25 years of Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha: Kashmera Shah: Bijay Anand acted like a star, would throw attitude during the shoot

When Kashmera Shah was approached for the film Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, she was relatively new to the industry. She had just signed the film Yes Boss and her name was recommended to the makers who were in search of a tall and good-looking actor to portray the character of Nisha. She says she is glad that the makers gave her the part.

“I perfectly fit the desired appearance for the role, and the team of Yes Boss (1997) assured them about my talent. That’s how I came on board for Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha,” Shah recalls.

At that time, Kajol and Ajay Devgn were big stars. Looking back at her first meeting with them, Shah says, “Kajol was warm and welcoming, and very much opposite of what I had heard about her. People had told me that she is snooty but that’s not at all what I felt”.

However, she confesses things were not pleasant off -screen with actor Bijay Anand, who she was paired with in the film. Shah recalls Anand’s entitled behaviour on set: “We went to Seychelles to shoot the film and Bijay started acting like a star (laughs). Humaare original stars were very much grounded but ye, jinka ek gaana hit hua tha, subha subha orders dene lagte the ki mere shoes laao, mera ye kaam kro. And I used to wonder why he behaved like that.

The 50-year-old actor adds, “When you go for an outdoor shoot, you take very few people with you, who manage most of the work. In that situation our effort is to chip in and reduce the work pressure on those people. But he (Bijay) was throwing attitude throughout the shoot”.

When Shah confronted him about this, his reply was, “If you don’t act like a star, they won’t treat you like a star”. Shah found the explanation very funny. “I was surprised because we were not stars back then and even if it’s a star, he/she should behave like a human. I had a slight argument with him over it and he started throwing shade at me after that. But because we did not have mobile phones back then, we were forced to talk,” she mentions.

Things turned sour between them when “Anand asked a staff member to make him wear his shoes”, and she puts it as “Bijay being young and stupid”.

The cold war did not end then and there. For her introduction scene in the film, Shah was asked to kiss Anand.

“25 years ago, kissing onscreen was a very big deal but I agreed because it was the need of the script. But unfortunately, that scene took a lot of retakes as it had to be done in an elevator and Anand was not doing it right. The shot had to be such that Anand’s angle and movement was very important but he kept on getting it wrong. Ajay and Kajol got very uncomfortable because of it and Ajay came to Bijay and said, ‘I can’t make this girl do this scene again and again. Why don’t you damn stand on your mark’. It was uncomfortable for them to make me do it so many times and hence they took a stand for me. This was a very nice gesture from their side,” she recalls.

After a few days, the two shot another scene where Anand was shown leaving Shah for Kajol, and Shah had to slap him. “And I gave him a tight slap. Later, he came to me and in front of everyone said ‘Don’t you know how to cheat a slap’ . I replied ‘Didn’t you know how to cheat a kiss’. That was my moment. The entire unit clapped and I had tear in my eyes,” she ends.