Saira Banu's heartfelt tribute: A glimpse into her memorable moments with Feroz Khan

Veteran actress Saira Banu, celebrated for her roles in iconic films like "Junglee" and "Victoria No. 203," has been actively engaging with her fans on Instagram since July. On September 25th, she marked the birth anniversary of the late actor Feroz Khan by sharing her memories of working with him on two films.

Saira ji fondly reminisced about her debut film's success, "Junglee," and how it led to her collaboration with Feroz Khan in "Aadmi Aur Insaan," alongside Dharmendra. She described Feroz Khan as the industry's style icon, known for his dashing looks and sophistication, yet well-mannered and soft-spoken.

Banu recalls: "This is the first time I worked with Feroz, the industry’s style icon, dashingly handsome and famous for his sophisticated looks. He was well-mannered and soft-spoken. The first shoot of “AADMI AUR INSAAN” featured an ensemble of us all in a glamorous song number, where Mumtaz is singing “Zindagi Ittefaq Hain” seductively twirling around the heroes and me."

Despite the potential for more collaborations, Banu revealed that they only worked together in two films. Feroz Khan later turned into a producer-director and approached her for the lead role in "Apradh." However, due to her prior commitment to Manoj Kumar for "Purab Aur Paschim," she had to decline the offer.

She further wrote, "This is the first time I worked with Feroz, industry’s style icon, dashingly handsome and famous for his sophisticated looks. He was well-mannered and soft-spoken. The first shoot of “AADMI AUR INSAAN” featured an ensemble of us all in a glamorous song number, where Mumtaz is singing “Zindagi Ittefaq Hain” seductively twirling around the heroes and me. It was fun to watch the happy-go-lucky atmosphere of the set where old friends, Feroz and Mumtaz kept needling each other with witticisms and humour. Dharamji and I would roll with laughter at this game of one up manship between the two."

Feroz Khan's appreciation extended to Banu's mother, Naseem Banuji, who designed her outfits and jewellery. He particularly admired a feathery pink outfit she wore for an ice-skiing scene, calling it "too beautiful" and "cute."

She wrote,

Whenever we met at functions or studios at shooting, Feroz would admire Appaji's (Naseem Banuji) beauty and praise the beautiful apparels and jewellery she designed for me, particularly the feathery pink outfit for the ice-skiing scene to which he exclaimed. “This is too beautiful, God! This is Cute”. Many films were lined-up for Feroz and I but we could only do 2 films together. Later, “KALA SONA” was offered to us but I fell ill suddenly and had to forgo this.

When Feroz became a Producer, Director, he visited me and my mother as he wanted me to be the lead in “APRADH”, and do a westernised role in his ambitious project but I was already doing a similar role in Manoj ji’s “PURAB AUR PASCHIM” that was especially written for me by Manoj ji and he had said if I didn’t do it he would scrap the script.

Feroz and I shared similar home atmospheres. I remember a meeting, where his staff members were shuffling coins on the table and Appaji had harkened them to wash the coins before spilling them on the table because coins go everywhere and are dicey. Suddenly, Feroz said, “My God! Appaji you are doing exactly what my mother does. She is also finicky about little things, especially cleaning coins before they are handled in the house by anyone!” He was crest fallen as I couldn't do “APRADH” and always shook a finger at me in mock despair!"

Banu and Feroz Khan shared similarities in their home atmospheres, which created a sense of camaraderie between them. Feroz Khan's son, actor Fardeen Khan, also paid tribute to his father on Instagram, highlighting that he was the first mainstream Hindi film actor to use his real name as his screen name.