Hearing of the Superstar Krishna’s sudden death , Bollywood’s evergreen actor Jeetendra becomes nostalgic about those crucial years of his stardom in the 1970s and 80s when he spent 25 out of 30 days each month in Hyderabad,
Recalls Jeetendra, “Krishna and his brother Hanumantha Rao were the producers of the majority of my Hindi remakes of their Telugu films. Their Padmalaya Studios produced my Takkar, Himmatwala, Justice Choudhary , Mawaali, Qaidi, Kaamyaab, Hoshiyar, Pataal Bhairavi,etc. In fact from the fifteen films Padmalaya produced in Hindi, eleven starred me. Toh aana jana laga rehta tha. I remember meeting Krishna and Bhabhi in Hyderabad in the 1960s when I wanted to do a remake of his blockbuster Gudachari 116.”
That film changed the course of Jeetendra’s career. “The Gudachari remake Farz changed the course of my career. Before this, I was just threshing around trying to find a place for myself. Do you know, every major star of the 1960s said no to Farz. And I am thankful to each one of them. Poor Jeetendra(me) was probably the last choice. I am thankful to Krishna for bringing the espionage genre to Indian cinema. Farz wouldn’t have happened to me if Krishna had not done Gudachari.We shot Farz on a tight budget. During one schedule in Ooty we shot four songs including the superhit Mast baharon ka main aashiq and Happy Birthday To Sunita.”
The original Telugu version of Farz starred Krishna and Jayalalitha.
Jeetendra remembers Krishna as a physically fit man. “I spoke to his son Mahesh Babu this morning. He told me his father had a massive cardiac arrest. Life has become so unpredictable. You never know what is in store for you. You may not have a day’s health problem. Yet you may just collapse without warning.”
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