Anjan Dutt

Patrick Swayze was a huge star by the time he came to India. But he never behaved like a star on the sets here in Calcutta. He worked really hard on his role. Both he and I (Dr Sunil) played doctors in the film and we had to treat leprosy patients. While the patients in the film were not real and just actors, (director) Roland (Joffe) wanted us to treat real patients as part of the preparatory workshop. So Patrick would go all the time to this particular place in Middleton Row and bandage leprosy patients. I can’t imagine many stars doing that.

Patrick Swayze shooting for City of Joy

After shooting we used to go for drinks almost every other day. Patrick stayed at The Oberoi, but he would always take us to the small bar below the hotel, New Cathay. We used to even tease Patrick that he was saving money by not taking us to an expensive place! He used to laugh. It was much later that I found out that his whole idea of going to a place like New Cathay was to be his character Max Lowe, someone who couldn’t afford a costlier place.

The CPM government was not very happy with the content of City of Joy. There would be problems on the sets almost every day. Unionbaaji, bomabaaji… everything! We all had got tired of it and worked out a plan — if we could somehow get Satyajit Ray to back the film, the state government would be appeased. Roland wouldn’t go and so Patrick, Pauline Collins (the leading lady), Shabana Azmi, Om Puri, (actor) Debotosh Ghosh and myself went to Ray.

Patrick had even prepared a long speech about how Ray too had made a film showing poverty (Pather Panchali) and that he should support City of Joy. But once we met Ray, Patrick went up, shook his hand and simply told him: “I would like to work with you!” All the plan, all the agenda went for a toss and we could never make our point to Ray, thanks to Patrick Swayze’s keenness to work with the master!

Ayesha Dharker

When I worked with Patrick, I was very young, and his attitude to his craft had a profound effect on me. He was a perfectionist, very focussed and quite private. He really did his homework to get into the role and lived it very intensely. He was very humble in his approach and open to people, though his star quality shone through.

The thing that struck me was that at the peak of his career he was so in love with his wife, Lisa (Niemi), who was a dancer. I thought they were a very beautiful couple and it looked like a bit of a fairytale. I knew that Patrick had worked very hard to achieve his success, and as a young person, it was great to see an actor at the peak of his career who was so connected to his family.

There was no reason for him to spend so much time with the kids on the set, but he did. I remember he would fling us into the pool and for my 12th birthday, my big treat was that I got to dance with Patrick Swayze at the Pink Elephant (the nightclub at the Grand). I was proud to have worked with him.

Swatilekha Sengupta

I played a hotel manageress in City of Joy and the 10 minutes that I had in the film were with Patrick. I had a small ballroom dance sequence with him. For this we used to have rehearsals at the Oberoi Grand every day. He seemed very gentle and very sweet. I remember this funny incident that happened with him. Patrick used to carry a unique-looking black stone with him that he suddenly handed over to me one day during the shoot. I thought it was a gift from him so I tucked it inside my bag while he got busy with his shoot. After a while I realised that everyone was frantically looking for the stone. It was actually his lucky charm that he would carry around and let everyone hold for a while for a share of some good luck! What I remember from those eight days of rehearsing and shooting with Patrick was that he was quite a pleasant and chivalrous person.

Anushuya Majumdar

I had a very short role in the film and no scenes with Patrick but I used to be present on the sets every day. Roland Joffe would often insist on taking multiple shots but Patrick wouldn’t get tired too easily. He seemed so fit running around in the heat, doing fight scenes or giving 15 takes at a go. There was one time when many of us were seated inside one of the mud-thatched huts on the sets, he suddenly peeped in and said a big “Hi!” We were overwhelmed and said a quick ‘hi’ back.