Shekhar Kapur recalls a request by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur recalled a strange request by legendary singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan during the shoot of his movie “Bandit Queen”. The incident took place just after the unfortunate passing away of another musical legend, R D Burman. Sharing the incident with this Insta Fam, Shekhar said, “There were tears in Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s voice.” Revealing what request Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan made, the director added, “Shekhar ji.. you look at your film and I will look into your eyes. And I will sing.” They were doing a background score for “Bandit Queen”. “The scene was the Behmai Massacre and its aftermath. With row upon row of funeral pyres with the sound of women on the bank lamenting in high rustic voices ..” Shekhar added.

Describing what happened as the mike was turned on, the ‘Mr India’ maker penned, “We turned the mikes on and I found Khan sahib looking.. no, staring into my eyes.. as if he could find my soul, and look deep into it. He knew how close I was to R d Burman too. He had created the music for my first film, Masoom.”

“His eyes and his voice arrested me. I was transported to a far deeper realm. For Khan Sahib was taking me closer to God and into the space where life and death merged into one,” he further went on to reveal. “If you ever see Bandit queen again... look for the scene of the aftermath of the Behmai Massacre... that music will transport you too ..”, he added. Shekhar concluded the post by saying what it was like working with the music maestro, “That’s what it was like working with Nusrat Ali Khan .. and that’s why I make films. To find space between life and death ..For in that space exists creativity ..” Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan passed away on 16 August 1997, at 48 after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Shekhar was born on 6 December 1945 in Lahore, Punjab, British India, in a Punjabi Hindu family to Kulbhushan Kapoor, a doctor with a flourishing practice, and his wife Sheel Kanta Kapoor. Whilst travelling on a train from the newly-created Pakistan to India, a massacre took place; Kapur’s mother Sheel played dead and hid both him and his sister under her body. Reflecting on this, Kapur stated that the partition of India happened through “the blood of one people”.

The nephew of famous Indian actor Dev Anand (Kapur’s mother Sheel Kanta was the sister of actors Chetan, Dev and Vijay Anand), he was discouraged from getting into films by his father. Kapur is the only son of his parents and he has three sisters. One of his sisters, Neelu, was the first wife of actor Navin Nischol, while another sister, Aruna, is the wife of actor Parikshit Sahni. His third and youngest sister is Sohaila Kapur. Kapur attended Modern School of New Delhi. He studied economics at St. Stephen’s College.

At 22, he became a Chartered Accountant with the ICAEW in England, having studied accountancy at the behest of his parents. He then started his career working with a multinational oil company. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1970, and spent several years working as an accountant and management consultant. He turned director with the family drama Masoom (1983), starring Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and a young Jugal Hansraj and Urmila Matondkar. The plot followed the story of an illegitimate boy who struggles to find acceptance from his stepmother. He then directed the 1987 science-fiction film Mr. India, starring Anil Kapoor, Sridevi and Amrish Puri in his most famous role as the villain Mogambo. Puri’s most famous dialogue in this film “Mogambo Khush Hua” is still remembered. In 1994 he directed the critically acclaimed Bandit Queen and played a cameo in the film as a truck driver.

Kapur was infamous for abandoning several films in which he was originally the director. He was originally the director of the 1989 film Joshilaay, which starred Sunny Deol, Anil Kapoor, Sridevi and Meenakshi Sheshadri before leaving the production halfway, and its producer Sibti Hassan Rizvi stepped in to complete the film.

Agencies