Amitabh Bachchan and the late Shashi Kapoor have worked together in several blockbusters such as Deewaar, Silsila, Trishul, and Namak Halal, to name a few. The two shared a lovely camaraderie on and off the screen.
Back in 2017, Amitabh Bachchan mentioned an incident on his blog that included the late Shashi Kapoor. The Piku actor spoke about how Kapoor had once deleted some scenes from a film, just because he thought Amitabh Bachchan was meant for bigger things.
In an ironic turn of events, Bachchan was once hired to play an extra in the role of a pallbearer at Kapoor's funeral in Filmvalas, many years ago.
When Shashi Kapoor got to know about it, he spoke to the producer James Ivory-Ismail Merchant and had the scenes deleted from the film.
Shashi Kapoor had said, "Don't be silly. I am not going to let you do these things. Don't do these bit parts. You are made for bigger things."
Recalling the moment, Amitabh Bachchan had also written, "Shashi ji was not at the shoot, obviously, but dropped by later at the location. When he saw what we had been asked to do, he walked up to me in the crowd of mourners where I was standing as a junior artist, or the 'extra' and asked me to move. And then spoke to the director to delete those portions of mine from the film."
Big B further added, "Ismail Merchant the producer of the film called us one fine day and said there were some small parts which we could do and that he would pay us Rs 50 for it. I needed the money so desperately to feed myself, I readily agreed."
Shashi Kapoor passed away on December 4, 2017. He was 79.
