Veteran Bollywood actor-writer Kader Khan passed away on December 31 after prolonged illness. He was 81.

As the world mourns the death of one of the most prolific Hindi film artistes active between 1970s and 2000s, an old video has surfaced in which Khan talks about why his decades-old friendship with megastar Amitabh Bachchan soured over the years.

The two made for a formidable pair and were behind several blockbusters, including Coolie, Amar Akbar Anthony, Sharaabi, Lawaaris and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar. However, in the short clip posted in 2012, Khan says the reason they drifted apart was because he could never call Bachchan “Sir ji.”

“I used to always call him Amit. Then one day, a producer from South asked me if I’d met Sir ji. I asked who Sir ji? He pointed towards Amit. I said he is Amit. When did he become Sir ji? But he said ‘We call him Sir ji.’ So all of a sudden, everyone began addressing Amit as Sir ji. I could never bring myself to do it. That was the start of it,” Khan says in the video.

“How can anyone call their friend, their brother from any other name? It is impossible,” Khan says, adding, “I couldn’t do it and since then our equation was never the same. I was not in Khuda Gawah. I was writing Ganga Jamunaa Saraswati but then left it midway. There were several other films that I had begun work on but quit.”