Ramesh Sippy

What can I say about him? I worked with him in one film. I was in awe of him.

I watched his films as a child and sobbed each time. There was nothing he could do wrong. If he was doing action, his body was geared to that. If it was comedy, his body language changed. He seemed just right in every way.

I found that he was the easiest actor to direct. Where work is concerned, he is all there, always ready with his lines. He has this habit of rewriting his lines in his own hand, to probably help him memorise them.

The first shot we took of him was the one where he enters the kitchen and talks to Raakhee before he gets a call that his son has been kidnapped.

It was long and complicated and to get everything perfect took us 47 takes. Interestingly, he never did two takes in the same way. He kept improvising. That gave us a lot of variety. But I remember how difficult it was for me to edit the film. There were so many moments that I just didn't want to edit out. But I think we managed to retain the grace of those moments.

As a person, there is a personal integrity which disallows him from doing anything he doesn't want to do. He never, ever did a film he did not want to, or anything that did not seem right to him.

Dilip Kumar always had that indefinable input to offer towards a film, which is very satisfying for a director.

Ramesh Sippy spoke to Lata Khubchandani