I first met Dev Sahab in 2001, which was also the last time, for the music launch of his film Censor, in Ashoka Hotel, Delhi.
At 1pm I got a call from Pooja Kashyap of HMV, who needed last minute help to organize the media for the music launch. I told her ‘I’d love to help you as I am a great fan of Dev Anand, and this is the best chance to meet and interact with him’. Though the time given was very short to invite the media, but I took this challenge and my entire team for this music launch, without giving it a second thought.
Press conference was around 4 or 5 pm and the chief guest was the then IB minister Sushma Swaraj. More than 100 media was present at that time for which I wouldn’t take the credit as this is Dev Anand’s charisma that all the media were there.
Press conference got over in an hour but the media was eager to talk with him one to one. Anyhow I managed a few interviews and by 7 he told me ‘Harish this would be the last one, and if there’s anything left then I’d like to do it in my suite around 8 pm’. And around 8 he was in the lounge of the hotel as fresh as ever, ready for another set of interviews with Aaj tak and NDTV. After these couple of interviews I got a chance to interact with him personally and his first sentence was “Good job Harish, but I have never done so many interviews at one time”. During that interaction I learnt that whatever you’d ask him, he’d reply, and if you don’t start anything he would keep mum. I asked him, about his great health and fitness at this age, for which he said, I try to avoid grains most of the time, I survive on water and fruits whenever I’m hungry.
And then I asked him how he finds Delhi. He said ‘Delhi is very hot!...because of central politics, and at the same time very pleasant’. Talking about his favorite pass time he told me ‘though I am never free, I spend my time in writing and reading, besides making films’.
I told him that it’s my dream to become a director to which he said, ‘If you dream about it then it will be fulfilled, because this is dreaming with open eyes and not with closed ones.’ During that time I got a call from Kaveri Bamzai from IndiaToday saying that she wanted good enough time for an interview with Dev Anand Sahab. I asked him about it, he asked me to call her the next morning around 8:30-9.
The next day by 8:30 sharp he was in the lounge and within half an hour that interview got done and when I asked him to take a leave he remembered about my direction and said ‘Harish when you become a Director, give me a call’. After that I never got a chance to meet him and now as I just completed my first film as a director, his lines still ring in my mind, and I thought I’d call him when my film would release. The film is now in the process of being released but before that, sadly enough, he suddenly left us one day. And my dream to tell him about my directorial venture remains a dream. I miss you Dev Sahab. May you Rest in Peace.
-Harish Sharma.
