When Kashmera Shah was approached for the movie Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, she was comparatively new to the business. She had simply signed the movie Yes Boss and her title was really useful to the makers who had been in quest of a tall and handsome actor to painting the character of Nisha. She says she is glad that the makers gave her the half.
“I perfectly fit the desired appearance for the role, and the team of Yes Boss (1997) assured them about my talent. That’s how I came on board for Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha,” Shah recollects.
At that point, Kajol and Ajay Devgn had been massive stars. Looking again at her first assembly with them, Shah says, “Kajol was warm and welcoming, and very much opposite of what I had heard about her. People had told me that she is snooty but that’s not at all what I felt”.
However, she confesses issues weren’t nice off -screen with actor Bijay Anand, who she was paired with within the movie. Shah recollects Anand’s entitled behaviour on set: “We went to Seychelles to shoot the film and Bijay started acting like a star (laughs). Humaare original stars were very much grounded but ye, jinka ek gaana hit hua tha, subha subha orders dene lagte the ki mere shoes laao, mera ye kaam kro. And I used to wonder why he behaved like that.
The 50-year-old actor adds, “When you go for an outdoor shoot, you take very few people with you, who manage most of the work. In that situation our effort is to chip in and reduce the work pressure on those people. But he (Bijay) was throwing attitude throughout the shoot”.
When Shah confronted him about this, his reply was, “If you don’t act like a star, they won’t treat you like a star”. Shah discovered the reason very humorous. “I was surprised because we were not stars back then and even if it’s a star, he/she should behave like a human. I had a slight argument with him over it and he started throwing shade at me after that. But because we did not have mobile phones back then, we were forced to talk,” she mentions.
Things turned bitter between them when “Anand asked a staff member to make him wear his shoes”, and he or she places it as “Bijay being young and stupid”.
The chilly struggle didn’t finish then and there. For her introduction scene within the movie, Shah was requested to kiss Anand.
“25 years ago, kissing onscreen was a very big deal but I agreed because it was the need of the script. But unfortunately, that scene took a lot of retakes as it had to be done in an elevator and Anand was not doing it right. The shot had to be such that Anand’s angle and movement was very important but he kept on getting it wrong. Ajay and Kajol got very uncomfortable because of it and Ajay came to Bijay and said, ‘I can’t make this girl do this scene again and again. Why don’t you damn stand on your mark’. It was uncomfortable for them to make me do it so many times and hence they took a stand for me. This was a very nice gesture from their side,” she recollects.
After a number of days, the 2 shot one other scene the place Anand was proven leaving Shah for Kajol, and Shah needed to slap him. “And I gave him a tight slap. Later, he came to me and in front of everyone said ‘Don’t you know how to cheat a slap’ . I replied ‘Didn’t you know how to cheat a kiss’. That was my moment. The entire unit clapped and I had tear in my eyes,” she ends.
Source: www.hindustantimes.com