Sharmaji Namkeen director says he was worried about Kapoor family's feedback | Bollywood - Hindustan Times
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Sharmaji Namkeen director Hitesh Bhatia says he was worried about Kapoor family's feedback: 'But they loved it'

Mar 25, 2022 06:01 AM IST

Hitesh Bhatia, the director of Rishi Kapoor's last film Sharmaji Namkeen, says he was worried about how the late actor's family would react to the film.

Rishi Kapoor's final film Sharmaji Namkeen is all set for release. The slice of life comedy was unfinished when the veteran actor died suddenly on April 30, 2020. Eventually, Paresh Rawal stepped in to help finish the film. In a recent interview, the film's director Hitesh Bhatia spoke about Rishi's last day on set and his final shot for the film, and how the Kapoor family found the film. Also read: Sharmaji Namkeen song: You will miss Rishi Kapoor even more after watching Laal Tamatar. Watch

Sharmaji Namkeen will mark Rishi Kapoor's final on screen appearance.
Sharmaji Namkeen will mark Rishi Kapoor's final on screen appearance.

In Sharmaji Namkeen, Rishi plays a retired man who discovers his love for cooking and turns this passion into his livelihood. Paresh Rawal has also played Sharmaji in the film, finishing parts that were left unfilmed till Rishi's death.

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Speaking to Indian Express recently, director Hitesh spoke about Rishi's last shot for the film, “The last shot that he ever gave, I didn’t want to take a close-up. I was like, ‘We don’t need the close-up. We are done with the scene. Let’s wrap it.’ Chintu ji (Rishi's nickname), who never insists, wanted me to take the close-up as he believed it will add to the scene. The light was going badly. So, he asked the DOP to make the close-up happen no matter what. And eventually, we did the shot, not knowing it will become the last shot of his life."

The director also talked about Rishi's family, particularly son Ranbir Kapoor and wife Neetu Kapoor, watching the film at a special screening. “They were very emotional,” he said, adding, “When we started working on the film with Paresh ji, we had no idea of how the film will shape up. Until you see the film in its totality, you don’t know if it is working or making sense. That way, we had the responsibility to make a film that is decent and respectable. We didn’t want it to become an experiment that fails. Along those lines, I was a little worried about how the family will feel and how the film eventually shapes up. But they all really loved it, Ranbir and Neetu ji in particular. All of them were very emotional to see him on screen for the last time.”

Sharmaji Namkeen also stars Juhi Chawla, Suhail Nayyar, Isha Talwar, Sheeba Chaddha, Ayesha Raza, Satish Kaushik, Parmeet Sethi and Taaruk Raina. The film will release on Amazon Prime Video on March 31.

 

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