A new celebrity feud has erupted in Bollywood after veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah criticised the late actor Rajesh Khanna terming him as a “poor actor” which has definitely not boarded well with daughter Twinkle Khanna.
Rajesh Khanna, who was Bollywood's first superstar, died of cancer in July 2012 and has starred in films like "Baharon Ke Sapne", "Aradhana", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Amar Prem" and "Aap Ki Kasam" among others. He won three Filmfare Best Actor Awards and was nominated for the same fourteen times. He was awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
However, in a recent interview with a daily Shah had stated that nothing had changed in Bollywood over the last 50 years. “ The photography and editing is better but the subjects are as puerile as they were in the 70’s. In fact, it was the 70’s when mediocrity came in Hindi films. That’s when the actor called Rajesh Khanna joined the industry. For all his success, I think Mr Khanna was a very limited actor. In fact, he was a poor actor. Intellectually, he wasn’t the most alert person I have ever met. His taste ruled the industry.The quality of script, acting, music and lyrics deteriorated. Colour came in. You could make a heroine wear a purple dress and hero a red shirt, go to Kashmir and make a movie. You didn’t need a story. This trend continued and I certainly think Mr Khanna had something to do with it because he was God in those days,” he was quoted as saying.
Twinkle, wo is the elder daughter of Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia, was quick to express his anger and tweeted, "Sir if you can't respect the living, respect the dead - mediocrity is attacking a man who can't respond @NaseerudinShah."
Twinkle who is also popularly known as Mrs FunnyBones found a whole load support on Twitter especially from film makers Karan Johar and Sanjay Jha and Shah was compelled to apologise for his remarks clarifying that he didn’t mean to attack Rajesh Khanna. He apologized saying his intention was just to talk about a certain phase of Hindi Cinema. However the apology has not really made things better as Twinkle then went on to tweet “All due regard toMrShah’s reality,mine=a man who loved cinema& did films likeAnand,AmarPrem,KatiPatang thank u folks for all the love.”
