This is

Gauteng 1860 Legacy Foundation project

Fakir Hassan has written a book titled ‘150 Bollywood Encounters – the South
African Connection’. The book reflects on more than 150 people from the
Indian entertainment industry that I have met over the years. It also contains lots
of pictures, most of them of South Africans with the artists.

EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK 150 BOLLYWOOD ENCOUNTERS by

FAKIR HASSEN

“I have always believed that I have been very lucky to have jobs which
coincided with my passion for the Indian entertainment industry, often
telling family and friends who ask about my hobbies that my job is my
hobby.”

“Why are you pushing yourself to the limit and insisting on engaging in all
these live appearances and performances, rather than taking it easy now
and assuming a less strenuous role as an international ambassador for the
Indian film industry through the speeches you deliver to rapt audiences?”
I wanted to know from Amitabh Bachchan.

“Undeterred by the No Smoking signs in the room, Shahrukh just puffed

away during the session without even the courtesy of a “May I?” to the
media and some fans present, promptly emptying the sweets in a bowl on
the table when he realised that there was no ashtray in the room.”
“Removing his belt, and almost half unzipping his trousers, Shahrukh
Khan threatened to drop them to show everyone that he was very much a
Muslim.”

“I first had the rare and unique pleasure of joining actress, politician and
social activist Shabana Azmi on the same platform as world icon and the
father of the new democratic South Africa Nelson Mandela in Cape Town
soon after his release from 27 years of imprisonment on Robben Island as
a political prisoner.”

“Of all the positive remarks made by many, those by Sushmita Sen and
Mithun Chakraborthy are the only ones that I consider, even after all these
years, to have been very genuinely and honestly made about me by
Bollywood stars.”

“Priyanka Chopra during her debut at the IIFA Awards in Sun City shortly
after she had won the Miss World crown in 2000, left me wondering
whether the belief about beauties sometimes having no brains was true.
Priyanka did a very bad job of compering the event, fluffing her script
despite is being visible to the whole audience on a huge autocue high up
in front of her. How wrong Priyanka would prove us to be as she went on
to mature into a highly talented actress with hugely acclaimed hits.”

“Whoever had assisted Celina Jaitley with her makeup at the time should
have been a little more cautious, because she glistened under a thick
layer like a Barbie doll fresh off the plastic presses.”

“On every occasion that I have encountered Jaya Bachchan, she was the
one firmly in control behind the scenes, seemingly dictating the conditions
under which the better known members of her family would appear on
public platforms.”

“I have the rather dubious honour of having had to run behind Reena Roy
with her lipstick and compact as she ran towards the stage when the
compere called her name at the Standard Bank Arena in Johannesburg.”
“Aamir Khan immediately struck me as being destined for far greater
things than just playing the teenage lover running around trees and
flirting with young actresses although this was to prove true only many
years later.”

“Anil Kapoor has a rather onerous title for a Bollywood actor – that of
being an official goodwill ambassador for South Africa. What he has
actually done about that in the four years or so since President Thabo
Mbeki announced this is still unclear.”

“Suniel Shetty’s insinuation of organised crime having stolen his luggage

upset airport authorities who had launched concerted efforts to wipe out
incidents of luggage being tampered with ahead of the expected influx of
tourists for the FIFA World Cup.”

“There were no airs and graces and no high and mighty attitude about
interrupting the shooting schedule. Kamal Haasan himself walked over to
wherever I was on the sprawling sets each time he got a break.”

“Fardeen Khan called on the “stukkies” (a slang term in Afrikaans

generally considered derogatory used by some South African Indians to
describe women) in the audience to clap for him, offending a number of
women in the audience in the process even if some did laugh at his
statement.”

“Salman Khan popped into the Global Bollywood Music store in Fordsburg
just before a show in Johannesburg. He said absolutely nothing during his
few minutes there except to ask hostess Femida Umarjee for a glass of
Coke which she of course obliged with. He never took his cap off, stood
with arms resting on a cabinet almost all the time with slightly dazed
eyes, and then left.”

“Govinda’s command of English was almost nil as he kept turning to his

wife to interpret my questions. She had a better knowledge of the
language, and it was clear that she was a strong guiding force and
influence in Govinda’s life.”

“When Rajesh Khanna came in with flaming orange hair and a matching
long kurta pyjama suit looking like a priest, I said I did not know who it
was. Zarina whispered into my ear to avoid embarrassing me before
Malaysian colleagues that it was Rajesh Khanna, and I had to look again to
make him out.”

“At the airport in Lucknow, I already had a boarding pass but was
repeatedly asked to wait in the lounge by officials as all the other
passengers boarded until I became panicky when there were just ten
minutes left to the scheduled departure time whereupon I approached a
senior manager. He then escorted me onto the plane where the limited
number of seats was already taken up. I found myself standing at the
back of the plane as Raj Babbar occupied the seat that I had been
allocated.”

“For most of the rest of the show, Chunkey Panday and his friend Sajid
Nadiadwala just hammed it, running on and off the Sun City stage with
silly items that were clearly unrehearsed and just for their own egos. “

“The comic duo of entertainment has been re-defined with the advent of
Boman Irani and Riteish Deshmukh.”

“Shakti Kapoor was booed and jeered as he stumbled across the stage,
obviously totally inebriated, and almost made the fan fall off her crutches
before she was helped by a stage hand. The disappointed and tearful fan
later said she never wanted to see him again.”

“Before hundreds of families including children at the Chatsworth Stadium

in Durban, Shakti dropped his pants and showed them his behind as he
launched a verbal tirade full of expletives against journalists who had
written scathing attacks about his earlier antics.”
“A self-confessed street hawker of pirated cassettes alongside the fruit
and vegetables that he eked a living from, Gulshan Kumar started
thinking about why nobody was exploiting the market for so much music if
the costs were lowered without dropping the quality.”

“I asked Lata Mangeshkar whether she would not consider re-recording

some of her great hits of the past in her own voice again using the new
technology that was available to produce them in higher technical quality
than had been the case in the past. “Nahin! Kabhi Nahin!” (“Never! Never
ever!) was the very emphatic and immediate answer from Lata.”

“When RD Burman arrived on South African shores with a host of artists

for one of the first shows of its kind after many decades, he brought with
him a repertoire of his hits from the sixties and seventies only, believing
that South Africans had been deprived of his music after that because of
apartheid era isolation.”

“There is no doubt that Sonu Nigam is one of the top Indian playback
singers even with so many new voices surfacing these days. But on
almost every occasion that I have met Sonu or seen him in action, he
came across as having a kind of chip on the shoulder in a constant hunger
to remain in the headlines.”

“The Sa Re Ga Ma Pa contest became quite controversial when it emerged

that it had been rushed and that a South African citizen of Pakistani origin
from Pretoria would represent the African continent at the finals in
Mumbai.”

“Karan Johar has revolutionized the face of Indian cinema. Despite his
preference for shooting in the US, especially New York, Karan's unique
style of filmmaking has endeared him to millions across the globe.”

“The sleaze issue came up again later when Lara Dutta appeared
frequently in a Bunny Girl outfit in a casino and Jiah Khan stepped out of
the sea in a micro bikini in the Bollywood film Houseful. This prompted
Brijlall Ramguthee, Editor of Post, to commission me to write a piece for
the front page, which also showed that the Indian attitude towards sleaze
had changed.”

“Being repeatedly hit for a six by actor Harman Baweja in the film Victory
was not exactly his idea of a debut in movies, South African cricket
captain Graeme Smith said.”

“Some media colleagues and I were kept waiting twice in succession for
hours for interviews arranged with some big stars who failed to honour
their commitments. On the second occasion, we were finally offered a
junior star, and we declined to interview him. After consultation with
media colleagues, I wrote to Sabbas Joseph at WizCraft (IIFA) to request
that they impress on the artists that we as media in South Africa expect
the same courtesy and respect that they demand of us in keeping to
appointments.”

“Throwing around a ball and donning a football shirt brought to her, Preity
Zinta threatened to go onto the field but only if she could get some shorts,
which nobody seemed able to find.”

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The entire lowdown on this and more in the book

150 BOLLYWOOD ENCOUNTERS BY FAKIR HASSEN

Available at all branches of Global Bollywood Music and leading
booksellers or contact fakir@vodamail.co.za