To make the occasion of June 25 count, Ajay put out an unseeen video with a one-liner that was enough: 'Remembering you with love and pride today.‘ It was a rare chance for us to get up close and personal with the relationship of one of our top action heroes.
A son’s tribute that reads like a playbook
What you have here is a mix of old interviews and on-set work. There is Veeru, putting a young Ajay through his paces with some hard-hitting choreography. It’s more than just a trip down memory lane; if anything, it is a lesson in what it takes to put in the work and leave a legacy.
Veeru puts it plainly in the video: ‘Since the day he was born, I had a feeling that he would definitely become an actor. I was also interested in becoming an actor. When I saw that I am not worthy of it, I thought let’s see what happens next. Since then I had a feeling that I should make him a hero.’
What the unseen moments reveal
The clips from behind the camera show two sides of the same coin: you have the father and the son, but also the teacher and the student. Veeru is there to put the right amount of risk and reality into a scene, and you can see Ajay taking it in, the very stuff of his on-screen character.
You can trace that back to 1991 and the ‘Phool Aur Kaante’ debut. That two-bike entrance is half-legend in this town. But the kind of chutzpah on display didn’t come out of thin air; it is the handiwork of the way Veeru did things.
Here is what you will find in the post:
– A simple note: ‘Remembering you with love and pride today.’
– The video was put up on the 25th of June.
– Some footage of Veeru with Ajay on set.
– The fact that Veeru had his son in mind as a hero from the start.
The action architect behind Bollywood milestones
If you go by the name Virender Devgan, you’ll know he has a reputation for it. For years he has been the one to call the shots on action in Hindi cinema. His credits include ‘Roti Kapada Aur Makaan’, ‘Mr Natwarlal’, ‘Kranti’ and ‘Prem Rog’ – all with their fair share of showmanship.
Then there is the work in ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’, ‘Aaj Ka Arjun’, ‘Phool Aur Kaante’ and ‘Jigar’. People in the industry knew he could put some heart into the danger, and in a way he set the tone for a whole generation of Bollywood action.
From stunt wizard to director
In 1999, Veeru went to the other side of the lens with ‘Hindustan Ki Kasam’. He put together a cast with Ajay, Amitabh, Manisha Koirala and Sushmita Sen for the patriotic film. It was a case of a man with a lot of set experience putting it to use in a story, and it made for more than just a career of stunts.
Why this memory resonates now
Most of these tributes are gone in a swipe. This one stays with you because it is about the work as well as the bloodline. In a way, the post is about where Ajay is now and where Veeru was, with the star standing on the ground his father put in to build it.
Farewell and an influence that refuses to dim
We lost Veeru in Mumbai on May 27, 2019. He was 84. By all accounts he had been in and out of the hospital with some health problems and a bit of trouble with his breathing before he had a cardiac arrest.
But you can still see him in the movies he put together and in the way his son does his job. Ajay’s post may be short, but it is a word to the effect that he is not going to let that side of him go.
