Interview: Authors of Sanjeev Kumar’s Biography Decode His Life And Career

Sanjeev Kumar continues to be an enigma. The Surat-born legendary actor and his choice of films, even today, can be studied for one to understand how performances and brilliant storylines can create history. Perhaps millennials remember him from Sholay, that film which makes their parents hark back to their younger selves, an age that they say was Golden. But films like Aandhi and Seeta Aur Geeta reveal a completely new side to him that undoubtedly made him a cut above the rest. On Saturday, his nephew Uday Jariwala and Reeta Ramamurthy Guptareleased his biography titled Sanjeev Kumar, the Actor We All Loved

Uday Jariwala, Anil Kapoor and Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta at the launch in Mumbai.

“I conceptualised the book in 2018, simply because I was shocked to know that no one had made a book about him before,” reveals Ramamurthy, adding: “Finally, when I saw Shatranj Ke Khiladi- my mind was made up. I had to write this book- the film features on Martin Scorsese’s list of 40 films you must watch before you die.” She recollects her father humming his songs when she was a child. “My father used to keep singing ‘thande thande pani se nahaana chahiye’ - that is embedded memory. It was much later that I registered that the song was picturised on Sanjeev Kumar.”