“We – Rakesh Bedi, David Dhawan and I had gone over to his place for lunch,” recalls a batchmate of his from the class of 1974 at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune,“We were chatting away in his bedroom when he entered with a gunny sack, opened it and out popped his huge pet python, scaring the daylights out of us.”
Filmmaker Shashi Ranjan adds fondly, “He could be quite a prankster those days. While driving a car, he’d roll down the window and display the python to those in the car at the traffic lights, making them speed away as soon as they could. Eventually, thank the lord, he handed over the python to a wildlife conservation NGO.”
Satish Shah, who passed away at the Hinduja hospital in Mumbai, at the age of 74, following kidney failure, was as light-hearted and carefree, as he was on the screen as in real life. With his end, the era of trained actors in the multiple aspects of acting, comes to an end, close on the heels of the departure of Asrani, also an FTII graduate.
In an interview, two years ago, Shah had stated, that he had taken a sabbatical because it’s wiser to take a hiatus from acting rather than plod on like an automaton. “Maybe, I’ll rejuvenate myself and then start all over again. I’m in no hurry to die,” he had promised.
A Look Back at His Illustrious Journey
The man who hooked the nation with a tally of nearly 100 feature films, a bunch of television serials on Doordarshan, besides 12 student diploma films at the FTII, was of course most closely identified with the cult film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), a black comedy directed by the late Kundan Shah, and Star One channel’s sitcom Sarabhai vs Sarabahi, co-featuring Ratna Pathak Shah, among others, which aired from 2004-2006, to be revived Disney-Hotstar in 2017, adding up to as many 80 episodes.
That the last years of the actor who would make audiences roll with laughter in the aisles, were mired in pain and sorrow, was kept under the wraps. It’s after his end, that Sachin Pilgaonkar who had directed Satish Shah in the Marathi-language wacky heist film Gammat Jammat (1987), that it is learnt that Satish Shah’s wife, fashion designer and actor Madhu, was suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Pilgaonkar has elaborated, that on the quiet Satish had his kidney transplanted. Evidently, he wanted to extend his life to take care of his wife Madhu.He was on dialysis. Earlier, he had undergone a successful bypass surgery.
When Sachin Pilgaonkar’s wife, Supriya, visited Satish at the hospital, he played music which he danced the cha-cha to without faltering. It was conjectured that he was out of the woods but the actor whose mantra was to keep himself and others entertained has gone forever.
Actor, Prankster, and Eternal Performer
In fact, every filmmaker and actor I contacted over WhatsAap responded immediately, to express their shock and sense of loss. Said Karan Johar, “I had the honour of working with Satishji as an assistant director and then producer.
An incredibly spontaneous actor, he was a warm and affectionate human being. His impeccable comic timing and the ability to spread joy on the studio sets are deeply embedded in my memory.He leaves behind a legacy of love and an illustrious career. That he will be sorely missed is an understatement.”
Amol Gupte, actor and director noted, “From Kundan Shah’s FTII diploma film Bonga to a rib-tickling ride in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro in which he was playing dead and being told not to chuck precious Swiss cake to the hungry ‘khargosh’, Ravi Baswani, to portraying a diabetic dad in Kabhi Hanh Kabhi Naa, and a vast number of mirthful roles spanning 40 years, he has left the building. It’s now the turn of the ‘Uparwala’ to laugh out loud in his company.”
“He played a dead body of the corrupt municipal commissioner D’Mello for a major part of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and became immortal,” noted filmmaker Hansal Mehta. “It’s impossible to think of him in the past tense. What an actor! Effortless and sadly tremendously untapped. Here was a presence that could light up any frame. His smiles, chuckles and laughter are now our precious possessions.”
Actor Asha Parekh remarked, “At preview and film functions, Satish always made it a point to come over and chat about the films of the 1950s and ‘60s, which he would say were the golden years of our movies. And unlike others, he would never use that cliché, ‘Oh, I’ve been your fan since childhood’, which make senior actors feel as if they belong to a Jurassic Park. There was a child-like innocence in him, which is why his performances had that rare USP of playful, boyish quality.”
The response of filmmaker Nikhil Advani who directed him in his debut feature Kal Ho Na Ho, was, “I was over the moon when he agreed to enact Saif Ali Khan’s father in the film.After all, he was part of the ensemble of Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. A natural-born actor, he made the world dance to G.U.J.J.U, a song dedicated to the Gujarati community’s excellent cuisine like ganthiya and undhiyu.”
From FTII to Every Indian Living Room
Born in Mandvi, Gujarat, for a while he had lived in a housing colony next to Smita Patil’s parents’ home on Forjett Street, Tardeo. In a brief conversation Satish Shah had pointed out that although he had started his career in Bombay’s film industry with off-mainstream films like Saeed Mirza’s Arvind Desai ki Ajeeb Daastan and Albert Pinto ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai and Muzaffar Ali’s Gaman, these weren’t sufficient to keep him financially independent and get married.
The cheques which he would receive in installments for the NFDC-produced Jaane Bhi Di Yaaro (estimated budget Rs 7.5 lakh) would be in the range of Rs 50 and Rs 100. No one in the cast or crew thought the film was funny. However,on seeing the final print by the iconic editor Renu Saluja, all of us were crying with tears of laughter.”
To sustain his career and a comfortable lifestyle in an apartment in Bandra (east) he gravitated towards mainstream cinema, working with the A-list banners including those of Yash Chopra, Karan Johar and Sooraj Barjatya. Inevitably there are some oddities like a B-grader Jungle Love which was shot on jungle locations. But then he loved wildlife – like his pet python – didn’t he?
On the FTII Facebook, a tribute to the actor has underscored the fact he often served as a mentor there, and was a member of the Institute’s Governing Council and FTII Society.
Madhu and Satish Shah didn’t have children, according to all the internet sources. In sum, then, there goes a loveable actor, just like a palm does when you open your hands.