Veteran Bollywood actress Deepti Naval said that late actor Farooq Sheikh, who died on Friday after suffering a major heart attack in Dubai, was a constant factor both in her personal and professional life.
On Saturday actress woke up to the news and she was first to disclose the demise of Farooq Sheikh to media.
“He was not just a constant part of my career but also of my life. Oh God! It's so hard to believe he's gone," said Deepti, who last interacted with Farooq two months ago at the Sharjah Book Fair.
The duo met during the shooting of classic movie ‘Chashme Buddoor’.
“We worked together for the first time in ‘Chashme Buddoor’, and we did 7-8 films together after that. Of these my favorite films are’ Chashme Buddoor’, ‘Saath Saath’ and ‘Listen...Amaya’," she said.
The actress remembers her movie ‘Chashme Buddoor’ with great fondness.
“Sai Paranjpye, I, Rakesh Bedi, Ravi Baswani, Saeed Jaffrey... What a team it was! We made a film that just happened. We were all having so much fun while making it. On a flight, I saw the ‘Chashme Buddoor’ remake. It did nothing to me. It had no impact. Watching the remake, I missed the original team even more,” she said.
“Now, Ravi Baswani is gone, Farooq is gone. We also did Sai's ‘Katha’ together where Farooq played this incorrigible flirt. I used to tease him that in ‘Katha’ he played his real self," she added.
Deepti Naval revealed that Farooq Sheikh was a big flirt but he never flirted with her.
“I asked him when we got together for ‘Listen ...Amaya’, why he didn't flirt with me. When I look back at our films together, I find he was very cute and charming. And what a good-looker," she said.
But she says with her, he had a different rapport. He would always tease her. And he would crack jokes at her expense.
"When we worked together again in ‘Listen....Amaya’ after 26 years, he was still pulling my leg. I said, 'Ab toh sudhar jao.' He was adorable. He never changed. The only change I saw in him during ‘Listen...Amaya’ was that he would not sit with the rest of the unit after a shot. He would go back to his book. He was always reading," said Deepti.
The actress said that both were planning on reuniting on big screen soon.
“He had read three of my scripts. He kept prodding me to make those films. After doing ‘Listen...Amaya’, together we realized how much we missed one another. We wanted to do a play together. Now, we can never work together again," she concluded.