Merchant buried next to mom

‘‘I never felt the loss of a father. I consulted him for everything,’’ Kapadia said.

Merchant spoke with his sisters frequently and often solved household problems over the phone. ‘‘He would constantly urge me to go on a diet,’’ said Bootwala.

The film-maker’s body was received at the airport by his close friend, actor Shashi Kapoor and Shabana Azmi. ‘‘I have lost a family member. I knew him from before my son Kunal was born,’’ said Kapoor, barely managing to hold back his tears.

‘‘With his kind of energy, he should have lived a hundred years,’’ added Shabana Azmi.

Later, at Merchant’s residence, cameras snapped away as the guests streamed in. Kapoor kept his distance, preferring to rest on the staircase outside the apartment.

‘‘A minute is too less to talk about him,’’ said Simi Garewal. ‘‘I can’t believe that’s the dream merchant lying there,’’ she added.

It’s a well-known fact that Merchant liked to gather his close relatives around himself on the sets. Nephew Nayeem Hafizka began his career as an assistant director on A Room With A View. ‘‘He attended to each member of the crew. If a light technician were running a fever, he would bring him medication,’’ said Hafizka.

Three of Merchant’s projects will now be completed by him —— an Argentinian film, one set in Iran and an Indian production starring Abhishek Bachchan and Saif Ali Khan.

‘‘He always wanted to make a film on the life of Dilip Kumar and had asked me to script it,’’ said Anil Dharkar.

Om Puri labelled him as the pioneer of crossover cinema in India, who remained underrated in his homeland. ‘‘Indians failed to fully understand his contribution to world cinema.’’