Director Karen Shakhnazarov shared his memories of his warm friendship with Grebeshkova.

Soviet and Russian actress Nina Grebeshkova was a light and charming person with a very strong character. The head of the Mosfilm film concern, director Karen Shakhnazarov, told Izvestia about this on May 12.

"I made a graduation film based on (writer Vasily. — Ed.) to Shukshin, "Step wider, Maestro" was called. She played one of the roles there, and somehow we became friends, despite the age difference. And somehow these relations are very sincere, we have remained warm throughout our lives," Shakhnazarov shared his memories of friendship with the artist.

According to Shakhnazarov, Grebeshkova's husband, director Leonid Gaidai, ended up on the VGIK examination board, which evaluated his film. The director noted that while watching the thesis, Gaidai was gloomy and even asked him a tricky question, but in the end he rated the picture an "A".

"Then Nina Pavlovna called me at home. <...> He says: "Yes, he really liked it. Don't pay attention, he's like that, he has such a character," Shakhnazarov added.

The director noted that Grebeshkova was a wonderful actress and played a big role in Gaidai's success.

Soviet and Russian actress, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Nina Grebeshkova died on May 12 at the age of 95. The actress has about 130 roles in film projects. Most of all, the actress was remembered by the audience for her supporting roles in the films of her husband, director Leonid Gaidai. The actress starred in such cult films as "The Caucasian Prisoner, or the New Adventures of Shurik", "The Diamond Hand", "12 chairs", "No way!", "Sportloto-82" and others.