Naseeruddin Shah opened up about his first paycheck

Brut India

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.

Transcript

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

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