This veteran actor was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke award today. Watch Asha Parekh reminiscing about the good old days, and dissing remixes at India International Film Festival Boston during a conversation with Faridoon Shahryar.
👉🏽: Faridoon Shahryar 🎥: Connect FM Canada India International Film Festival of Boston - IIFFB
👉🏽: Faridoon Shahryar 🎥: Connect FM Canada India International Film Festival of Boston - IIFFB
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Asha ji, many of your songs have been remixed into music videos.
00:04Powerful.
00:07Powerful.
00:08People have forgotten their own dance.
00:12And what are we doing?
00:14We are imitating western dance.
00:21How important was the 60s period in your career?
00:23When I started working, I was 9 years old.
00:26Late Pimal Roy saw me and called me.
00:29He said, will you work?
00:31I said yes without any hesitation.
00:34Rest is history.
00:35Dil Dekhe Dekho started.
00:37And I starred in it.
00:39The film was a very big hit.
00:41That's why I will say from 1959.
00:45This was a very good time.
00:47Do Badan Se, Kati Patang and Main Tulsi Tere Angan Ki.
00:49As an actor, many people appreciated you in that.
00:53How important was it for you to get recognition as an actor?
00:58And people appreciate your performance and not merely your glamour quotient.
01:01Actually, the critics thought that I was not a good actress.
01:05These films did prove that I could act.
01:09So that was a good thing for me.
01:11How do you look back at Dil Dekhe Dekho?
01:14That was the stepping stone of my career.
01:17It could have broken me.
01:20So we were shooting in a hotel which had beautiful flowers.
01:24It was on a slope.
01:26And by the time we started the shooting,
01:29there were no flowers.
01:31Everything was flat on the ground.
01:34Because the people were going crazy about Mr. Dev Anand.
01:38People who have seen Do Badan,
01:40we had to reshoot that.
01:42Because I had said that only I will die.
01:44How can he die?
01:46Mr. Manoj Kumar was very upset.
01:48We both died in the film.
01:50I think your western dance style was outstanding.
01:54I didn't know how to jive.
01:57I remember there was a tall boy.
02:00He danced on both my toes and destroyed them.
02:07We have forgotten our own dance.
02:11And what are we doing?
02:13We are imitating western dance.
02:17You are not very happy with a lot of other songs?
02:20Sanjay Leela Bhansali is an exception.
02:23He is bound by it.
02:25You can see a lot of our culture in it.
02:30A lot of your songs have been remixed.
02:33Awful.
02:35Awful.
02:37Because
02:39the original song of Mithas
02:43is in the film.
02:45When he remixes it,
02:47only drums are heard.
02:49Dham, dham, dham.
02:51All those words are removed.
02:54A lot of people believe that
02:56you have been offered citizenship in Japan.
02:58No.
02:59You have been here twice.
03:01What was the phase like in those days?
03:04Late 50s, 60s.
03:06You are in the film industry.
03:08You have to be protected as well.
03:10How did your mother contribute to that?
03:12She never allowed anybody to come near me.
03:14I am being very frank.
03:16There were quite a lot of heroes
03:18who used to get very frightened of me.
03:20I don't know why they used to be frightened.
03:22How did fans approach the stars at that time?
03:24Did you get letters?
03:26Did you get proposals from them?
03:28Once,
03:30outside the door of my house,
03:34a Chinese man started living there.
03:37If people go and tell him to go,
03:40he would take out his knife and show it to them.
03:42He wanted to marry me.
03:45I rang up the commissioner of police.
03:47He wrote a letter to me.
03:49From the jail?
03:50From the jail.
03:51He said, I have been put in jail.
03:53Get me out.
03:55I have put you in jail.
03:58How can I get you out?
04:00Who impresses you the most
04:02among the actresses of today?
04:04I like Alia.
04:05I admire Deepika Padukone also.
04:10I admire Deepika Padukone also.