Talking to us, the director of Haami said, “When I first heard the rumours, I did not believe it, then I got a couple of calls, followed by a message, so I thought it is best to call her. Thankfully, she only picked up the phone, and said, ‘Amhi mare ke che toh ( main mar gaya toh?)’ and started laughing! And then said, ‘What is this Shibu , I am absolutely fine, why are these people spreading rumours?’.
She then told me she takes good care of herself, and husband Gulzar and daughter Meghna are there too.”
Shiboprosad, and Rakhee are in fact, currently working for a movie called Amar Boss. Talking about it, the filmmaker said, “I got a call from legendary actress Shobhna Roy. She said, ‘Rakhee ji wants to speak to you. She has seen all your work and is keen to speak to you.’ She shared my phone number with Rakhee ji and she called me. She told me about the films of mine she had watched and, said that she particularly liked Haami.
She told me to meet her whenever I came to Mumbai. I met her, and during our chat, she said, ‘If you make something like Haami again and if I like the subject, then I’ll come back to acting.’ She said that she liked slice-of-life films.
When Nandita Di (Nandita Roy), and I were discussing ideas and came up with a subject, I immediately called Rakhee Ji, and told her about the subject. Rakhee Ji was game for it and asked me to give her a bound script.
When I completed the script, I went to meet her at her Mumbai house, and narrated the script to her. She asked me to keep the shooting in the winters and that’s how it started. We have completed the shoot of the film. We wanted to release the film in the summer, but because of the general elections, we couldn’t release it. We have moved the release of the film to Christmas this year.”
Talking about his experience of working the actress, the filmmaker quipped, “Working with Rakhee Ji was a beautiful experience. She mingled with all the cast and crew, and gave unique names to all of them. Calcutta food used to be a special thing. Especially, the puchka sequence within the film, she gulped down 30 puchkas! I said, ‘What are you doing? There are many other days.’ She said, ‘I’m not eating.’ I said, ‘I saw you.’ She is a fantastic cook herself. She knows which food items to pair with each other. She likes Gujarati food too. She asked me to take Gujarati food for my wife, because she is fond of her.”
