I just finished reading a biography of Shashi Kapoor, and now I am all excited to finally watch Bombay Talkie and see Shashi and Jennifer together and in love onscreen.
The Merchant-Ivory producing team, before they hit it big with A Room With a View and so on, were a couple of poor kids with dreams who made friends with young Shashi and Jennifer Kendal and convinced Shashi to do a movie with them (The Householder). They stayed friends for the rest of their lives, and continued to work together. Bombay Talkies is the one time all three friends worked as a team, Shashi and Jennifer playing the leads in a film directed by Ivory and produced by Merchant.
Shashi plays a version of himself, a smooth Hindi film star, while Jennifer plays the British journalist with whom he has an affair. It’s a cynical take on the Hindi film industry through the eyes of an outsider (Jennifer), made by insiders. Most importantly, it is the film from which this beautiful still of Jennifer and Shashi comes:

Oh, and it is also available for free on youtube:
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Shashi and Jennifer were already married by the time the movie was made, right?
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Yes, I think they married before Shashi was even in his first film.
On Sun, Jan 27, 2019 at 1:52 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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. . . and, I think the post title should be 2/3 (February 3?).
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I can’t take my eyes off this photo. I don’t have words to say how sexy Shashi is.
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It’s amazing, right? It’s a still from the film, but it could just as easily be an art photograph with two professional models.
On Sun, Jan 27, 2019 at 2:01 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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