Speaking to ETimes, Shammi Kapoor’s wife Neela Devi had revealed in a video interview the other day, “Yes, he had a temper. He couldn’t take certain things. Let me put it this way. If someone steps on his feet He reacts when he steps on the fingers. So such things used to happen in parties. He used to drink heavily in those days.
But to his credit, the next day he wanted to know from me what had happened. Slowly he changed.”
Before we go any further, we would like you to watch the interview of Nila Devi who is such a calm and graceful lady. Click below to watch Nila Devi’s first interview, her first on camera:
back to the story. Did Neela Devi try to stop Shammi Kapoor from drinking alcohol? Nila Devi replied, ,He didn’t listen when it came to drinking and even cigarettes—unless he wanted to drink on certain days. Like every year, he never drank alcohol from January 1 to January 21. Geeta Bali fell ill on January 1 and passed away on January 21.
Then both Prithviraj ji and my mother-in-law fell ill. He started spending a lot of time with them and we started living with them. Shammi ji did not work for two years. At that time, Raj ji was very busy with ‘Mera Naam Joker’ and Shashi ji was shooting for 4 to 5 films simultaneously.
That phase brought us very close to Shammiji’s parents and they blessed us a lot. Staying away from work for 2 years was not easy for Shammi ji. After my in-laws passed away, he went to Mauritius and then we found our Guruji – Haidakhan Wale Baba. I believed in Haidakhan Wale Baba, better known as Bhole Baba, long before Shammiji believed in him. Before Bhole Baba, he never used to believe in any Guru Ji, but gradually he started believing in him. Who changed our life Our son Aditya was also married in our Guruji’s ashram.
And remember, our Guru ji never imposed anything on Shammi ji. Nevertheless, Shammi ji became so attached to our new path that he accompanied our Guru ji on trips. After that, he started doing character roles (which he was apprehensive about). Neela Devi said, “She had a dilemma before accepting character roles. It happened because her first character role was in ‘Zameer’ in which Saira Banu was a heroine. Now, you see, Saira was her first heroine. But I told him that he is an artist and he should never think about such things. He was in two minds and then, he went to the computer; he loved working on the computer. Later, he Quit smoking too.”
Did Shammi Kapoor smoke a lot before that? neela devi said ,About 100 cigarettes a day.”
well well Well…