MUMBAI: Ad guru Prahlad Kakkar worked with a wide range of celebrities during his career. In a recent interview, he talked about his time working with actor Govinda, who in the 1990s was at the top of the Bollywood pyramid. Prahlad mentioned Govinda's well-known history of being late for meetings. He recalled the actor telling him once that he would come on time for a shoot even though he was thousands of miles away.
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Speaking with Cyrus Broacha outside the book launch, Prahlad shared stories about celebrities ranging from Amitabh Bachchan to Sachin Tendulkar. Regarding his collaborations with Bollywood actors, Prahlad stated, “They were all okay. Govinda came 24 hours late to the set…”
He was corrected by a colleague who informed him that Govinda was actually two days late. “We were on a big set in Hyderabad, of all the places. And he was supposed to come from Srinagar. He said, ‘Don’t worry, main time pe aa jaunga (I’ll be there on time)’. I said, ‘Kaise ayega tu? Tera flight nahi hai (How? You don’t even have a flight)’. He said, ‘Gaadi mein baith ke aunga na (I’ll come in a car)’.
Prahlad added, “From Srinagar to Hyderabad in eight hours, according to him. But anyway, he turned up two days late. But he turned up.” Recalling another anecdote about working with Govinda, Prahlad said, “He was very good. I remember he once came on a set of mine… We had this huge Titanic set, with him and a girl on the prow. He comes in, looks at the set, and says, ‘Jaldi karein? I have to go’. I said, ‘No, you have to finish this. The whole set is standing for you’.”
He further added, “We got him to the top on a ladder, it was almost two stories high. Then, I removed the ladder, and we kept shooting. He kept saying, ‘Mujhe jaana hai‘. I said, ‘Theek hai, jaa tu, koodi maar‘. So he just shut up and did the shoot.” Govinda’s disregard for punctuality has often been discussed by his contemporaries. His frequent co-star, Raveena Tandon, told ETimes last year, “I would reach the set at 9, knowing that he (Govinda) would come at 2.30-3.”
In response, Govinda told Maniesh Paul that the alleged lack of professionalism was the result of people trying to bring him down. “When I was at the peak for 14-15 years, when everything was going in my favour, nobody raised these issues… This is the film industry, people change with time, and so do equations,” he said.
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Credits – The Indian Express
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