Naseeruddin Shah: Amount of stuff thrown out of 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro' would make another film

Mumbai, Sep 8

Veteran Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah has reminisced about his cult-classic film 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro' in which he starred as a photographer.

The actor said that director Kundan Shah had a lot of footage before editing the film but he went on to ruthlessly chop the film at the edit table as he was very clear about the story.

Talking to IANS, Naseeruddin said: “I did the film because I found this script very funny and Kundan Shah, the director, was a very good friend. But, when I started working on it, I thought, ‘This is the stupidest film ever being made, if it is ever made’.”

The actor also shared that working on the film was a tough process as he had a different perspective of the character which wasn’t aligned with that of Kundan .

"And these were not the days of vanity van, we couldn't afford a vanity van. In fact, the entire cost of production of ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro’ equals the production cost of one day’s shooting today. My thoughts about the character and how I would play it were vastly different from Kundan’s," he said.

The actor told IANS: “We shot for almost 45 days and Kundan had so much material at hand that he had to ruthlessly edit the film. The amount of material that has been thrown out of ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro’ would make another film”.

“But Kundan was very clear in his head about what he wanted from the film, from the story and from his actors. He was very much influenced by the Marx Brothers and that reflects in the storytelling of ‘Jane Bhi Do Yaaro’," he added.