It happens to be with none other than Kishore Kumar!
Pritish Nandy talks about his best interview ever as a journalist. It was Kishore Kumar's in 1985.
"The interview is an intimate conversation between journalist and celebrity wherein the journalist seeks to take advantage of the garrulity of the celebrity and the celebrity of the credulity of the journalist"
Few years ago, I was reading a book, which was a confession of a veteran journalist. And I came across this paragraph which clearly stated that what we generally go through. I have been interacting with Pritish Nandy for sometime. After donning a new role in my professional life, I have been interacting with his man on a regular basis.
One day, we had a serious discussion on how boring Bollywood celebrities have become. "I think it's no more interesting for you guys to interviews stars. It's so PR driven and wearisome," says Pritish. "We used to have fun in our time," he added. This "our time" and "their time" debate would continue for years. But when I challenged him, that even we have our share of fun with celebs, he gave me a copy of this Kishore Kumar interview and asked me to read it. "I think Kishore was genius in his own way. He was a friend. I would never do homework or go with a set of questionnaire. I think that restricts your interview, I would just be with the celeb and allow them to speak. Kishore was so crazy that once he drove from Juhu to Walkeshwar in a towel. He challenged me that he can drive in a towel, and just to prove that he came like that," says Pritish.
In fact, there were certain facts which Pritish couldn't print in the interview, but he shared with me. "Yogeeta Bali was irritated with Kishore because he was extremely money minded and he asked Yogeeta to her food from her home. So everyday, her mom would cook food for Yogeeta and send it. Can you beat that?" Not just that, Pritish was completely taken aback when Kishore narrated how he troubled Hrishikesh Mukherjee. "In one of the films, Hrishikesh wanted Kishore Kumar to act. He paid him fifty in advance and wanted to pay him the rest after the film got over. But Kishore wanted the entire amount in advance. He refused to come to the sets, so Hrishikesh had to drag him to court. The court ordered Kishore to complete the film and thereafter he would get the rest of his amount. Just to irritate Hrishikesh, the next day he came to the set, and he had shaved half of his head and half moustache. Hrishikesh was taken aback. He said, 'Aadhe paise mein adha Kishore hi milega!' Now that was Kishore," he says.
Not just that, Pritish fought for Kishore in Bollywood, when he was going through his lull phase. Pritish is very vocal about his likings for Bengalis. "People thing that I am biased towards Bongs, but I truly feel that Bengalis are a gift to mankind, provided the Bengali is not living in Bengal!"
He also mentions that Kishore used to count his money every night. "It was insane, but he used to count his money and would hide it somewhere. Once he told me that after my death, everyone will dig up this house to find my money, but these mother****ers won't find a single penny. I want to take all my money to heaven," recollects Pritish. Now, that's the kind of person Kishore was.
Pritish has interviewed politicians, underworld dons, movie stars and international celebrities, but he still feels that his Kishore Kumar interview is one of the best in his career. "You don't get genius like Kishore that often, they come once in a century!" True. One needs to read the hilarious interview of Bollywood's most popular playback singer.
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