Jaya Bhaduri. Shatrughan Sinha. Naseeruddin Shah. Navin Nischol. Shabana Azmi. Rehana Sultan. Suresh Oberoi. Anil Dhawan. Danny Denzongpa. Radha Saluja. Zarina Wahab. Paintal. Asha Sachdev et al. In the 70s and 80s, it wasn’t nepo kids but FTII grads who swaggered into the industry, nose up and one notch ahead of other strugglers.

Senior in years to all the above, Asrani came from the same film institute in Pune. But he had stayed on campus for a few more years as an acting professor before joining his students who’d become stars in the Hindi film industry. In the studios, even if the status of a comic artiste was a rung below that of heroes and heroines, most FTII-trained stars respectfully addressed him as “Sir”. Those of us who were friendly with all of them also automatically called him “Sir”. By association with Jaya, Danny and Romesh Sharma (Jaya’s co-star in the 1974 film Doosri Sita), actors like Amitabh Bachchan also got coopted as members of the close-knit FTII gang.

After fame visited “Sir” in comic roles, he tried to break free to become a hero with Chala Murari Hero Banne (1977). It turned unintentionally hilarious when he attempted a staged romance with co-star Bindiya Goswami as a PR gimmick. Ultimately, he stuck to comedy, his forte, and in his 80s too, did an efficient job as a canny lawyer in the recent release Jolly LLB 3.

Well-spoken and knowledgeable, “Sir” could hold a sensible conversation, quite different from what he specialised in on screen. Also, at variance with his comic image, he had ups and downs in his personal life. Tall, dusky wife Manju Bansal was a contrast, who attempted to play the vampish seductress in a couple of films. With all its hiccups and health scares, the marriage and companionship lasted till his dying day this Diwali.

Towards the end of his life, his neighbours at Beach House in Juhu found the couple aloof. “He doesn’t encourage conversation... though we see Asrani when he goes for a walk in the compound. They’re not the friendliest of people in this building,” said a few.

But Asrani was still the friend of the 70s when, on the spur of the moment, I sent him a cake on his birthday on January 1. Pleasantly surprised, he called up to say how touched he was that his birthday was remembered.

He will be remembered and will live on as the angrezon ke zamane ke jailor of Sholay. But it’s wistful that in his lifetime, nobody made a biography on Chaplin and cast Asrani in the lead. That would’ve been a memorable salute to him. Farewell, Sir.

***

Biopics and real-life slices are more in number than fiction which is narrowing into sequels and universes. Dinesh Vijan may be damned by some for fudging box office figures (who doesn’t?) but with films as diverse as Chhaava and Thamma in the same year, he is rolling out more efficiently-produced films than anybody else today. But one question to him: why doesn’t his horror universe — which crisscrosses Bhediya, Stree and Munjya — include Jahnvi Kapoor, who did Roohi for him? It will make an interesting universe if Shraddha Kapoor of Stree, Jahnvi and Sharvari Wagh (Munjya) also walk in and out of one another’s horror films. Cinematic universes also need a new garnish now and then, and testosterone alone doesn’t win the day. After all, Rohit Shetty’s cop universe did lose some of its firepower after Singham 3 fizzled out last Diwali.

Speaking of fizzling out, the carefully planned shooting of Awarapan 2 literally ran into bad weather when unseasonal rains forced a pause in Bangkok. “We waited for a day or two,” confirmed producer Mukesh Bhatt. “But when it continued, we took a call to pack up and come home.” In Mumbai in time for Diwali, Awarapan 2 will resume shooting in Bangkok next month. Meanwhile, this Bhatt isn’t fond of the term climate change. It’s played havoc with his budget.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and an author