'He is two contrasting personalities'

Hema Malini

I did a number of films with him. He was a wonderful costar, totally different from the others. I remember him as two different, contrasting personalities really. At times, he was very aloof, very quiet and would say very little. But at others, he would be a lot of fun, fooling about, making you laugh.

I think he was always lighthearted on Manmohan Desai's sets. He was in a great mood when we were doing Naseeb and Desh Premee. It was as if he was more at home with Manmohan Desai.

His professionalism is legendary. He was always prepared when he came to the sets. He was very easy to work with. I had a cordial relationship with all my heroes. Some like Jeetendra or Shatrughan Sinha were very funny. Amitabh was more serious, more professional.

But at times you would get a glimpse of his boyishness when he was in a lighthearted mood. When I meet him now, he appears more serious.

As an actor, he turned all his minus points into pluses. When he came into films, everyone said he was very tall, and all kinds of comments were made about him because he was very different from a normal hero. But it became a plus point with him.

Everybody can learn from this -- that you can develop yourself into anything you want.

We are now doing Baghban together. It is wonderful being paired opposite him again.

Hema Malini spoke to Lata Khubchandani