“Fardeen Has Taken His Father’s Death Very Badly”

A few days after Feroz Khan’s death the Khan family seems to be outwardly calm. Very few Bollywoodians (only Sanjay Gupta, Celina Jaitly, Kishen Kumar and Sajid Khan) could make it to Bangalore for the funeral, although it’s just a 50-minute flight. Now the Khans have arranged a massive prayer meeting at the Marriott in Mumbai on 3 May .

“They’ve chosen a hotel and not a place of worship because of the large crowds that are expected to gather to pay the last respects to FK,” says a source close to the family. “But it’s a tough time for the family. The two children have taken FK’s death very badly. Laila is inconsolable. But Fardeen is distraught. The family is worried for him. Fardeen keeps breaking down every half an hour.It’s a heart-rewnching sight.”

At the funeral on Monday there were some surprises. FK’s long-estranged wife Sundari showed up . “Feroz and Sundari had not spoken to each other for twenty-five years. She not only stayed for the funeral she also stayed the night for the wake where the entire Khan family and close friends spoke their heart out about the man they loved.”

The family is currently in a state of shocked mourning. But Sanjay Gupta who was planning to do the Qurbani remake for FK with Fardeen Khan , is now planning to commission a biography on FK.

Gupta says it’s yet early-days to talk about the biography. “But I wouldn’t like it to be a routine biography. I want to style it on the lines of Hunter Thompson’s Gonzo. I want to re-construct the great man’s life through the people he knew through various stages in his life from childhood to adolescence to adulthood to his later years. There are two things one can never forget. The first time one has sex and the first time one meets Mr Feroz Khan. He was awesome.”

Gupta own homage to FK is in his next film Acid Rock where Fardeen Khan has been projected exactly like his father. “We never intended it. But when we saw the rushes we were stunned by how much like his father Fardeen walks talks and acts in Acid Rock. It’s uncanny.”

Sanjay Gupta wanted very badly to show Acid Rock to Feroz Khan. “In fact we were planning to fly the print to him. It never happened. We instead sent him the posters. They occupied a pride of place in his den in Bagalore.”