Saira Banu remembers ‘Yahoo hero’ Shammi Kapoor, recalls his take on her ‘most attractive trait’: ‘It will never come back’

Saira Banu remembered Shammi Kapoor and Lalita Pawar as she wrote about the shoot of her debut film Junglee.

New Delhi | October 31, 2023 09:33 PM IST

3 min read

Saira Banu made her debut in the movies with Shammi Kapoor's Junglee. (Photo: Express Archives)

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Veteran actor Saira Banu has been sharing chapters of her life on her social media handle. In a post on Instagram on Tuesday, Saira wrote about the making of her first Hindi film, Junglee, which starred Shammi Kapoor in the lead role. Saira recalled the first scene she shot for the film and how Shammi, who was a popular star at the time, praised her work in front of everyone present.

Saira shared snippets of her first scene with Lalita Pawar on Instagram. Talking about the late actor’s “commanding persona”, she said that her nervous reaction came out naturally as she was feeling quite jittery performing in front of the senior actor. Saira then wrote, “When Shammiji saw this scene in front of the whole unit, he said, ‘Do you know Saira your tremendous innocence is your most attractive trait? God Bless You! But one day as you grow up in your life and your career, you will miss this innocence — It is precious. It will never come back.'”

Saira Banu recalled that the billboards of Junglee introduced her as the ‘Beauty Queen’. She shared that her first scene with Shammi was shot in the snow of Shimla. “Director Subodh Mukherjee shot the first scene between Shammi Sahab and Me at Kufri, Simla amidst mountains of snow where the heroine playfully, cleverly bounces snow-balls at Shammiji and hides behind a mound of snow. The first shot on screen is when she slyly emerges from behind this mound of snow and that is the first time the public sees her,” the actor wrote.

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The film Junglee is still remembered for Shammi Kapoor’s performance in the song “Chahe koi mujhe junglee kahe” and the ever-famous “Yahoo”. Saira remembered that and wrote, “He created the popular term ‘Yahoo’! This became a famous exclamation term with the public all over. I must say he was a darling to give me that ‘push’ towards braving it in front of ‘babeli’ crowds.”

After Junglee, Saira and Shammi worked together in the 1963 film Bluff Master.

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