Manoj Kumar pays tribute to filmmaker Kewal Kashyap

Kewal Kashyap

Filmmaker Kewal Kashyap, best remembered for his 1965 Manoj Kumar-starrer 'Shaheed', passed away on Tuesday. The film, based on revolutionary Bhagat Singh's life, is considered the country's most high-on-patriotism film. Manoj Kumar remembers the man who gave him his career's best film...

Kewal Kashyap (seated second from left) with Lal Bahadur Shastri and Manoj Kumar (centre) at the premiere of Shaheed

"Can I explain the loss in words? 'Shaheed' was a landmark film for both of us. Kewal was more than a friend; he was a brother to me. Along with writer-director Brij Katyal, we used to meet often over platefuls of bhajjias. Kewal was a trendsetter, he was one of the early PRs of the film industry. He used to handle the work of music composers Shankar Jaikishan, OP Nayyar, Ravi and actor Sunil Dutt. He was a photographer too. I used to accompany him to film newspaper offices to meet editors. He was doing well, but one day he told me he was tired of doing publicity work. He wanted to make a film. I told him to cast a leading star for his film, but he was adamant on making a film on Bhagat Singh. I used to always tell him about my admiration for the country's leading freedom fighter. I cautioned him that two films had already been made on Bhagat Singh which did not do well. Yet, he was hell-bent on making the film with me. We went pillar-to-post to raise funds; I also became his guarantor. The film was made and the rest is history."

"The best compliment that we received was from Bhagat Singh's mother. She embraced me and said, 'Manoj, aaj mujhe sab waapis mil gaya.'"