Rati Agnihotri on 45 Years of 'Ek Duuje Ke Liye,' Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth: 'Their Small Gestures Mattered'

It’s a hot afternoon when we meet Rati Agnihotri at her Worli penthouse in Mumbai. Dressed in a vibrant orange outfit, she reveals she hasn’t posed or shot for photos in a long while. Looking out at the sea, she is radiant as she poses exclusively and effortlessly for The Hollywood Reporter India.

“Is my hair okay? Does this angle work?” she questions. Between sips of chai, she mentions upcoming travel and work meetings before adding that she is enjoying being a grandmother to (her son) actor Tanuj Virwani’s daughter, Navya.

Born into a Punjabi family in Mumbai, she took on modelling assignments when she was just 10. When her father shifted to Chennai for work, it was there — during a school play — that she was spotted by Tamil filmmaker Bharathiraja. He convinced her father to let her act in his film, Puthiya Vaarpugal (1979). So Agnihotri, still only a teenager, started her film career in the late ’70’s, starring in Tamil and Telugu movies before moving to the Hindi film industry. “I was 15 or 16,” she says, “so young when I started working. I didn’t know what acting or films were.”

Sapna Come True

While she has worked on some 300-odd films, Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981; EDKL) remains one of the most popular films of its time and the cornerstone of her career. A remake of the Telugu film Maro Charitra (1978) and Kamal Haasan’s Bollywood debut, the film was a massive success and made her a household name across India.

“My first memory of EDKL is of the outdoor shoot in Visakhapatnam. We finished shooting within a few months but back then, nobody was willing to buy the film,” Agnihotri recalls. The story of star-crossed lovers also featured Madhavi and Rakesh Bedi.

While the premise was set in Goa, most of the film was shot in Visakhapatnam. “The shoots were difficult, exhausting and physically demanding — on actors and technicians alike. We had chhaalas (blisters) on our feet after walking on rocky beaches. The location was such that it wasn’t possible to wear any kind of footwear, not even chappals, and Visakhapatnam was super-hot. Cinematically, the locations looked beautiful but in reality, they were very hard on us. Kudos to the whole team.”

She recalls director K. Balachander helping her understand the scenes as she didn’t speak Tamil fluently. After each shot, she would look at him and wait for him to nod.

“There was one shot where Kamal spins a top on my stomach and I am supposed to be squirming and laughing as it’s tickling me. Then there’s another one where his photo is burned, but I mix the ashes in a teacup and drink it. I didn’t know I could have done it another way — Balachander sir didn’t give me an option,” she says with a laugh.

“He would tell me to be defiant in certain scenes, but I didn’t know what defiance was. So, he said, ‘Be angry.’ I don’t know how I portrayed the emotions of a young woman in love, those death-do-us-part emotions — back then, I didn’t know what they were in the first place. I followed my director’s instructions and that’s why I was able to deliver.”

Working with an actor of Haasan’s calibre was daunting for the young Agnihotri, who admits she was a bit “scared initially”.

“But he never made me feel anything but comfortable. Kamal is such a brilliant actor, very helpful on set and with my scenes. The song in the lift, “Mere Jeevan Saathi”, was fun to shoot but tough at the same time. We had to wrap up in eight hours in a tiny lift inside the Taj in Chennai. While jumping around and moving, we had to be mindful of the camera angles so as to not get cut off,” she remembers.

“Even today, people remember EDKL and my character Sapna. Every film gives you something, but EDKL has given me everything,” she says.

Every Hero, Every Set

Post the film’s release, Agnihotri was mobbed by fans and flooded with offers from Hindi filmmakers. It helped that she shifted from Chennai to Mumbai. “In my career, I have done some 36 or 37 south films — Tamil, Telugu, one Malayalam and one Kannada. When an actor is working 16 hours a day, going from one set to the other, they don’t really know how big or small they are, how popular they are,” says Agnihotri.

Her father decided which projects to take and which to drop, while her mother stayed on set with her.

In the years that followed, she worked with the best in the industry: the comedy Shaukeeen (1982) with Ashok Kumar, Utpal Dutt, and Mithun Chakraborty; the blockbuster Coolie (1983) with Amitabh Bachchan; Yash Chopra’s Mashaal (1984) with Dilip Kumar and Anil Kapoor; B.R. Chopra’s multi-starrer Mazdoor (1983) and the leading role in Tawaif (1985), her swansong.

“I would say I was in the right place at the right time. I got many offers after every film, irrespective of the box office. Filmmakers could visualise me in varied roles — a girl-next-door, a glam woman, a village belle. I could be paired with heroes my age as well as senior actors. In my age group, I worked with Bunty (Kumar Gaurav), Sanju (Sanjay Dutt), and Mithun (Chakraborty). Among the seniors were Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Shashi Kapoor. From the south, Mr. NT Rama Rao, Mr. Nageshwar Rao, Mr. Krishna Babu, Kamal, Rajinikanth ji — I am walking down memory lane and I realise that I have worked with the stalwarts of the industry.”

She feels there was more camaraderie among actors back then, something that seems to have dwindled. “Even if we didn’t meet post work, we knew each other personally. Dad bought a house in Pali Hill with Sanju, Bunty and Mithun as our neighbours. I got along very well with them. They were my co-stars and friends and would drop by our house often, even if I wasn’t at home,” Agnihotri reveals.

“My dad advised me to befriend the heroes, so they won’t hit on me, and no one did! I wouldn’t bother with the rumours and gossip. My parents knew and I knew the truth and that mattered the most.”

Act II

In 1985, life took a turn. Post her wedding to businessman Anil Virwani, she took a break from acting to focus on her son Tanuj. After a 16-year hiatus, she returned to films with Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi (2001).

“I had no plans to return to films. I had gone to see Duggu’s (Hrithik Roshan) Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai and filmmaker Rahul Rawail saw me there and pursued me for his film. He wouldn’t take no for an answer. He said, ‘Yeh film kar lo, phir mat karna (Do this film, then don’t do anything)’,” she says with a smile, adding, “It was so heartwarming to be welcomed back so warmly by the industry. I began enjoying work again. Roles were not so progressive for senior actors as they are nowadays, but the ones I got were fun.”

Looking back at her career — the directors, the co-stars, the blistered feet on Visakhapatnam beaches — Agnihotri seems at ease with every chapter of it. “I feel a sense of homecoming when I return to a set,” she says. “I am an eager person and eager to learn. I am looking forward to working again.”

Amit ji (Amitabh Bachchan) was a helpful co-star and a great actor. While shooting for the Coolie (1983) song, “Accident Ho Gaya”, he would pick me up and drop me gently, and ensure that I was taken care of during the shots when we were swinging from one branch of a tree to the other. I was patli doobli, phoonk maaro toh ud jaayegi (thin, as if I’d fly away with a gust of wind) type. Some other heroes couldn’t manage that. For a heroine, it is helpful to land gracefully and to the beats of the song.

I love Rajinikanth ji. He is such a lovely person. I did five or six movies with him including John Jani Janardan (1984). Even today, he is the same: humble and real. Back then, locations were remote and when we shot together, he would ensure that my mom and I reached the guest house safely. We never asked him to, but he would wait for us, without saying a word. Earlier, there were hardly any women on set. These small gestures mattered and made a big difference.

I really enjoyed shooting with Basu da (Basu Chatterjee), especially Shaukeeen (1982), which was a fun comedy and had such lovely co-stars. The other film I did with him was Pasand Apni Apni (1983). I played a struggling theatre actor; I was rushing to catch a bus for a shot wearing a sari and worn-out chappals (slippers). While I was running, my chappal broke. We were losing the light, so I stopped, picked up the broken chappal, ran and caught the bus. He kept the shot! It looked so real in the film.

I played a vampish role in B.R. Chopra’s Mazdoor (1983). I am glad I did; I was too often playing a sweet heroine. Chopra uncle met my dad and narrated the role; he felt I wouldn’t want to do it. In those days, heroines didn’t do other kinds of roles as it could backfire. Chopra saab told dad, ‘You tell her to do this, and I will give her something really special later’. And that turned out to be Tawaif (1985), my swansong before my wedding. I played the title role with the fabulous Rishi Kapoor as my co-star.