“The King of Action meets the Queen of Words.”
“The King of Action meets the Queen of Words.”
This is how a billboard at Haji Ali advertises the new Rendezvous show where Simi Garewal will meet Jackie Chan.
“Jackie was wonderful. He didn’t hide anything, didn’t evade any question. He wasn’t ‘image-conscious’, in fact he spoke about aspects even more than I could have asked for. He revealed things that aren’t even there in his biography! Graciously, he was the one who knelt and thanked me!”Rediff has this excerpt from the interview:
Simi: Your early childhood has become the stuff of legends. Right from the time when you were born.Amazing.Jackie: I was born in a poor family. My mum carried me for 12 months. When I was born, I was 12 and a half pounds. Big baby! Giant baby! My parents did not have enough money to pay the bill.
Simi: Because she had to have a caesarian operation.
Jackie: Yes. Am talking about 50 years ago. Those were big… big things for us. They were going to sell me to a British doctor.
Simi: So is it true that they had no money to pay for you so they were going to sell you?
Jackie: Yes! The doctor said. “Ok I want the baby! I’ll give you $120 then I’ll pay the bill.” A friend of my father said, “Charlie… No! That’s your only son. If you sell him, you might not have another one. Don’t do that” We borrowed money from our friends, so everyone gave $10, $10 and they paid the bill.
I watched last sundasy’s simi garewal show.Frankly I was surprised ……. how openly Jackie spoke about his life.At the end when Simi thanked him for the interview , Jackie cut her short and said it was’nt an ‘interview’ rather a ‘conversation’. Indeed it was ……a wonderful one.
Comment by Rahul Sen gupta — September 5, 2006 @ 7:41 pm