From a penniless student to a celebrated star, Naseeruddin Shah shared about his big break in Bollywood, the princely paycheck and how it changed his life forever.
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00:00Shyam took one look at me and in about five minutes told me that I think you're right for this part
00:05though you won't be dressed like this. I was wearing cowboy boots made in Aligarh and a
00:12ragged denim jacket. Then when it was finalized he told me that I would be getting the
00:17princely sum of...
00:18Hello this is Naseeruddin Shah
00:20Talking about my first paycheck which was the biggest one I've ever received
00:25in psychological terms.
00:27It was a fortune for me because I was studying at the film institute
00:31and I was pretty
00:33penniless.
00:34My father who had gotten fed up of my peccadilloes refused to support me
00:39because he said you already studied this bloody acting for three years in this drama school
00:44now you want to study for two more years. What is there to learn
00:47in this? I was too young at that time to tell him that
00:51it takes a lifetime
00:53to learn about acting
00:55and you never end up understanding it fully
00:58so
00:59when Shyam called me
01:01on the recommendation of Girish Karnad who saw me on the stage
01:05and recommended my name to Shyam
01:08and then Shyam
01:10went, I went to meet him in Bombay trembling shaking in my pants
01:15because Shyam took one look at me and in about five minutes told me
01:19that I think you're right for this part though you won't be dressed like this. I was wearing
01:25cowboy boots made in Aligarh and a
01:28ragged denim jacket. So he said I wonder what you'd look like in a you know in that kind of a dress
01:34so he did make me wear that costume and told me
01:38then when it was finalized he told me that I would be getting the
01:41princely sum of 10,000 rupees
01:44which to me was an amount I hadn't ever seen 10,000 rupees in my life.
01:49And which year was this? 75.
01:51I was still studying at the film institute
01:54and
01:56my brothers, both my brothers one of whom was in the army the other was
02:00employed as a sales
02:02exec
02:03they would send me 100 rupees a month which barely
02:07sufficed for the month
02:10so this windfall
02:13of 10,000 rupees, I couldn't believe my ears when Shyam told me that's what I'd be getting
02:18so I spent all of it on eating well
02:22Do you remember where you went? You went to like a big hotel that you had an eye on?
02:27No, no, no big hotels, no big hotels were out of the question
02:30but there's this great restaurant called good luck in Pune. Good luck cafe. Yes, good luck cafe
02:35Yeah, which has been there forever and which hopefully will be there forever
02:38I went there and
02:41I spent the rest of the money on various
02:44various
02:46ailments that I had
02:48You know, I had to get my eyes tested to get my teeth checked to get my stomach seen to because it's always troubled me
02:54so
02:55a good chunk of that money went into medical expenses, but a good chunk of it also went into enjoying myself