‘Sharmila Tagore wanted to wear a bikini, Shammi Kapoor suggested his entry on a helicopter,’ Shakti Samantha’s son recalls An Evening in Paris shoot

“The suggestion to come in a helicopter was Shammi uncle’s. He told my father, ‘What if I come swinging from a helicopter? How will that look?’ My father replied, ‘It will look amazing!’ Later, Shammi uncle told me, ‘I actually told Shakti that I could come in a helicopter, but then I thought, why did I even say this? I have a problem with heights, I get vertigo. But then I thought where would Shakti find a helicopter in Beirut?’ So, he went to sleep. The next day, my father woke him up and told him that a helicopter had been arranged.”

Listening to this, Ashim recalled, Shammi Kapoor was initially terrified: “Shammi uncle told me, ‘Hearing this, I freaked out. But I am Shammi Kapoor. I’m not a man who succumbs to fear!’ So, he went to the hotel bar. It was closed. He approached the manager and said, ‘Open the bar.’ The manager, surprised, asked, ‘At 10 in the morning?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ The bar was opened, and he had two pegs of brandy. Then he said, ‘Where is the helicopter? Let’s go, Shakti!’”

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Apart from this, the song is also remembered for Sharmila Tagore’s swimwear. When asked whether it was difficult to convince the actress to wear it, Ashim revealed that she had actually wanted to wear a bikini. “In fact, she wanted to wear a bikini. It was my dad who suggested a one-piece. But she was absolutely cool. She was a modern girl and knew that she had a fabulous figure.”

Previously, Shakti Samanta himself had shared on an episode of Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai that he recognised Sharmila’s talent early on. However, he also noted, “She was very talented, but stubborn, and would fight a lot.” Recalling the same instance from the shooting of “Aasman Se Aaya Farishta,” he said, “We were shooting that song in which she had to swim. She said she would wear a two-piece (bikini). I said, ‘If you wear that, the film won’t get a censor certificate!’ She said, ‘Otherwise I won’t do it.’ I said, ‘Please do it!’ Then, in anger, she said, ‘Okay, get it done.’ So, I got the new costume, and then she did the shot. After watching the film, she told me, ‘This looks good only.’”

Sharmila had created quite a stir when she posed in a bikini on a magazine cover, the year after An Evening in Paris. In a chat with Filmfare about this, she said, “I’ve no idea why I did that shoot. It was just before I got married. I remember when I showed the two-piece bikini to the photographer, he asked me, ‘Are you sure about this?’ In some of the shots, he even asked me to cover my body. He was more worried than I was but I had no qualms doing that shoot. Only when people started reacting strongly to the cover, was I taken aback. I was puzzled as to why they didn’t like the picture. I thought I looked nice. Some called it a deliberate move to grab eyeballs; others termed me as ‘astutely uncanny’. I hated that. Maybe, there was an exhibitionist in me, as I was young and excited to do something different.”