaushik recalls working on the script with Javed Akhtar. "There was a character of a cook and while fleshing him out, I recalled one of my father's distributors whose sentences inevitably began or ended with the word 'calendar' for no logical reason. And an amused Javed saab suggested we name our cook Calendar," he says.
Later, while working on Calendar's look, Kaushik remembered a character in a popular Pakistani serial of the'80s, Aangan Teda. Akbar, played by Salim Nasir, was a classical dancer before he was hired as a domestic help by a retired civil servant which explained his effiminate ways. "We decided to incorporate Akbar's effeminate side but instead of a kurtapyjama, Javed saab decided to give Calendar a more westernised wardrobe complete with a cap and suspenders," says Kaushik, admitting that as the associate director he pushed himself as a actor for the role.
His interaction with the kids brings back fond memories with one exception, the explosion that brings about Tina's premature end. Kaushik says that there were long deliberations on whether they should kill off the sweetest of the kids till Akhtar reasoned that it was necessary to make the audience really hate Mogambo.
"Do you know that Mogambo was to be played by Anupam Kher?" asks Kaushik. "But when we got him into costume him and screen tested him, everyone felt he looked more funny than ferocious. Then I had the enviable task of telling my old buddy that he was out of the film. We eventually signed a more menacing Amrish Puri as the comic book villain of Mr India and the rest, as they say is history."
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