Amol Palekar says he wanted to turn down Gol Maal on first meeting with Hrishikesh Mukherjee: ‘How will I refuse him…?’

Amol Palekar said he was then pitched the iconic film Gol Maal which he loved. “And then he narrated me the story of Gol Maal, and he was a fabulous storyteller. So after his narration, I laughed and told him honestly I had come here thinking I would turn your offer down and gave him my reason. He in turn explained that he doesn’t narrate scripts to those who cannot give him their time. He then told me he wanted to do five films with me, and then told me the story of all those films. I was there for the entire day. And making Gol Maal was a sheer picnic, and the fun we had was reflected in the film.”

During the chat, Palekar also opened up about his characters, who were usually young middle-class men working or searching for jobs.

Talking about his genre, the actor added, “I wanted to explore the many facets of that boy next door, and when today I look back and revisit those films, be it Rajnigandha or Chhoti Si Baat, people like it because they could relate to my character of an everyman, a regular middle-class young man. And if you look at all my contemporary heroes — Rajesh Khanna was a romantic hero, Dharam ji was a He-man, Amitabh Bachchan was the angry young man — Amol Palekar was none of these things, he belonged to no genre. And this nothingness became my identity and strength.”

Besides featuring in movies, Amol Palekar has also directed films such as Paheli, Quest and Samaantar among others.