Forever Anand
Sangeetha Devi Dundoo Neeraja Murthy
Dev Anand lived by the words 'Hum zindagi mein kabhi haar nahin
maney'. Two days after his demise, personalities and fans revisit
memories of a legend. Sangeetha Devi Dundoo and Neeraja Murthy report
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Dev Anand |
A day after the news of the sudden demise of the eternal romantic Dev
Anand, millions whom he had entertained over the decades still found it
tough to come to terms with the fact that an era had indeed come to an
end.
His contemporary and veteran actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao recalls
sharing mutual admiration with Dev Anand, "He was a legendary figure. He
was the first recipient of the ANR award and we both had this mutual
love and respect for each other. I remember the time when we both were
selected as guests for a cultural exchange programme between India and
USA. We both travelled separately and met in the US and stayed in a
hotel. We were there for 13 days and often shared interesting
conversations. He mostly acted in romantic movies and had a style of his
own."
Producer D. Ramanaidu recalls Dev Anand's warm and humble persona off
screen. "I have had the opportunity of working with Rajesh Khanna,
Jeetendra, Anil Kapoor and then Mithun Chakraborty. But I regret not
being able to work with Dev Anand. In those days when I was producing
Hindi movies, I used to stay at Sun-N-Sand in Mumbai where we used to
conduct script discussions. Dev Anand was also a frequent visitor to the
hotel since discussions for his movies also used to be conducted there.
We used to meet each other often, either in the lift or the lobby, and
exchange greetings. He used to jovially ask me why I never approach him
for any of my films. I would smile and tell him that whenever I ask him,
he has no dates to spare," shares Ramanaidu.
The producer remembers Dev Anand to be warm and friendly towards his
producers, directors and junior artistes.
"As an actor, we remember him by his super hit movies and he had a
good ear for music. Off screen, he was a thorough gentleman. The Hindu
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