Kader Khan was left alone in his last days: Shakti Kapoor

Indian stars are mourning the sad demise of veteran Bollywood actor Kedar Khan who passed away on Monday in Canada after a prolonged illness.

Aged 81, the brilliant actor-screenwriter was left alone in his last days, says co-actor Shakti Kapoor.

The duo that had appeared together in more than a hundred films in the 1980s and 90s shared a profoundly close connection.

As reported by Hindustan Times, Kapoor has been deeply grieved by the passing away of Khan.

He was quoted as saying, “I have spent half my acting career with Kader Khan – we did over 100 films together, the maximum any two co-stars have done together. Now that he is gone, the film industry has been thinking about him. Why do people remember an actor when they are not alive? Why can’t they say something nice when the person is working or when they are sick or when they are struggling? They only start talking about an actor when they are no more and they are not around to hear it all.

Kapoor added, “I am upset by this because I have lost many of my best friends in the industry who were lauded when they died but no one remembered them when they were alive. They were not spoken about, their achievements were not mentioned.”

He also went on to question why Khan was left all alone during the last decade when he was suffering.

“When Kader Khan was not working for the last decade and was suffering, nobody was very concerned about him. Why was he left so lonely? And why are actors left so alone when they are sick or not doing too well? Kader Khan was financially very secure but very lonely because when he was sick, not many people visited him or spent time with him. He was left alone with his family.”

He continued, “Did Kader Khan know how much he was loved? Did Kader Khan know his achievements? Did Kader Khan know how much work he has done and how much his contribution is? I can write a book about this man because I was so close to him. I used to call him a messiah; I used to call him a man sent by God.”

Recalling the moment when he last met Khan, Kapoor shared, “When we last met during a show, Kader Khan called me on stage called and said, “Shakti, you are my boy. You came into the film industry where there is a lot of language problem, like your ‘zubaan’ was not pure Urdu. And today again, looking at the film industry’s situation, a lot of these actors are looking after their bodies and faces but none of these actors focus on ‘zubaan’. They don’t have language and diction. Why aren’t actors concentrating on diction like Amitabh Bachchan does where every word is crystal clear?” He found even the language of newscasters on TV channels a huge let down; this was my last meeting with him face-to-face.”

“After that, whenever I spoke to him, he would say, “I will come back very strongly in the film industry for only one reason; I have to teach this new generation about zubaan, what is dialogue delivery and how every word coming out of your mouth should be like a rose and a butterfly. Today, when actors speak, you can’t understand half of it. So, I want to teach this generation of actors the language.