I learnt about Vinod’s death when someone from the media called me to take my reaction. My first reaction was of extreme shock and sorrow. I knew he was unwell and I knew his condition. He was very fragile. I have known him for 45 years. That’s virtually from the beginning of my career.
I have worked with him in many films right from Kachche Dhaage up to the recent Dilwaale. It was just a huge shock to me, now that he is actually gone, so many memories come flooding back.
Vinod was a very solid actor and he always was a joy to work with right from my first film Kachche Dhaage. It was a Raj Khosla film. And he’s very conscientious in terms of acting abilities. When I worked with him three years ago, he had lost some of his energy but he was always in good spirits, always very positive in his outlook.
Vinod has had three aspects — there’s the film actor, the spiritualist aspect and the politician. I have actually shared some of that journey with him. When he came to California, to Osho’s ashram, I was very much part of his journey. After that he was into politics. I’m from a city called Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur, so technically he became my MP also. So, he’s been a friend, an MP and a fellow spiritual seeker. What’s always stayed with me about him is a memory when we were shooting Kachche Dhaage. Raj got two great horses. One white and the other black. And we were both good riders. And one memory of him was this shot that we did when we were just riding with absolute abandon across the fields of Udaipur and laughing our heads off. When I was in Hollywood, Vinod used to come down often and we used to have long conversations about life and love and philosophy. He was there for five years at the Ashram in Oregon and we would meet regularly. These two memories have stayed with me the most.
Knowing him over the years, I’ve had great admiration for Vinod. We wouldn’t hangout that much together while in Bombay because we lived in different parts of town but we were very warm and wonderful friends and met with Punjabi jhappis whenever we met.
As told to Jashank Kshirsagar/Sanskriti Media
