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The veteran actresses express remorse on the sad demise of the actor director
Comic virtuoso Deven Varma, who passed away on Tuesday in Pune, was not only an actor of tremendous renown he also directed a handful of films.
Asha Parekh who starred in Deven’s first directorial venture Nadaan remembers him as a jovial taskmaster. “He was great fun to work with. Always full of life and ready with his deadpan humour.”
Nadaan gave Asha a rare opportunity to move away from her romantic image. “I played a tomboy in the film. That was a challenge. Deven was a capable director. My co-star in Nadaan was supposed to be Parikshat Sahni. He was replaced by Navin Nishchol. It took us a while to get comfortable. But eventually we found our bearings.”
The actress recalls a very interesting incident after the release of Nadaan. “Lawyers took great offence to a line of dialogue in Nadaan. The lawyers of Bihar sued Devenji, Navin Nischol and me and we were summoned by the honourable court in Bihar. The then railway minister Lalit Nayaran Mishra who belonged to Bihar had to intervene to sort out the matter.”
The veteran actress feels a sense of loss at Deven’s going away. “One by one all the people who made a difference to cinema in the 1960s and 70s are going away.”
Veteran actress, Sharmila Tagore too had her bit to add. She said, “If I have to select who my friends were in the film industry during my heydays it would have to be Yash Chopra, Thakur Lulla, Tanuja (to some extent) and Shashi Kapoor (to some extent), Gulzar saab (with whom it was more a respectful relationship) and Deven. Deven was a lot of fun. I remember laughing a lot with me. Deven had a very prominent role in Devar which also starred Dharmendra. I remember we did a lot of night shooting at Mohan Studios. Dharmendra was very busy those days. So Deven and I would spend a lot of time together. That’s when we got friendly. I became closer to him when he married Dada Moni(Ashok Kumar)’s daughter Roopa. You know, the entire Bengali connection. The fact that Deven got along with my husband Tiger also helped. We had a lot of fun times in Carmichael Road. We remained friends for a very long time.
Deven directed me in Besharam where Amitabh Bachchan was the male lead. I remember the film mainly because I was expecting my elder daughter Sabaa —I already had Saif — and we had to complete it before I started showing. There was a bit of dancing in my delicate condition which I had to be careful with. We did a lot of outdoor shooting in Bangalore. Like Hrishida, Deven would joke and keep the atmosphere light even while directing.
I spoke to Deven a couple of times after he shifted to Pune. He had changed. He had become quieter. I remembered him as always being funny and filled with laughter. I think in his later years he had become different, sober and quieter.”
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