Rani Mukerji fondly remembers legend Rishi Kapoor as 'Hum Tum' clocks in 16 years
May 28, 2020
New Delhi [India], May 28 : As romantic flick 'Hum Tum' clocked in 16 years on Thursday, actor Rani Mukerji remembered shooting the film with legendary actor Rishi Kapoor who recently passed away, leaving a void in the Indian cinema industry.
"Hum Tum will always be memorable for me because it was the film that Chintu uncle was part of and I fondly remember our shoot in Amsterdam," she said.
"Recently, when I met up with him before his untimely demise, we were chatting about the Hum Tum shoot and we were recalling the days of how much fun we had during the Amsterdam schedule!" the 'Mardaani' actor added.
Recalling the shoot of the film, Mukerji pointed out that it was one of the very first films in which Kapoor started portraying character roles.
"I remember very clearly that for Chintu uncle, it was one of the first films in which he had started playing key character roles," she said.
"He took a leap of faith and he agreed to play Saif's dad because till then he was always the leading star. Somehow he did this and he was just brilliant as usual and made our film truly special!" he added.
Rani also revealed that she was a huge fan of Rishi Kapoor, the actor and the person that he was. "Chintu uncle belonged to the era where actors never did sync sound and Hum Tum was a sync-sound film. We were shooting in a house in Amsterdam which had wooden flooring and Dilip Subramaniam was the sound recordist," the 'Chalte Chalte' actor said.
"He kept telling Chintu uncle that each time he would take a step in the house, the floor would creak and the sound would come. Chintu uncle invariably moved and Dilip would say cut, we will need one more!" she added.
The actor further believes that 'Hum Tum' was definitely ahead of the curve by showing progressive portrayal of women in cinema. "It was definitely ahead of its time. The way my character Rhea reacts at the end and walks away from Saif's character's (Karan) life when he just randomly suggests to get married because they had physical intimacy, it was bold," she said.
"I think that was way ahead of its time for a woman to do this in a Hindi film. For a girl to actually walk away from a man and break stereotypes and notions of how a woman should react, it was new but it was also much needed to show in cinema," she further said.
Helmed by Kunal Kohli 'Hum Tum' narrates the story of a boy and girl who initially hate each other but eventually ended up falling in love as destiny keeps uniting them at different stages of life. Actor Saif Ali Khan stars opposite Rani in the film.
