'She was a legend on Marathi stage'

Kundan Shah

Bhakti was already a big name in theatre before she played the role of a newspaper editor in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. But I had never seen her work before. Someone recommended her name to me so I saw a play called Hands Up, which she was doing then.

It was when I saw her in the play, that I realised the kind of potential that she had. She was a complete actor encompassing the spirit of acting.

Once she okayed the role, she was never bothered with the amount of money that she was getting. Of course, there was not much money that was due, but then she never even asked about it.

I have seen quite a few of her plays. She was very mesmeric. She was a legend on Marathi stage. She was a big name before Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron in theatre. The movie was in no way a measure of her talent.

But she could be quite difficult to get along with professionally. She had to have her all her details worked out before she started on her role. She could be quite demanding. But then that only helped me to flesh out the details better when I worked with her.

After Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron we wanted to work again, but unfortunately we did not get the opportunity.

Bhakti was married to Shafi Inamdar, who I became close to because of the television serial Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi that I had directed, starring Shafi.

Shafi encouraged Bhakti immensely. He once organised a play of Bhakti's called Reshamghat, which was staged in three different languages, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati simultaneously.

Bhakti played the central character and she would enact each scene first in say Hindi, then Marathi and Gujarati, while the actors around her changed accordingly.

It was an amazing display of her talent and versatility. Shafi had organised a huge gathering of theatre artistes and friends with a lavish dinner.

It was his tribute to Bhakti's talent.

As told to Priya Ganapati