They had known Hrishida for decades. One wanted to act in his films since she was a child and telephoned him every day till she grew up and bagged a role in Bemisal. The others knew him through his long association with their famous brothers, Dilip Kumar and Salil Chowdhury.

Actor Sheetal and Ahsan Khan and Samir Chowdhury were just a few of the many who flocked to the Bandra-Hindu Association on Tuesday to pay their respects to veteran film-maker Hrishikesh Mukherjee, hours before he was taken to the Shivaji Park cremation ground.

“Meena Kumariji had recommended me to Hrishida when I was a child. Dada had promised to give me a chance and kept his word when I grew up,’’ recalled Sheetal. The actor played a young girl who falls in love with her teacher in the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Bemisal.

Chowdhury’s relationship with Mukherjee dates back to the days when he was planning his first film Musafir, while Khan knew the latter as an editor in the film Gunga Jumna, which starred his brothers Dilip Kumar and Nasir Khan. ‘’I had just arrived in Mumbai from Kolkata when Dada (Salil Chowdhury) introduced me to Hrishida who asked me to assist Ritwik Ghatak in writing the script of Musafir. I became his assistant in his second film Anari,’’ recollected Chowdhury.

From Anari, Asli Naqli and Majli Didi to the more popular Anupama and Anuradha, Chowdhury was a part of most of Mukherjee’s units till the 70s.

‘’He was very strict. I remember Hrishida walking away from the sets if actors arrived late,’’ he said. ‘’He hardly read out scripts to the actors. Stars like Dharmendra agreed to act in his films because of their faith in him.’’

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