Melbourne, Aug 14 (IANS): Veteran actress Simi Garewal gave a touching tribute to the late "perfect co-star" Shashi Kapoor, with whom she featured in "Siddhartha", which was screened for cinephiles here at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM).

"Shashi was my friend and fellow actor and it is very common in India to praise someone after they've gone, but I have always said this that Shashi Kapoor was the perfect co-star. You don't want someone to interfere, you want someone to support you when you're acting. You want someone well-behaved, punctual, who is polite and courteous with everyone and he was exactly like that," Simi said here on Monday.

Shashi Kapoor died last year. He was 79.

Simi said he was very professional and had no ego at all.

"He would shake hands with everyone from the lighting technician to everyone else. He was amazing that way and I don't know another actor in the world who would work in commercial cinema, earn money from there and take it and put it into meaningful films like 'Kalyug', '36 Chowringhee Lane' and more. But he had a passion for real cinema and he put his money where his mouth was. He started the parallel cinema. We never had it before," she added.

The 1972 American movie is based on the novel of the same name by Hermann Hesse, and directed by Conrad Rooks.