Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 7 (ANI): Veteran actor Shehzad Khan opened up on how his father, late actor Ajit Khan’s iconic villainous image on screen had an unexpected impact on his childhood.
Recalling his school days, Shehzad said that girls would often be scared of him because they associated him with the negative characters played by his father in films.
“Ladkiyaan mujhse bahut darti thi. Bolte the, ‘Iska baap acha admi nahi hai. Heroine ki maa ko kidnap kar leta hai, heroine ke saath badtameezi karta hai, hero ko marta hai (Girls used to be very scared of me. They used to say, ‘His father is not a good man. He kidnaps the mother of the heroine, he misbehaves with the heroine, he beats up the hero)” Shehzad recalled.
Shehzad said that children at his school often found it difficult to separate his father’s on-screen persona from his real-life personality. “Kids in the school used to believe what they would see on the screen,” he explained.
Shehzad also recalled how, as a child, he himself would sometimes get confused by what he saw on screen.
Recalling a scene from Rajesh Khanna starrer ‘Andaz’, he said, “I remember watching a scene in the film ‘Andaz’ where everyone would go away in a train. I would think that my father had also gone away. When I would come home, he used to be at home.”
Ajit Khan was one of Hindi cinema’s most recognisable villains, known for portraying ruthless gangsters, smugglers, and powerful antagonists. With his distinctive dialogue delivery, commanding screen presence, and memorable mannerisms, he became synonymous with the archetype of the suave yet menacing villain.
His performances in films such as ‘Zanjeer’, ‘Yaadon Ki Baaraat’ and ‘Kalicharan’, among others, further cemented his image as one of the era’s most memorable antagonists. (ANI)
Related reading
