When Kundan Shah refused to direct superstar Dilip Kumar

Aanjjan Srivastava remembers Kundan Shah

What I am today is because of Kundan Shah. I have lost my mentor. He selected me for his television series, Wagle Ki Duniya, which proved to be a career-defining show for me. We would fight like crazy on the set. Once, I refused to shoot and we kept squabbling over a scene till 2.30am. He was a taskmaster, perfectionist and a trendsetter.

He redefined the grammar of Indian television shows, especially satires, with Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi and later, Nukkad. He told me he could make me do anything. He never forgot me -- there was always something for me in every project till his last film P Se PM Tak. Hrishikesh Mukherjee considered him one of the best students at FTII. Once, Firoz Khan had asked him to direct a film starring Dilip Kumar, and he refused as he preferred working with actors rather than stars. That was Kundan, shy and unassuming, a man who worked on his own terms.

As told to Shaheen Parkar