I owe Shashi Kapoor a big one. In fact, I owe him my career. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned my lucky break to him over the years that I knew him. Had I done that, he would probably have smiled his lop-sided smile, and playfully cracked a joke. Shashi Kapoor had a great sense of humour.

Here's how my break happened: I was asked to write an "imaginary" interview with a movie star of my choice by magazine publishing's big daddy, Nari Hira, who was planning to launch a sensational movie magazine to challenge the monopoly of the goody-goody film magazines of that era. This was back in the '70s. I was flummoxed, and totally stumped. I was not an avid Bollywood fan. Nor a regular movie-watcher. I didn't know a single film personality. I told him as much. He didn't seem to think it all that important. "Write it anyway... I want to check your style."