Time and again right from my parents to other Shammi Kapoor fans, from friends to non-fans, I always heard about people comparing Shammiji with Elvis Presley. I think Aamir Khan was smart enough to to say “I think Elvis is America’s answer to Shammi Kapoor”. The gossip of aping elvis eventually became attached to the legend and made fans eventually believed for real that Shammiji was really trying to imitate the ‘King of Rock n’ Roll’.
In my first meeting with him itself this was one question on my mind. Had he modeled himself on Elvis? A similar comparison might be drawn with Raj Kapoor’s tramp image with the one who pioneered it – Charlie Chaplin. I may never know about Rajji’s inspiration of the tramp as I never got a chance to talk to him on such serious subjects but I had this chance with Shammiji. I have to admit one thing here, my first meeting with Shammiji might not have been pleasant to him as I was talking too many things that didn’t please him including the elvis issue. But I will get to the other topics of that meeting later. This blog is only about THE ELVIS FACTOR.
Shammiji asked me if I had taken any lessons for dancing like Michael Jackson. I said I hadn’t but I have practiced a lot watching MJ videos since childhood. He said, “This is the boon your generation has due to technology. You have video cassettes, vcds, dvds and mainly the internet where u can explore and learn from the people you admire. You have the liberty to rewind all that stuff and do it again the right way. Do you think such technology existed at our time??”
I still argued “There must be movies you saw or theaters that might have played the stuff like concerts or something.” He shook his head saying there was nothing like that. Shammiji explained to me that he was a fan of rhythm. He loved jazz, rock n’ roll, etc. and did follow the western movies and their styles if that came to dancing or attire but it was definitely not Elvis he ever concentrated on. He didn’t have the liberty or the facility at that time to do so. He did mention a few actors of western (country) movies on whom he modeled himself on (esp since Tumsa Nahin Dekha). I don’t remember their names at the moment. He put on the video of ‘Aaja Aaja’ and asked me what was Elvis about it? He said it was extempore for him.
So here is another rumour that is laid to rest. Everyone should now know that Shammiji never copied Elvis. You all also might have observed that he has never mentioned Elvis in any interview either. It’s the media fabricated thing, but it lasted too long! In the video attached you can see how Shammiji was explaining that ‘Aaja Aaja’ was an extempore performance and not a choreographed or planned dance.
