Ustad Amjad Ali Khan: “My father(the Hindustani classical exponent Hafiz Ali Khan) taught me that with patience and toleranceone could achieve one’s goal in life.”
Amit Kumar: “In our time there was no day set aside for mothers and fathers. My father(maestro Kishore Kumar) was from the village and never subscribed to these urban laws of living. His advice to me for the 35 years that I was with him was to believe in simple and high living and to avoid hypocrisy at any cost.”
Tiger Shroff: “The one main thing that mt father(Jackie Shroff) has taught me would be to love and respect my mother. His mother was everything to him. To me both my parents are everything for me. I can’t choose one over the other.”
Rahul Khanna: “What I learnt from my father(Vinod Khanna) is that dogs are an important part of a fulfilling life.”
Rakesh Roshan: “My father(legendary music composer Roshan) taught me to practice honesty and passion in whatever I do.”
Tajdar Amrohi: “What I learnt from my father (the legendary filmmaker Kamal Amrohi) is the value of humility. I was taught bymy father to love and respect everyone no matter what his or her status in life. The only time I was slapped was when I was rude to a servant once.My father’s humility stays with me even today.”
Aarya Babbar: “Everything about life I’ve learnt from my father(actor-politician Raj Babbar). But the one lesson I’ve learnt fromhim as a professional actor is the value of time. From him I’ve learnt that when a producer pays for an actor’s time he can do what he likes with it.And from that came my biggest lesson: patience.
Pinky Bhalla: “I would like to be cool, calm and generous like my father(Pran)”
Girish Taurani: “My father(producer Kumar Taurani) has taught me many things. But the one lesson that I’ve learnt from him is to try to be a good humanbeing. It isn’t about just being good or not being good. My father taught me you’ve to work on it every single day. I’d like to pass on this lesson to my children. Happy Father’s Day, Dad.”
Prem Kishen: “My father(actor Premnath) taught me have faith in God and to play my part with all my heart and not bother with results.”
Vivaan Shah: “I’ve learnt many things from my father(Naseeruddin Shah). But most of all I’ve learnt the importance of kindness and sensitivity towards people . His discipline and dedication have taught me a lot.”
Baba Azmi: “What I learnt from Abba(poet-activist Kaifi Azmi) is that that no job/work is big or small.Aim to be the best in whatever you do.”
Zayed Khan: “My father(actor-director Sanjay Khan) taught me the value of a focussed vision in life and that the word ‘impossible’ only exists in the mind.”
Ayaan Ali Khan: “My father(Ustad Amjad Ali Khan) taught me to be good humanbeing. The rest including good music, would just follow.”
Amaan Ali Khan: “The one thing I have learnt from my father is to be helpful to the needy.”
Pooja Bhatt: “Integrity courage and passion are what I’ve inherited from my father(Mahesh Bhatt).”
Rahul Bhatt: “My dad(Mahesh Bhatt) is an exceptional man. He taught me the biggest risk in life is to not take a risk at all and that nothing helps you succeed like failure.”
Rajeev Chaurasia: “My father(the flautist Hari Prasad Chaurasia)’s lesson to me: each of us has the power to rise above mediocrity to achieve excellence by completely surrendering our being to whatever we do in our daily existence. The management jargon for this is,perserverance with passion . We in the world of music and arts term is simply as Bhakti and Sadhana.This is what I see and learn from my father, my rock star, every day.”
Jackie Shroff: “Sabr(patience) is what I learnt from my father.”
Bappi Lahiri: “My father(musican Apresh Lahiri) taught me that work is worship and and that being a good humanbeing is more important than bring successful.”
Alka Yagnik: “My father my hero my role model taught me tolerance and compassion for all.”
Shabana Azmi: My earliest memory of Abba(father Kaifi Azmi)… sitting on a writing table in his kurta-pyjama smoking incessantly and writing till the wee hours of the morning. As a child I was convinced a poet was a euphemism for someone who didn’t have any work. Daddys were supposed to put on trousers, shirts and ties and go out to work. In fact when people would ask me what my father did I said he was a businessman and quickly changed the topic….Oh , the follies of innocence…My father was a really gorgeous looking man with this beautiful voice. People don’t know this, but he had a tremendous sense of humour. I remember once I was putting eye-drops in his tiny eyes. The drops kept falling all over his face. He told me about this inept prince who was taught archery and who broke everything in the house during practice. Then he said, ‘Put the drops in my ears they’ll go in my eyes.’ He said such lines with a poker face. He always made digs at the strange procedure in our films where tunes came first and lyrics were written into them later. ‘It’s like first digging a grave and then trying to fit a corpse into it. But I constantly keep fitting the corpse into the grave, so everyone thinks I’m a good lyricist’ he said…. You know I took my father for granted, as all children tend to. But as a poet he continues to overwhelm me each day even four years after his death. Whether it was his poem Makaan or Aurat…they’ve been a great source of inspiration. My concern for slum-dwellers started with my father’s poem Makaan which talks of the irony of the construction worker who builds a building with his sweat and blood but isn’t allowed to enter it.In Hindi cinema , along with Sahir, Majrooh , Jaan Nissar Akhtar and Shailendra, my father raised the standards of film lyrics. They were often deceptively conversational ––Kuch dil ne kaha…..kuch bhi nahin….As a film lyricist he was a mixture of simplicity and poeticality. Take these lines Kissi ka na ho jiss pe saaya mujheaisi din aisi raat do/ Main manzil to khud dhoond loongi mere haath main zaraa apna haath do/ Qadam-do-qadam tum mera saath do….And when Lataji sang these lines by myfather….what can be said? You know what was exceptional about my father? He never spoke at home about his work.My most favourite Kaifi Azmi lyrics? Hmmmmm… Koi kaise yeh bataaye ke wohtanha kyon hai/who jo apna tha who aur kisika kyon hai/yehi duniya hai to phir aisi yeh duniya kyon hai/yehi hota hai to aakhir yehi hota kyon hai?…The simplicity of these lines kill me. Imagine , a spouse-deserted woman (in the film Arth) being faced with these lines!….That sense of commitment which artistes of my father’s generation had , has been missing. But slowly it’s coming back in my film fraternity. I like it when film people come out to involve themselves with social issues.”
