Actor Amitabh Bachchan has paid a heartfelt tribute to veteran action director Veeru Devgan, who died in Mumbai on Monday. Amitabh wrote a long note on his blog, sharing a story from the sets of his 1971 film Reshma Aur Shera, on which Devgan worked as a stuntman.

“The legendary action master and director, Khanna Saheb was conducting a dummy rehearsal for the scenario which involved Sunil Dutt Saheb the leading man of the film, being beaten up by the negative character of the village, and he was demonstrating the action on a stand in for the leading man. The negative character was beating the leading man with a thin whip like stick, and the leading man was taking it all in and not retaliating.

“Khanna Saheb was using a stand in for the leading man and was renowned for his authenticity when conducting stunts. He was lashing the stand in, whip like and with each lash I could see the pain and agony on the stand ins face, but he continued to complete the scene dummy rehearsal, to perfection. The stand in getting the lashing was Veeru Devgan,” he wrote in his post.

Devgan then went on to become a renowned action director himself and worked on more than 80 films including Amitabh’s Laal Badshaah. He also directed Amitabh in his only directorial, Hindustan Ki Kasam. The film also starred his son Ajay Devgn, Manisha Koirala and Sushmita Sen.

AMIT JI 🙏🙏🙏🙏 #RIPVeeruDevgan #veerudevgan @ajaydevgn @SrBachchan pic.twitter.com/d66I2DjFI1

— DE DE PYAR DE 17 MAY (@ShivaDixit8) May 28, 2019

Amitabh also mentioned how he gave Bollywood a talented actor in Ajay. “Veeru ji himself maturing on to becoming a Producer Director .. and most importantly raised, groomed and gave to the industry, another fine talent - Ajay Devgan, his son,” he wrote in his post. “A gentle caring human .. ready to help another in any situation. Warm, receptive and proud of his progeny Ajay who he used to bring along on set often when he was a kid,” he added.

Amitabh also mentioned that he held a minute’s silence on the sets of his film Chehre when he heard the news of Veeru Devgn’s death. “He had been ailing, but within control. His death came as a sudden shock on the sets of Chehre. I stopped work, made an announcement held a minutes silence to honour him and continued work. He would have wanted it that way,” he wrote. He also shared pictures from the film’s sets and with Ajay from the funeral.

Other actors including Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Madhuri Dixit also expressed condolences at his death.

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First Published: May 28, 2019 13:04 IST