In the recent episode of In the Ring with Filmfare, celebrated filmmaker Sai Paranjpye, known for beloved classics like Katha, Chashme Buddoor, and Disha—shared a delightful behind-the-scenes story from the making of her critically acclaimed film Sparsh. Paranjpye revealed that while the role of Anirudh was eventually played by Naseeruddin Shah, she had originally written the part with legendary actor Sanjeev Kumar in mind. “For years, I had Sanjeev Kumar in mind when I wrote the damn script,” she said. “In fact, when I wrote it in its final film form, I had seen Sanjeev and Tanuja saying the dialogues that I was writing down. It was so clear in my mind.”
Before they left, Kumar asked, “Well, can you at least leave the script?” She did. The very next day, Tanuja called her up with good news: Haribhai had read the script and he loved it—he was in. But just when everything seemed to be falling into place, fate took an unexpected turn. Basu Bhattacharya came on board as producer. Both he and Sanjeev Kumar had previously worked on Anubhav, and that experience, Paranjpye said, had been “terrible” for Sanjeev. Because of that difficult past, he backed out of Sparsh. And so, the role went to Naseeruddin Shah—whose performance would go on to define the film and leave a lasting impact.
