Mumbai: It was stellar filmmaker Jahnu Barua whose movies familiarised the world with his home state of Assam. His first picture, the bilingual ‘Aparoopa/ Apeksha’ (1982/ 1984) featured Farooque Shaikh as the male lead in Hindi. The talented director has since won 12 National Awards and several international laurels, but still remembers his first hero […]

Mumbai: Several colleagues and friends of Farooque Shaikh bear testimony to his abiding faith in Islam, and how it brought him close to perfection in his personal life. But actress Suhasini Mulay got a full dose of his religious habits in a short three-hour journey in their very first meeting — even before they reached […]

Mumbai: This was in a time when the craze among film stars to cross the Rs 100 crore milestone was gathering pace. Addressing a meeting organised by the NGO MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres) India in Delhi in June 2013, Farooque Shaikh had, on the contrary, urged audiences to skip one movie a month and donate […]

Mumbai: Farooque Shaikh’s half-Parsi roots earned him the nickname ‘Fardoon Bawa’ from Sujata Mehta, his co-artiste in the TV serial Shrikant. Shaikh Sahab’s mother was Parsi, and Mehta lived amid a Parsi neighbourhood in Haji Ali. She says, “Once we discovered this commonality, we devised interesting Parsi names for each other! He began to call […]