Raj Kapoor@100: Protégé Rahul Rawail remembers the man who breathed cinema

NEW DELHI: He would put black paper on windows and bar his team from wearing a watch inside the editing room, insisted that actual champagne be used in “Bobby”, never mind the cost, and sometimes eat jalebis sandwiched in buttered pav. Raj Kapoor, says his protégé Rahul Rawail, had many quirks but just one obsession - cinema.

The original showman of Hindi cinema always followed his heart and told his assistants to do just that, Rawail, who had a lifelong association with Kapoor, recounted ahead of the legend’s 100th birth anniversary on December 14.

"What he believed in was: 'I breathe cinema, I love cinema, and I'm here because of cinema'. That's the cardinal rule that he had," Rawail told PTI in an interview.

Kapoor started his production company R K Studios in 1948, a year after Independence, with his first film “Aag” when he was just 24, many of his films over the next four decades mirroring the preoccupations and concerns of a young India. The actor, director and producer went on to make classics such as “Awara”, “Mera Naam Joker” and “Bobby”.

"I don't think anybody else could become Raj Kapoor. I'm blessed that I got to work with him and whatever I've learnt is only from him. I'm so glad I'm here for his 100th

"I also happen to be the last living person who was close to Raj sahab (professionally). I don't know how long it's going to be. So I'm trying to impart knowledge which I have gained from him to students and young filmmakers," said Rawail, known for directing "Love Story", "Betaab" and "Arjun".

He said he once noticed the filmmaker tapping his fingers while taking a shot. Curious, Rawail asked what he was doing.

"He said, 'While the shot is going on, I'm counting the music beats. The kind of music that will be there in the scene is playing in my head and I'm counting those beats.' Which I think was a wonderful and difficult thing to emulate," Rawail said.

Kapoor, whose films were known for their musical scores, always encouraged his team to ask questions, Rawail said.

"He told me, 'You're working in an industry where nobody has complete knowledge. I also don't have complete knowledge'," said the 73-year-old director who started assisting Kapoor when he was just 15.

Be it “Bol Radha bol” from “Sangam”, “Bhor bhayee panghat pe” from “Satyam Shivam Sundaram” or “Sun sahiba sun” from his last film “Ram Teri Ganga Maili”, songs in each of his films have stood the test of time.

To get the perfect shot, Kapoor would sometimes go to great lengths and expense.

Rawail, who served as an assistant on many of the showman's films, including "Bobby" and "Mera Naam Joker", is fond of what he calls "Raj Kapoor's quirks".

"No sane person can survive working in this industry. You have to have some quality which makes you insane,” he said.

During the shoot for a scene for a party in the Rishi Kapoor, Dimple starrer “Bobby”, Kapoor saw Rawail mix coke with water to get a colour similar to alcohol.

“He saw me mixing and said, 'Give the guys in the front (actors in the scene) actual alcohol'. I said, 'Sir, they'll be drunk'.

"He said, 'Tell them not to drink it. So I did what he asked. He also wanted 'pista and badam' in the scene, I was like, 'This is going to be very expensive'. He was like, 'No, I want that and went on to specify that he wanted actual champagne'," Rawail recalled.

The filmmaker, who detailed Kapoor's filmmaking process in the 2021 memoir "Raj Kapoor: The Master At Work", said there were junior artists in the front who kept munching despite Rawail's instructions to not eat the "very expensive 'pista badam'."

"Two of them kept eating and it was retained in the film. I could have killed them for it but they just couldn't stop."

Kapoor, besides being a great performer, director and producer with impeccable music sense, was also a perfectionist when it came to editing and, in fact, edited most of his movies.

During the final cut of his movies, no assistant or team member, including the filmmaker himself, was allowed to wear a watch inside the editing room. This was done so the flow did not break.

"He would put up black paper on all the windows so that we would lose sense of time... When he would get tired, he would say 'Just open this' and it used to be 8-8.30 am. He used to say 'Alright, everyone must be tired. Go home and come back here.'

"There was a car that would drop all of us home and pick us up back. The problem was that I was the last person to be dropped so I also used to be the first person to be picked up. I used to get less time… within 30 or 45 minutes, the car would be back to take us to the studio."

If he was a hard taskmaster, Kapoor was an equally benevolent host and the soul of parties.

"The first discussion of the day used to be what we were going to eat the whole day. It used to take us about two hours to set the mood for what we eat. Someone said there's very good ‘kaali dal’ one can get in Thane, then another said chicken from that place is good. A list of food outlets would be prepared and the car used to go and bring food from those places suggested by the people," Rawail said.

Like his cinema, boasting titles such as “Shree 420", "Barsaat" and “Jaagte Raho”, Kapoor was experimental even in food.

"One day, we were having a snack in the evening. He took a pav, split it into two to spread butter over it and put a jalebi in between, and started eating that. I said 'Sir, how can you do this?' He said 'Why? Is it written somewhere that I can't? I'll eat what I like. I'll give you something better to eat this with'. He then dipped it in tomato ketchup and ate that. So, those were the eccentricities of that man," Rawail said.

Kapoor died at the age of 63 on June 2, 1988, barely a month after being honoured with Dadasaheb Phalke Award in Delhi.

Considered a pioneer who opened Hindi cinema to a global audience, particularly in the erstwhile Soviet Union, Kapoor was amongst the youngest filmmakers of his time.