"As he did English theatre and I was into Marathi plays, we knew each other. Theatre folk have this bond, irrespective of the language they perform in. I considered Alyque a senior director-actor, who understood his craft well; someone you could look up to. I also knew him as an ad maverick.

Though we were familiar with each other by name, we got acquainted when we started preparing for Gandhi. The casting was done by Dolly Thakore, who proved to be another connection. What I distinctly recall is his voice. He would only speak in English and it was impeccable. I used to feel intimidated by him. For me, he spoke like the British. I used to be tongue-tied and wonder if I could complete a sentence properly as I came from a Marathi background. At times, I used to marvel at the way he spoke the language.