Saira Banu fondly recalls memories with ‘shy, withdrawn’ Dev Anand; says he always offered her roles in his films

Saira Banu also shared a similar story from Khosla’s Kala Pani in 1958, where a role originally intended for Naseem Banu ended up being played by Nalini Jaywant, whom Saira’s husband and legendary actor Dilip Kumar once described as “the greatest actress he ever worked with”.

“We, the family, knew Dev Saab as an effervescent and friendly guy who loved all of us, be it Sahib, Naseemji, and myself. His favourite punch line was ‘Hey! We must meet’ but that happened infrequently,” Saira noted while sharing a photo of her with Dev Anand and videos from two films featuring the two.

Check out Saira Banu’s post about Dev Anand here:

 

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Recalling the time she worked with Dev Anand on Shankar Mukherjee’s Pyar Mohabbat (1966), Saira mentioned: “Saab and I were filming on a huge ship from Bombay to Aden, shooting onboard songs, romantic and comedy scenes with a houseful of foreigner Tourist laden Europeans. The journey was for a couple of days and we were to finish our work in that time. Now, would you believe it, he was so withdrawn of this crowd of foreigners that on the first day he wanted to get accustomed to the idea of them being out there.”

Describing him as a shy and withdrawn person, Saira noted that Dev Anand felt he had to get used to the faces of the crowd before starting the work.

“The next day Shankarji and I ventured into his cabin and talked to him. I said, look you have to pick me up and throw me into the swimming pool and times running out soon, the ship will land at Aden in a days time and we must pack up! I got him out and it was smooth sailing since then,” she added.

Mentioning that he always forwarded roles to her in his films, Saira wrote, “One good example was Guide (1965) for which Ted Danielwski came to my mother’s Nepean Sea Road House at ‘Sea Belle’ to ask me for the film. At that time I was to do Mehboob Khan’s Habba Khatoon, the story of the Kashmiri poetess and the role of Yusuf Chak, the Kashmiri prince was to be played by Sahib. This was my priority and so I had to decline Guide. I am happy about this because I feel I would have been too young to do this role. Similarly, I could not do Teen Devian or Jewel Thief.”

Saira Banu concluded by teasing another funny anecdote involving Dev Anand and assured that she would share it with her fans on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, actor Zeenat Aman had also paid tributes to the late legend. Calling the late legendary actor stylish and suave, Zeenat expressed that she is glad that he is still remembered and loved by everyone.

While Zeenat has shared the screen with Dev Anand in several films, two of those films were blockbusters Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971) and Heera Panna (1973). She also shared movie stills from both films, calling them two of her favourites.