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Late actor Shammi Kapoor was known for his ‘Junglee’ persona on screen but in real life, the actor was a shy personality. In a recent chat, his wife Neila Devi shared that even though he was a shy person, he had a “short temper” which would get aggravated due to his drinking.
Neila told ETimes that he used to “drink heavily” at one point and he would get “agitated” if he had an argument with someone at any party. “I never said anything at that time but in the morning when he was alright, he would ask me what happened last night. I would tell him, ‘You did this and it really upset me.’ He used to feel very bad about it. He used to say sorry, then he tried his level best not to repeat those experiences.”
Neila Devi explained that Shammi Kapoor “had a temper” and sometimes he would get upset in a matter of minutes, but he would also calm down just as fast. All of this went on for a few years, following which he “settled down”. She shared, “I used to keep quiet. I used to cry also sometimes.” When asked if she ever asked Shammi to stop drinking, she said that “he would not listen”. “I tried, smoking and drinking both,” she said.
Neila was quick to add that every year Shammi would give up drinking for 21 days, from January 1 to January 21, in the memory of his late wife Geeta Bali. Geeta fell sick on January 1 and died on January 21, and for all of his life, Shammi never drank during this time.
Eventually, as Shammi Kapoor got older, he started drinking way less and gave up smoking as well but at one point “he used to smoke almost 100 cigarettes a day”.
Shammi Kapoor passed away in 2011 at the age of 79.
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