Veteran actor Vikram Gokhale wants people to know that he feels genuine respect for Shaikh as a human being, not just as professional.

"There are hardly any people in the film industry who say good things behind a fellow artiste's back. Farooque Shaikh was one of them. Shaikh Sahab's 67th birth anniversary will be observed on Wednesday, March 25.

Gokhale repeats often during the course of the conversation, "Farooque Sahab was one of the finest actors our country has produced. He was an intelligent actor. Unfortunately, he did not get the proper recognition he deserved, maybe because he did not reach out and network with the industry. I think he did not engage any PR agency nor did he do any PR himself. Otherwise there was no reason (for producers and directors) to ignore a fine artiste of his calibre. In this profession it is important to have a good PR."

Gokhale met TOI at the studios of Doordarshan in Worli, which is where Shaikh Sahab had started his professional career as an anchor for youth programmes. By coincidence, both artistes forged ties with Doordarshan around the same time in the early 1970s. In another similarity, Shaikh acted in a film namedMahanandain Hindi which Gokhale had done in Marathi before.