Legendary actor Shammi Kapoor, whose last rites were performed on Monday, loved to reminisce on his era, his times. A Q&A session with him was always fun. His answers were razor-sharp and witty. "I'll tell you a story," would be his opening line. And then the superstar would gift you with precious nuggets and anecdotes. "Tali ho" would be his parting shot.

For instance, Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957), a Nasir Hussain flick, was not meant for Kapoor. "Devsaab was to do Tumsa.... However, he wriggled out of the project as he was paired opposite a lesserknown actress. So, producer S Mukherjee asked Hussain to audition me," he once told this correspondent. And the rest is history. Tumsa... catapulted Kapoor to stardom. Professor and Ujala confirmed his credentials as a successful actor while Junglee turned him into a youth icon. 'Yaahoo' resonated the angst and abandon of the Ovaltine generation of the 1950s.

Yet, Hindi cinema was initially not on Kapoor's radar. "I wanted to be an engineer. I had opted for science in college," he said, "however, I had to join my father's (Prithviraj Kapoor's) theatre group, Prithvi Theatres, as Rajsaab had taken to films." Young Shammi did the eldest brother's roles in popular Prithvi plays such as Deewar, Pathan and Kalakar. "So, I began to be seen as Raj Kapoor's clone. Reviewers panned me in Jeevan Jyoti, my first film, for aping Rajsaab".

A princely salary of Rs 50 every month at Prithvi Theatres meant that Kapoor would turn broke by the 10th of every month. "No money to take a girl out for coffee." However, producer A R Kardar, a largehearted man, gave Kapoor a hefty Rs 11,111 as signing amount for Jeevan Jyoti. Kapoor could recall the date, May 12, 1952, when Kardar handed it to him. The young actor bought himself a new car - a Buick convertible.

Kapoor had an excellent sense of rhythm. And he sang well. From Rafi's Baar baar dekho to Talat Mahmood's Vahashat-e-dil kyaan karoon (from Kapoor's film Thokar) to a doha in Brij bhasha, the thespian exhibited his eclectic taste in music. Little wonder, then, that he sang his way to box-office success, thanks to O P Nayyar and Shankar-Jaikishan. "During Kashmir Ki Kali, Nayyar once called me, Shaktida (Samanta) and Sharmila (Tagore) to his Famous Studio office. Over a bottle of Scotch, Nayyar played 52 compositions for us, all fabulous numbers, and asked me to choose any eight for Kashmir Ki Kali."