116
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English
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2011
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116
pages
English
Ebooks
2011
Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus
Bob Christo
Flashback
My Life and Times in Bollywood and Beyond
Foreword by Tom Alter
PENGUIN BOOKS
Contents
About the Author
For Roberto, from the heart
Preface
PART I Hong Kong-Philippines
A Girl in Each City
A Typhoon, and Apocalypse
Earthquakes and Body Bags
Love Breeds Worries
In Search of Oshiro
Bunnies, a Helicopter and a Spy Ship
PART II From Africa to India via the Middle East
Seychelles: Plotting a Coup
Rhodesia: Armed Combat
South Africa: Downing a Lion
South Africa II: Fishy Business
Vietnam: Battling My Own Demons
Kenya-Ethiopia: Moving On
The Middle East: Transit Points
Bombay: First Impressions
Goa: Arrack and Brandy
Back to Muscat: Change of Plans
PART III India
A Friend in Need
Early Brushes with the Law
The Inimitable Raj Kapoor
The Circling Vultures
A Villain is Born
1978: A Love Story
Learning the Ropes
War Memories
Scene 1, Take 1
High Society
Close Shaves
Glamorous Liaisons
Torturing Jeetu, but Amjad s Unimpressed
Living it up in London
There s No Business like Show Business
Chacha and the King of Creoles
Babu Krishna, the Australian with the Amazing Voice
On the Road, Again
Settling Down
The Premier Studios Tragedy
Sanjay Khan, Comeback Kid
Vocational Hazards
A Golden New Phase
Looking Back, Looking Forward
Illustrations
Copyright Page
PENGUIN BOOKS
FLASHBACK
Robert John Christo, popularly known as Bob Christo, was born in 1938 in Sydney, Australia. After completing his civil engineering in Sydney, he took on projects which involved supporting the military supply lines of the South Vietnamese army and working as construction supervisor on the film sets of Apocalypse Now . Led by his instincts, Christo zealously followed one aspiration after another: chasing after a lost spy ship, running an escort service, modelling for African beer, singing in rock concerts and so on.
Bob Christo landed his first film role at the age of sixteen in a German movie, after working as an extra in the D sseldorf National Theatre, Germany. Hoping to meet Parveen Babi in India, he chanced upon a part in Sanjay Khan s Abdullah (1980) and then went on to act in hundreds of Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada films. In the year 2000 he became a yoga instructor after shifting base from Mumbai to Bangalore, where he passed away on 20 March 2011.
For Roberto, from the heart
The first time I met Bob, he pulled the door handle off an Ambassador He also galloped full speed on a black stallion right past me and disappeared-with the horse-into a nearby bog; and the first thing we saw emerging was Bob s bald head, followed by a stunned stallion. Bob, of course, was grinning from ear to handsome ear-not in the least concerned that he was supposed to have halted in front of me, saluted, dismounted and given me the latest military report-all part of a scene we were shooting for a FrenchTV serial so many, many years ago
Bob then proceeded to borrow my white pants, since his were now a darker shade of pale, and re-did the shot; with me, the commanding officer, waiting for his salute, my lower regions now covered by a towel
This was Bob Christo (for me, Roberto)-largest than life, full of adventure and humour and such strength, of the body and soul and heart
And near the very end of his life, Roberto decided to write his book
As only he could-for no one, absolutely no one, could tell the story of Roberto, except Roberto himself
Marlon Brando, Amitabh Bachchan, Raj Kapoor-these are the level of stars he has shared screen and real time with. For Roberto, nothing could be average
Loves, lusts, longings-they are all there in vivid, even violent detail in this book. And if you thought Roberto was confined only to Hindi films, read on. Australia, Rhodesia, the Philippines, from the Gulf to Goa, Roberto has blazed his trail-fighting, singing, dreaming, loving. He did it all
And the people who star in his story: Bruce Lee s guru-Roberto was so close to him Ian Smith-the man who tried to keep Rhodesia alive Parveen Babi-the siren who lured Bob to Bombay Sanjay Khan-the man who took him under his wing And so many more
Roberto s first forays into learning Hindi, and the strange rules of the Hindi film industry His family life-tragedy in Australia, and fitful happiness in Bombay His children-scattered around the globe, and within Roberto s large heart All this and much, much more
But-and this is what I loved about Roberto and his story-this book also deals with the truths of life: loss and sorrow, and the journey of a tough, tough man to find inner peace in a world he always dealt with on his own terms
Bob Christo s book is as amazing as the man-as complex, as straightforward, as true-and when you read it, you can remember him from one of his wonderful roles, or you can discover him as the mystery he was
Roberto, I tip my hat and my heart to you
You always used to growl, Tom, why don t they give me romantic roles?
The truth is, my friend, your own life was the most romantic role of all.
2011
Tom Alter
Preface
I always liked reading-right from childhood, after I had mastered the English and German alphabets. It opened up a different world for me; a world that I did not know yet. I liked fairy tales as a child but later on I began to enjoy stories that were based on facts. My mind used to delve into the depth of the stories that I read, trying to find an answer to why things happened the way they were described. Why didn t they happen in another way? Sometimes I kept on thinking for hours about a story that I had read and variations of them were born in my imagination. During one period of my youth, I used to tell stories to my brothers and my childhood friends during the day; however, one day they persuaded me to continue narrating the stories to them at night. So my brother and I went to borrow some microphones and speakers from a friend s father who had a repair shop for radios; these, together with some other equipment, we fixed inside our neighbours children s bedrooms to finish the stories that I had started to tell them during the day. Now they could lie in their beds, happily listening to my fiction till late at night until they drifted off to sleep.
At school, we were sometimes asked to write essays.The topics were varied; it could be about a sports event or a day out, or about a city or village or a volcano that had erupted not very long ago. We would have to write down every detail that we could remember. Occasionally I received top marks and prizes for outstanding essays. Over the years I kept up the practice; whenever I happened to witness strange events or anything interesting or curious or dangerous, I would make notes of it so I could remember it again later on. I was always observing my surroundings. For instance, once when I was in school in D sseldorf I spotted a squadron of manoeuvring American military aircraft right above me, quite high. Though there was no sound to tip me off, I saw one aircraft hitting the one next to it while the one that got hit bumped into the fighter aircraft right in front of it. All three aircraft burst into flames immediately and within a few minutes hit the ground. Thanks to my observant nature I had noticed what most others would have missed. I jumped on to my racing cycle to the place where the crashed planes had fallen.
When I told people about some of the interesting things that I got involved in or witnessed, they would challenge me in all seriousness to write a book filled with my adventures and anecdotes and the love and affection that I felt for and got from all the different countries to which I have travelled. They said it would definitely be very successful.
Well, I ve heard that for years but my reply has usually been, If I ever manage to find somebody who would like to do it on my behalf, go ahead, you re welcome. I am not interested, I m not a writer. Actually, when I think of my replies now, I feel that I should have tried because deep down I really like writing.
Then, on one Sunday in February 2008 I read an article on the Life page in the Times of India by Nona Walia, the columnist from New Delhi. The title of the story was: Can one learn how to write a book? I read the piece, then sat down thinking about it, imagining a situation in which I start talking to an unknown, pretty girl. I let the conversation run through my mind and then wrote it down on a piece of paper. After I read it, I shouted, I can write a book! I ve got it! And then I decided that I could and would write my autobiography. I bought paper, a spiral pad and a few pens and visited two good friends of mine, Satya and Aruna, who were friends and also neighbours in a big block of apartments. I surprised them by telling them that I had decided to write my autobiography and I wanted the two girls to be my assistants. Aruna was a good typist, so she would type everything that I hand-wrote in my manuscript. Satya would have to listen to every thirty or fifty pages of my manuscript as soon as I d turned them out and give me her opinion of the gist and the interest factor of what I had written. At times she made me rephrase or rewrite entire portions of the manuscript. In return I would give both girls yoga lessons every evening.
Most of my life was right there in my mind as though it had just happened recently. Sometimes I had to wait for a few hours or a day to recall something, but most of the time the old memory bank didn t let me down. I was so happy to have made the decision to write the book myself and not depend on a biography writer. Apart from the fact that I would have had to tell all my experiences to the biography writer, which would have been a more expensive and a boring task for me, it would not have given me the joy which successful writing does! Exactly how Nona Walia wrote in her Sunday column: I would want to write a book and be alive to read it when my first book i