Dev Anand Birth Anniversary 2023: Saira Banu recalls the legendary actor

Dev Anand was a prolific actor who was loved by the masses The star sparkled in a career that began before Independence and lasted into the second decade of the 21st century He is well known for films like Guide Jewel Thief Johny Mera Naam and Hare Rama Hare KrishanOn his centenary Saira Banu Khan took to social media to sing his praise and celebrate him Saira Banu while posting multiple memories with Dev Saab wrote ldquoHappy 100th BirthdayIn the 1955 film ldquoCID Dev Saab wanted to cast my mother Naseemji but at that time Sultan bhai and I were schooling in London and she had to be there with us so she declined Shakilaji did the same role A similar thing happened in the 1958 film ldquoKAALA PAANIrdquo where Naseemjirsquos role was then played by Nalini Jaywant Sahib had described her as the ldquoGreatest Actressrdquo he ever worked withrdquoView this post on InstagramA post shared by Saira Banu Khan sairabanuLater she continued and wrote ldquoWe the family knew Dev Saab as an effervescent and friendly guy who loved all of us be it Sahib Naseemji and myself His favourite punch line was ldquoHeyrdquo We must meetrdquo but that happened infrequentlyFor Shankar Mukerjirsquos ldquoPYAAR MOHABBATrdquo Saab and I were filming on a huge ship from Bombay to Aden shooting on board songs romantic and comedy scenes with a houseful of foreigner Tourist laden Europeans The journey was for a couple of days and we were to finish our work in that time Now would you believe it he was so withdrawn of this crowd of foreigners that on the first day he wanted to get accustomed to the idea of them being out thereHe was a shy withdrawn person Dev Saab he felt he had to get used to the faces of the crowd before starting the work ldquoShankar I have to relax and get used to the faces of these foreignersrdquoThe next day Shankarji and I ventured into his cabin and talked to him I said look you have to pick me up and throw me into the swimming pool and times running out soon the ship will land at Aden in a days time and we must pack up I got him out and it was smooth sailing since thenrdquoThe actress further talked about Dev Anand forwarding roles to her She said ldquoFortunately Dev Saab would always forward a role to me in his film one good example was ldquoGUIDErdquo for which Ted Danielwski came to my motherrsquos Nepean Sea Road House at lsquoSea Bellersquo to ask me for the film At that time I was to do Mehboob Khanrsquos lsquoHABBA KHATOONrdquo the story of the Kashmiri poetess and the role of Yusuf Chak the Kashmiri prince was to be played by Sahib This was my priority and so I had to decline ldquoGUIDErdquo I am happy about this because I feel I would have been too young to do this role Similarly I could not do ldquoTEEN DEVIYAANrdquo or ldquoJEWEL THIEFrdquoThe actress with the last line left her fans excited as she shared ldquoNow theres another funny incident with Dev Saab I will write about it tomorrowrdquo