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#CinemaSnapShot: Kimi Katkar was friendly and naive, her mother Tina was gutsy & fun

Speed News Desk | Updated on: 11 February 2017, 5:46 IST

This animated picture of Kimi Katkar was shot in 1988 on the sets of Raj Sippy's film, Shehzaade.

I knew Kimi as my friend Mohnish's girlfriend. Kimi and I met for the first time for an interview at a Kala Ghoda eatery over finger fish, chips and tartar sauce while her mom kept chipping into the conversation. The mother took a liking to me and called me to their Colaba residence for the next interview. Mama Katkar had an errand to run and forewarned Kimi not to talk about Sanjay Dutt, whom she was reportedly dating in those days. But once Mama was gone, candid Kimi plunged headlong into talking about Dutt!

Kimi was an extremely busy heroine who breezed through over 40 films in the half a dozen years that she was around. I met Kimi for the last time, by chance, in the mid 1990s on a Breach Candy pavement opposite the building that housed the Movie magazine office. She had retired after her marriage to lensman Shantanu Sheorey. Just as the conversation was warming up, she frantically told me to scoot because her husband, Shantanu Sheorey, was coming towards us and she said he didn't like her talking to any press member. I shall always remember Kimi as an extremely friendly girl who was as honest with me as if I were her college buddy.

And her mother Tina was as endearing. A curly-haired bundle of animated energy, Tina was as integral as the dictaphone to any interview I did with Kimi. Kimi was naive; it was her gutsy mother who cleverly maneuvered her from cat-eyed cat-walker to Amitabh Bachchan's heroine in Hum.

Tina Katkar was also fun. After one interview at her Colaba residence, she decided to walk me to the elevator. Suddenly, the neighbour's Pekinese barked from behind a closed door, and that made her blood pressure shoot up. Tina disappeared from my line of vision. It was only when I heard a "Shut up!" from somewhere near my feet, that I realised she was down on her knees, her head flat on the ground, letting out a piercing shout through the narrow shaft between the door and the floor. It silenced the dog.

-- Dinesh Raheja (Editor - Bollywood News Service)

First published: 15 October 2016, 2:55 IST