When Shubha Khote Spoke About Her Best Friend Nutan

In a throwback interview with this writer Shubha Khote recalled, “Nutan and I were very very close. My first film Seema was with her. She took me under her wings and looked after me. I immediately warmed up to her. When I reached the sets of Seema Nutan immediately made me feel very comfortable. I never felt camera-conscious. We became inseparable friends. She looked after me like an elder sister.”

Soon, said Shubha, the two were inseparable. “ When we’d be traveling together in a car she would tell me not to keep the window open since the breeze would spoil my hair…we were that close. I played her best friend in four successive films Seema, Anari, Aakhri Dao, and Paying Guest.”

Shubha recalled how soft-spoken Nutan was. “She was very helpful and very generous. And truly an angel. In all the time that I knew her I never ever heard her raise her voice. Softs-poken and gentle her voice didn’t rise even when she was angry. We were constantly chatting, giggling, arguing.”

Shubha remembers their friendship went beyond the sets. “Nowadays life has become very fast. Nobody has the time to make friends within the film industry. Nutan and I would be in touch even when we were not working together. When we were shooting close to one another we’d meet up during lunch from different sets. I was very naughty and she was the sober one.”

Once Nutan got married Shubha got to spend very little time with her best friend. “I really don’t want to talk about it. But after her marriage, I’d call her and she was not allowed to come on the phone. I remember I called her up on her birthday once . Her husband came online to inform me she was sleeping and that she would not be talking to anyone as she wanted to rest on her birthday. I left it that. Not that we stopped being friends. Whenever we were shooting we’d meet up. Even when there was a distance between us I continued to be very close to her.”