Director Sooraj Barjatya is known for making family friendly films, and over the years, the director has developed a name for himself for being one of the warmest people in the business. In a recent interview, Nana Patekar, who worked with Sooraj in the past, recalled the time when Sooraj picked up his shoes on a film set. When Nana tried to stop Sooraj as he was the “heir” to the massive Rajshri Productions empire, but Sooraj insisted that this was his job. He was working as an assistant at the time.
In a chat with The Lallantop, Nana recalled the shoot of Pratighaat, directed by N Chandra, where Sooraj was the assistant director. “One day he brought me my shoes. I said, ‘Don’t do this, I can get my own shoes’. He said, ‘No, sir (with folded hands)’. I said ‘Sooraj, you are the heir to this big organisation, don’t do this’. He said, ‘I am the assistant, this is my job’,” he said.
Nana said that after this incident, he met Sooraj many years later, and was surprised to see that he was still the same man. “After many years, we met at some function. He saw me coming and he again bowed down with his hands folded, I was shocked that he hasn’t changed one bit. He is just as simple. He is not fabricating his niceness, he is genuinely like that. So whenever I meet him, I like it,” he recalled.
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Sooraj is known for directing films such as Hum Aapke Hain Koun, Hum Saath Saath Hain, Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo, among others. His last directorial, Uunchai, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Neena Gupta, Boman Irani, Anupam Kher, got him a Nation Award for Best Director. In an earlier chat with SCREEN, Sooraj had said that he was planning to make his next film with Salman Khan although he is yet to make any official announcements about the same.
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