MUMBAI: Vardhan Puri, who made an impressive debut as a leading man with the thriller film ‘Yeh Saali Aashiqui’ feels blessed to have had the opportunity of sharing screen space with the late versatile actor Satish Kaushik twice in his career so far including his upcoming and soon to release film, Vivek Agnihotri’s ‘Nautanki’. 

Vardhan informs, “Satishji has not just been a great actor and co-actor but also a father figure, well-wisher and someone I considered as a family member. I still remember when we had approached Satishji to play a very important character in my debut film ‘Yeh Saali Aashiqui’, he was very excited to do as he loved the script and his role but very sadly, our dates changed a little and he had some prior commitments, so he couldn’t do the film and expressed his unhappiness at not being able to do so. And then there was another role that was written later on which was a pivotal character who was going to introduce my character in the film and we approached Satishji again. He was so kind that he told me that he doesn’t want to listen to his role because he mentioned to me that if we have got the role to him, it must be something of value and he agreed to do it within 5 seconds. It was just a day’s shoot but we had the most amazing experience, especially all the words of wisdom he shared with us, which will never be forgotten.” 

“I remember praying that I want to work with this beautiful human being and marvellous actor (Satish Kaushik) again because the experience that I had on set of ‘Yeh Saali Aashiqui’ was beyond phenomenal. And as luck would have it, within a year, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri signed me for his next film ‘Nautanki’ which will be out very soon. I had the pleasure of working with the most versatile and accomplished actor Satishji again,” adds Vardhan.  

Sharing an interesting anecdote from the set of ‘Nauntaki’, Vardhan reveals, “I remember once calling him Satish sir on set and he told me, “Bete, I would prefer if you call me Satish uncle because I am family. Uncle will make it more loving. Sir se woh ek senior wali feeling aati hai. And we are equals as actors on set.” He was a man with a beating heart of gold and the kind of acting advice and performance tips he gave me will always be cherished… we shared such amazing moments together and we used to have all our meals together. We used to discuss everything under the sun, not only acting and cinema.” 

“We were shooting on the sets of ‘Nautanki’ in Bhopal one day and Satishji just called out my name and said, “Vardhan bete idhar aana. Kal tune Anupam (Kher) ki bahot achhi photo li, meri bhi ek bahot achhi photo le… mujhe dekhna hai mera get-up kaisa jach raha hai mere pe”. I clicked this picture immediately and when he saw it, he said in his style, “Arre yaar, badi achhi photo li hai tune. Mera ek baar photoshoot tu khud apne haathon se zaroor karna. Mazaa aa jayega!Aur saath mein bhi lenge achhi photo jo Instagram pe daalenge”. 

“It’s a great loss to humanity and our film industry that Satishji is not with us today but I will always celebrate him through his films. I will keep loving and missing him dearly because I have not only lost a great co-actor but I lost someone who was as good as family,” concludes Vardhan.