Vinod Khanna remembered by Muzaffar Ali: He was the dacoit who stole our hearts

The year was 1989, and Vinod had just come back from his Osho retreat. And Zooni was one of the first films that he took up. Even at that time, it was an ambitious project. With Zooni, we were trying to bring to life the story of 16th century Kashmiri poet Habba Khatoon and Yousuf Shah Chak, the prince of Kashmir. It was a difficult casting at that time. What made Vinod tick more than the other actors was that his contemporaries were too much like the others. And here was Vinod, a clean slate for me to work with. I think post his ashram stint, he was more liberal with his film choices, more keen on having a global appeal. I remember he was very excited about this project, as it was a classic period film. He hadn’t done anything like this before — a costume drama that was bi-lingual. After the first few days we realised that his English diction was even better than his Hindi. He would easily memorise pages of dialogues.

Vinod was a thorough professional and could really get under the skin of the character. It was a huge privilege to dress him up. There was so much curiosity attached to his ‘come-back’ look. People had not seen him for so long. And he had the personality to pull off eclectic clothing.

We had got Mary McFadden from New York to style him. We had to make sure that the dresses were authentically Kashmiri, and we were not taking the easy ‘Mughal route’ — the Mughals had not reached Kashmir yet.

He was also such a natural on the horse. We had this new horse, which had not been broken into, but the horse really took to him, As usual, he surprised me.

Also read | Amitabh Bachchan on Vinod Khanna’s death: Saw our 48-year relationship going up in flames

This was an extremely ambitious project. Vinod, as he was returning to films after a long time, was busy. We had designed the schedule of the film over four seasons, but such a commitment of time was difficult for Vinod to carry out. And the insurgency had sprouted. If the film had been completed, it might have changed the way Indian cinema is viewed. It might have changed the way the Kashmiris are seen. It might have changed the way Vinod Khanna was viewed.