He is filmdom’s man for all seasons, an actor who has survived over 45 years in the industry, playing a motley range of roles, many of which have become iconic — Thakur Ranjit Singh in Dhund, Dilawar Khan in 36 Ghante and Shaaka in Kalicharan.
Danny Denzongpa is back, in Bioscopewala, directed by debutant director Deb Medhekar.
And the actor is at home, literally. Danny, who is in Sikkim, says he has no plans of returning to Mumbai anytime soon and did the promition of the film — that released last Friday — from there.
“It is wonderful in Sikkim, the temperature is very cool and I enjoy gardening, trekking, painting, swimming and wood carving here. I am busy with these activities. I only come to Mumbai in the winters when the temperature is low,” he says.
Bioscopewala is inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s short story Kabuliwala and Danny plays the title role, a Pathan from Afghanistan who visits India to sell dry fruits.
Danny says he was impressed by the role of Kabuliwala ever since he saw the Bengali version of Kabuliwala (1957) starring Chhabi Biswas and also the one starring Balraj Sahni-starrer (1961).
“They were legendary actors and I was fascinated by them. My teacher had taken us to watch the film and I had cried a lot. When my friend producer Sunil Doshi approached me for Bioscopewala I jumped at it,” says Danny.
He says the film was supposed to star Amitabh Bachchan.
“I was to play a small part in the film but it did not materialise. It was a pleasant experience,” he says.
Shooting for the film was a wonderful experience, says the 70-year-old actor, as the crew mostly was from the Film
and Television Institute of India, Pune.
“Director Deb Medhekar was from the institute and so was cinematographer Rafey Mehmood, sound designer Resul Pookutty. I was senior to them and used to often rag them calling ‘hey juniors you have to listen to me’. It was a lovely unit. Even Dipika Kalra (the editor) has done a great job,” he added.
According to the actor, it was unfortunate for the Bioscopewala unit for not being able to shoot in Afghanistan.
“We shot most of the film in Ladakh, which has similar topography and we found some nice locations. Casting director Seher Latif has done a fabulous job. She found actors and characters who looked so authentic. I was so impressed. (Actress) Geetanjali Thapa, who plays Minnie, is from my hometown Sikkim. Adil Hussain plays her father and he’s a fantastic actor. (Actress) Tisca Chopra was of great help as she had stayed in Afghanistan for 10 years and knows the language. She was my tutor on the set. There were actors from Kashmir who looked like Afghans and the girl who played my wife was wonderful. She is an Afghan woman settled in Germany,” he adds.
Danny becomes pensive at the mention of bioscope.
“I remember bioscopes. We used to watch Ram-Leela on it. It feels so nostalgic,” he says.
Danny, who has a long association with Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan, says: “Jaya and I were batchmates in FTII. I keep telling Amitji, ‘aap toh dahej mein aaye ho’.”
About his memories shooting in Afghanistan, Danny says, “I have shot for two beautiful films there. Once during Feroz Khan’s Dharmatma (1975) and the next during Khuda Gawah (1992) where I played Khudabaksh. The Taliban were at their peak during Khuda Gawah. I took the risk of taking Amitji along. We shot some action scenes with duplicates there. I had earlier shot for Dharmatma there and it was a beautiful country then. I told Amitji that he should not miss the opportunity of shooting there. But I realised how risky it was once we landed there. We managed to shoot at some locations. It was a big-banner film and the producers (Manoj Desai, Nazir Ahmed) and director (Mukul S. Anand) were big. Whenever we shot for the film, there used to be a tank stationed in front of us and behind and a chopper would hover above us. The locations used to be surrounded by the Army.”
The title track of Bioscopewala has been picturised on Danny. The actor, however, admitted, he did not lend his voice for the track. “It’s a beautiful song and the singer (K. Mohan) copied my voice and he sounds so like me. I have sung four to five songs in my career. There were legendary singers such as Lataji, Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Kishore Kumar and me. I gave my best. I had a tutor who taught me semi-classical for two to three years but I didn’t pursue music,” says Danny.
The actor will be next seen in Kangana Ranaut’s Manikarnika — The Queen of Jhansi, where he plays an army general. “I am not keen on doing too many films. My fans have watched me for 45 years. They have great expectations from me and they want to see me in a good role in a good movie. Hence I keep myself away. When people approach me with good roles I accept those. I will start shooting for Manikarnika in June.”
