Ramesh Talwar’s first brush with the Chopras was as a child artiste. He played the role of a school bully in Dhool Ka Phool (1959), a BR Chopra production that marked brother Yash’s directorial debut. It was a minuscule role and Talwar doesn’t remember much of that episode. What he recalls more vividly from those years are his experiences on the stage, especially alongside the legendary Balraj Sahni. As to how he got involved with theatre in the first place, he says it was his uncle, the writer Sagar Sarhadi, who encouraged him.
It was almost a decade later when their paths again crossed. This happened when the brothers turned up to watch the Punjabi play Shatranj De Mohre (an adaptation of a play by the noted Marathi playwright and satirist, PL Deshpande). Apart from Talwar, the play featured the well-known character actor Manmohan Krishna, who had had a prominent…