MUMBAI: Anupam Kher, who was born on 7th March, 1955 is known as one of the finest actors in Indian cinema. He has played a number of characters including numerous critically acclaimed leading or parallel roles, he has won two National Film Awards and eight Filmfare Awards, and he was honoured with Padma Shri in 2004 and the Padma Bhushan in 2016.
During his days of struggle in Bombay (present-day Mumbai), he slept on a railway platform for a month, he used to sleep at 1:40 am after the last train used to leave and wake up by 4:30 when the first train would start. He lived on beaches before making debut.
While speaking to Humans of Bombay, the actor once talked about the struggles and said, ““We were from a poor family, we lived in a joint family. We had a small room and place to live for 14 people in the family. My grandparents and my uncle, aunts, my cousins and the only earning member was my father, who used to earn 90 rupees per month in the late 50s and early 60s. But the strangest part was that I always found ourselves to be very happy.”
He once wrote a letter to his grandfather telling him about life in Mumbai, that one letter he sent and received back changed his life. He mentioned, “People would ask me if I am getting work there, so I would stand in a crowd with an actor in the background, Vinod Khanna ji would be there for example, and would send that picture saying, ‘Yes, I met him.’ You have to keep their hopes alive. But I did write to my grandfather in Kashmir saying this was a ridiculous way of living.”
“I said, ‘I am feeling unbelievably humiliated, I don’t want to stay in the city and want to go back to Shimla or Lucknow or Delhi. But here I am humiliated as a person, as an actor. I am spending my nights on railway platforms. I have to sleep at 1:40 when the last train leaves and I have to get up at 4.40 when the first train starts. I asked, ‘Why am I here?'”
He mentioned that this letter that he received changed his life. Kher said, “He wrote, ‘You have worked very hard. Your parents have worked very hard to get you here and you’ve already been in Bombay now for the last one and a half years. Remember one thing, ‘Bheega hua aadmi baarish se nahi darta.’ I thought that line was unbelievable.”
Anupam Kher made his acting debut with Hindi films in 1984, it was Mahesh Bhatt-directed drama film Saaransh. In the film, he played a 65-year-old retired middle class teacher who loses his son. He played this role at a very young age, he was just 29. Since then, the actor has been part of more than 500 films.
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Credits - DNA
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