First published in 2016 by

Om Books International
Corporate & Editorial Office
A-12, Sector 64, Noida 201 301
Uttar Pradesh, India
Phone: +91 120 477 4100
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.ombooksinternational.com

Sales Office
107, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj,
New Delhi 110 002, India
Phone: +91 11 4000 9000, 2326 3363, 2326 5303
Fax: +91 11 2327 8091
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.ombooks.com

Text copyright © Bharathi S Pradhan, 2016

Images copyright © Sources as indicated: Kussh S Sinha, the Sinha family private archives, Bharathi S
Pradhan & Yogen Shah.

Photo-section design: Shraboni Roy

Text layout: Shiv Shankar Pandey

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing by the publisher.

ISBN: 978-93-85609-59-6

Printed in India

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 Contents
Foreword: Shashi Tharoor
Author’s Note
1 Born For Applause
2 The Climb To The Top
3 Meeting And Marrying Miss India Poonam Chandiramani
4 Politics In The Family
5 Rocky And Rock-steady Friendships
6 Southern Comfort
7 The Rough And Tumble Of A Life In Politics
8 Inside Ramayan
9 Born Again
Filmography
Awards & Honours
 Foreword
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
And yet when the hero rose, the stage froze to watch his act in Silence.
Rarely do biographies bustle with the drama and excitement which
Anything But Khamosh brings to the fore. The story of Shatrughan Sinha’s
life and career is engaging, involving as it does a candid account of the Hindi
film industry, with a glimpse into the equally compelling world of politics.
Shatrughan’s reputation as an independent thinker, a non-conformist, and as a
person who cares two hoots about stereotypes, is reaffirmed through the
lively narration.
One can conclude from the stories of his childhood that the seeds of his
unapologetic, brash and rebellious nature were sown very early in his life.
The slaps he has received from his mother seem to outnumber those he has
had to take from Bollywood heroes and BJP netas. Through it all, he has
remained insouciantly himself.
Starting off as a brash filmi villain, Shatrughan introduced a new brand of
heroism to the world of cinema through his maverick avatar, portrayed in his
trademark style. At a time when his superstar contemporaries were
romancing heroines, Shatrughan, with his portrayal as the Bollywood’s new
baddie, and then as a rough-hewn hero, challenged the industry’s norms.
Similarly, when the BJP political establishment was falling in line behind the
new leadership of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, Shatrughan did not hesitate
to speak his own mind, even if it meant ploughing a lonely furrow.
As someone who is perfectly comfortable in his own skin, Shatrughan
Sinha comes across as that rare breed of cinema star and even rarer variety of
politician – the wholly authentic human being. Throughout the book, he does
not mince his words when discussing his own personal life, baring warts and
weaknesses with a great deal of honesty.
The book is an objective, though sympathetic, appraisal of his life with a
concluding premise that even those who bear a larger-than-life persona are
not free from human flaws and quirks. The book ventures into the grey areas
of Shatrughan’s life through Bharathi S Pradhan’s words, and through the
many anecdotes shared by film personalities and by a cross-section of
politicians and bureaucrats.
It is said that a man’s achievements can be measured by the respect he
garners from his fraternity. And it is fascinating how Shatrughan has not only
received the respect of his peers but has also inspired the acting styles of
formidable superstars like Chiranjeevi and Rajinikanth.
It is quite admirable that Shatrughan’s passion for social reform and
consciousness of public service inspired him to shun the illusions of comfort
and embark on the tumultuous path of politics. His independent discourse and
rational thought have guided him in prioritising issues over ideologies.
As a minister in the UPA government, viewing Shatrughan Sinha in the
front benches of the BJP Opposition, I was struck by the courtesy with which
he treated me and his uncommon graciousness in applauding some of my
speeches, a trait all-too-uncommon in our uncivil politics. We started off as
political adversaries and became personal friends: that is a tribute to his
essential decency and his ability to transcend the artificial boundaries that
divide us.
And whenever entreated persistently enough, he could always be relied
upon to issue a stirring rendition of his immortal “Khamosh”!
May he – through this enjoyable book and through the many deeds left to
him to perform in the years ahead – never be silenced.
 Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi
November 4, 2015
 Author’s Note
I’m not Walter Isaacson, he’s not Steve Jobs, and we’re not in America.
Therefore, unlike Isaacson, I didn’t get carte blanche to go to press
without the subject, Shatrughan Sinha (SS), scrutinising the final manuscript.
However, I have reason to believe that the reader would be hard put to find
a more honest biography in India.
On Thursday, November 27, 2008, SS and I were at 10, Talkatora Road,
his official residence in Delhi, watching Mumbai under siege on TV. That
was the day we had our first round of talks with publishers in Delhi for an
authorised biography on him.
On Saturday, November 14, 2015, SS and I were at his hotel suite in
Nagpur, watching Paris under siege on TV. That was the day we put a full
stop to Anything But Khamosh.
Seven full years, between two terror attacks that coincidentally bore a close
resemblance to each other, was what it took to put together Anything But
Khamosh – a biography that combined the glitz of Hindi cinema with the grit
of Indian politics.
Seven years is a long time.
At the outset, Sonakshi was Daddy’s participative little girl who’d curl up
on the sofa to listen to her dad and me tape hours of conversation for the
book.
 Midstream, Sonakshi had grown into a time-strapped celebrity who
understandably frowned at intrusion into her space.
In seven years, Luv overcame the heartache of an indifferent debut in
Hindi films to bash on regardless. Kussh took his place behind the camera
and went from being an eligible bachelor to a newly-wed. The twins were the
ones I turned to for information, for photographs, for company.
In seven years, two Lok Sabha elections were fought and won; Delhi and
Bihar assembly elections came and went. Equations changed between SS and
his party. But interviews conducted over seven years with a rainbow of
towering personalities remained relevant; compliments and criticism recorded
a while ago did not cross the expiry date. The only exception would perhaps
be that when I interviewed senior leaders like Sushma Swaraj, they had told
me that they believed SS would never leave their party. Today, it’s not about
his leaving them but about whether the BJP still wants him on its roster or
not. SS’ retort to Uma Bharti and those who’ve talked of his expulsion after
the Bihar elections, is a part of Chapter 7: The Rough And Tumble Of A Life
In Politics.
We talked for seven years, in the Talkatora Road bungalow in Delhi, over
innumerable dinners, events, parties, commercial flights, chartered ones,
election rallies in Patna and Delhi, even in the hospital where he recuperated
after bypass surgery. He drove with me to meet Nitish Kumar who was in the
thick of the Assembly elections in Patna, he took me to meet Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif in his hotel suite, he sent me to Lalu Prasad Yadav.
For seven years, we travelled together – Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad,
Patna, Indore, Pune, Goa, Nagpur.
But every minute of those seven years was crucial for a book that covers
warts and wahs. Thank you, Promi for the gracious lunches at home, and for
allowing this biography to evolve.
The seven years also helped me understand Promi’s importance in the
Sinha set-up. A stunning face that lit up luminously, and fashioning herself
into a cooking, nurturing family-oriented wife, would be Promi’s more
obvious attractions. But SS’ complete dependence on her was really because
Promi imparted the couple tremendous dignity and because she was the most
organised, efficient doer SS ever had in his life. She was both a traditional
homemaker and the skilled finance manager of the Sinha family.
These were seven fun years. One afternoon at the lunch table, SS asked me
if I’d like to meet Nawaz Sharif. Immediately, someone from his team
admonished him, “How can you just take someone with you? There’s
something called protocol.” That put SS’ back up. “You mean anybody
would dare stop me?” he retorted, and off we went with three others, to meet
the Prime Minister of Pakistan. As it turned out, SS was not unaware of
protocol. Jose Kutty, his PA, had sought permission for four members of his
team to accompany SS.
An afternoon with Lalu Prasad Yadav began lazily with him apparently
dozing off while talking to somebody who was meeting him before me.
Bishwadeep Akhouri and Bandana Choudhary from SS’ Delhi team kept me
company while we waited for Lalu to wake up at 4 pm. At first, he thought he
had to only give a congratulatory message for the book. But once he knew he
had to speak about SS, he was at his irrepressible Bhojpuri best, even giving
me the recipe for a Bihari sweet called belgrami. He also changed from his
banian to a T-shirt to talk to me.
When I wanted to meet Shashi Tharoor for the Foreword, Bandana
accompanied me, perhaps to charm the suave Kerala politician into saying,
‘Yes’. It worked.
From Pawan Kumar, his secretary of many years and Monish Prem, his
brother-in-law, to SK Jha who manned the telephone in Mumbai, to Mishra
and Mathur who’d fetch me from Delhi airport, Nathu the Man Friday who’d
iron clothes, help me pack, and serve endless cups of green tea whatever the
hour, cook Rambharan who rustled up meals, and drivers Ashok and Monty
who’d take me to LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Yashwant Sinha or CBI
Director Anil Sinha, the entire Sinha team played a part in the making of
Anything But Khamosh.
I didn’t always agree with SS, especially with some of his political moves
or with his comments on Amitabh Bachchan’s performance in Paa. But this
was his biography, not mine; it had to speak his language, not mine, and it
does.
Fortunately, SS himself wanted a credible, readable narrative and not a
prolonged fan letter which biographies in India often tend to be. Irrespective
of which quarter it came from, he made no move to black out unflattering
opinions that most celebrities would never entertain.
After seven years of candour which dominate the pages, SS signed off this
unfinished journey with a touch of spirituality. He said, “Michchhami
Dukkadam. If I have caused offence to anyone in any way, knowingly or
unknowingly, in thought, word or deed, I seek kshamayachna (forgiveness).”
‘Unfinished journey’ because Anything But Khamosh has a sequel coming
up, political all the way. And honest, as always.
It remains an unfinished journey for me too, with SS and with my
publisher Ajay Mago. This book went to Om Books International because
Ajay and I hit it off as friends from the first time we met. There’s something
about his warmth that works. The cherry on top was that Chief Editor Dipa
Chaudhuri promised to edit this herself. I owe both Ajay and Dipa a gracious
‘Thank You’ for helping me bring this long assignment to fruition.
Thirty years ago, publishing magnate Nari Hira had asked me which Indian
celebrity would permit the most honest, readable biography in the country.
I’d answered, Shatrughan Sinha.
Thirty years hence, I’m happy to say that my answer remains unchanged.

Bharathi S Pradhan
Mumbai, 2015
 1

Born For Applause

Why fit in when you were born to stand out?

Dr Seuss

He is the fourth and last son of his parents in a compelling real-life replay of
a famed Indian epic, making his the only known family in the world to have
such a quartet of siblings.
Files at FTII (FII, Film Institute of India, which later became FTII, Film &
Television Institute of India) establish that he was the first candidate from
Bihar (which then included Jharkhand) to be selected for the acting course
and to graduate from its campus in Poona (it was renamed Pune in 1978).
His charismatic stardom has not been replicated or overtaken by any other
celebrity from Bihar or Jharkhand in the last forty-five years.
Indeed, apart from him, no actor in any part of the world has ever drawn
thunderous applause for playing a villain in film after film. He was also the
only screen devil to elicit admiration from both genders and to merit ovation
on his mere entry on the screen.
His record-setting achievement of being the first film star from anywhere
in India to be sworn in as a full-fledged Cabinet Minister at the Centre (in
2003) cannot ever be beaten. Only after ‘Bihari Babu’ had set the trend did
senior actor Sunil Dutt win ministerial approbation from his party (in 2004).
SS is also the only Hindi film star to have been invited to address the UN
General Assembly three times on issues that ranged from Palestine to the
cooperative movement as the way forward, with the spotlight on Bihar’s
Sudha milk cooperative initiative.
∼

More than seventy-five years ago, it would have been unimaginable for
academician Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha and his wife Shyama Devi Sinha –
a childless couple from Patna – to foresee themselves as the parents of four
strapping sons. The birth of Ram, Lakhan, Bharat and Shatrughan was,
therefore, as magical as having four sons named in a sequence already
defined in one of India’s greatest epics – the Ramayan.
As the youngest, Shatrughan Sinha (SS) was his mother’s favourite, and
referred to as the pet pochna in Hindi. A popular term in Bihar and Uttar
Pradesh (UP), it was used for the last-born who finally mopped up (pochna)
the mother’s stomach (pet).
However, calling him Shyama Devi’s pet pochna would, strictly speaking,
be a deviation from the truth because, unknown even to wife Poonam (Promi
to those close to her), a fifth child had been born in the Sinha family.
SS himself recalled a very hazy scene from the past when he was still a
small child. Baba, his father, was not at home. As the youngest, SS was his
Amma’s little lamb, hanging on to her saree pallu (part that hangs loose over
the shoulder). His mother was in acute pain and was being taken to hospital,
with SS adamantly fighting to go with her. He got his way. Years later, SS
learnt that his mother’s distress had been labour pain; she had been taken to
hospital for the delivery of a fifth child.
Curious about what was happening to his mother, SS was witness to a very
private moment when a nurse came out of Shyama Devi’s room with a bucket
and went towards the Ganga, the river that flowed beside the small hospital in
Patna. The child followed the nurse and saw her throw something into the
river three or four times. After he grew up, SS understood that what he’d
watched was the nurse getting rid of his mother’s stillborn baby.
Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha and Shyama Devi Sinha’s fifth child didn’t
survive.
Suspending scientific questioning, one must enter the mind of the
staunchly faithful to accept why the fifth died before being born.
SS’ parents had been childless when they heard about the miracles wrought
at the Ram Rama Pati Bank, a temple in Benares. BP Sinha may have been a
man of science who was educated in America but when it came to faith, he
followed his wife. The couple made a trip to Benares where the temple still
exists. In fact, decades later, film star Shatrughan Sinha escorted his mother
through the narrow, winding lanes of the small town in UP to reach Ram
Rama Pati Bank, driven by the curiosity to see where their family Ramayan
had begun.
It was a strong belief then (and now) that the childless who abided by the
traditions of Ram Rama Pati Bank would have their prayers granted. A set of
rules had to be religiously followed which included writing the name of Lord
Ram sava lakh (1,25,000) times and depositing it at the Bank. One also had
to live on brahminical satvik khaana for one year, which meant abstinence
from non-vegetarian and aphrodisiacal food like garlic and onion.
Anybody with an intense, unfulfilled desire could go to Ram Rama Pati
Bank and put in an arzi (request). The belief was that an arzi for a child
would be granted a maximum of four times.
SS made the politically astute observation, “I personally think a daughter is
the most beautiful, most desirable member of a family. But those days,
everybody yearned to have sons. This may have sprung from the human need
to have your offspring take forward the name of the family. Whatever the
reason, my parents would religiously give up non-vegetarian food, go to Ram
Rama Pati Bank and register their arzi. Once the arzi came through, you had
to continue with the discipline of fasting.”
Shyama Devi was the perfect traditional housewife, and Bhuvaneshwar
Prasad Sinha was the founder of Government College of Health and Physical
Education in Patna. After retiring as Deputy Director of Education, he went
to Amravati as Principal of Laxmibai College. While BP Sinha pursued his
interest in academics, Shyama Devi was religious, given to performing
elaborate pujas (rituals).
When they were blessed with four sons, they were inspired to name them
in the sequence of King Dashrath’s sons in the Ramayan. Therefore, they
confidently named them Ram, Lakhan, Bharat and Shatrughan – in that order.
They stuck to the Ramayan even though, according to a study of the fourth
child’s rashi (zodiac sign according to Hindu belief), his name should have
been Khemraj. Undeterred, they named him Shatrughan with the blessings of
the deities at Ram Rama Pati Bank. But crossing over from need to greed, the
much-chuffed Sinha parents aspired for a fifth son. When it didn’t survive,
the family had to accept that the temple processed and permitted only four.
Thus, Shatrughan remained the youngest Sinha sibling.
The resemblance to the epic, however, began and ended with their names.
Ram was the hero of the Ramayan but in the Sinhas’ version, it was
Shatrughan who ran away with fame unimaginable. BP Sinha’s fourth-born
was also Patna’s enfant terrible.
“While the three of us followed my father’s directions most times, Sonu
never did,” brother Lakhan Sinha, older than SS by four years, didn’t mince
his words when he spoke of his celebrity sibling. Sonu was the pet name the
actor later acquired from a legion of female admirers, and was soon picked up
and used by those close to him.
His date of birth was a grey area. His passport declared it as July 15, 1946,
a date duly followed by the Internet. However, he has been known to
celebrate his birthday on December 9, with 1945 and 1947 quoted by those
close to him as his birth years. SS himself chose to let the ambiguity linger as
he guffawed, “A beautiful girl once asked me my age and I told her in all
honesty, let me know how old you’d like me to be and I’ll oblige.”
“He was very naughty,” remarked indulgent cousin Annapurna didi, nine
years older than SS. A Master’s in Labour & Social Welfare, she was closer
to him than a real sibling would have been. “During a Q & A based on a
mythological story in his Hindi class, the students were asked, ‘Janak ka
dhanush kisne toda (Who broke Janak’s bow)?’ When it was his turn to
answer, Sonu dramatically replied, ‘Humne nahin toda, humne nahin (I didn’t
break it, I didn’t).’ It was his way of entertaining the whole class.”
Brashness and bravado combined with a singular lack of inhibition made
the youngest Sinha a natural for the limelight. His sparkling, attention-loving
personality, his exceptional mimicry skills and his flair for drawing a hearty
chuckle, emerged so early in life that SS was always the neighbourhood
magnet that drew everybody to him.
One of SS’ earliest memories went back to the time he was in Std VI. His
fearlessness blended with spotlight-seeking precociousness, was at the fore at
Patna Collegiate Multi-Purpose Higher Secondary School (simplified as
Patna Collegiate). One day, the cheeky Std VI student made his way to his
brother, Ram Sinha’s Std XI classroom, where he stood on the teacher’s dais,
jumped, danced, sang, mimicked everybody in sight and thoroughly
entertained his seniors until the teacher walked in. If SS was let off without
punishment that day, it was solely because he was the younger brother of a
bright and definitely more sober Std XI student.
It was apparent very early in life that this Sinha was born for a life vastly
different from the others in his family. Test-tubes and theorems had no place
in his young heart; his trade would have more to do with applause and
audiences.
He displayed his inclinations once again on an evening when a cultural
function was held in the grounds behind the school and the lights suddenly
failed. “Bihar has always been infamous for its power failure, whether it’s
electricity or ministerial power,” the actor-politician wisecracked. “As
children, we would be thrilled with a power failure. We got a chance to put
away our books and run out of the house.”
But when the power failed at the function that evening, there was chaos
and it seemed as if an unruly stampede would soon break out. SS did not
remember how but in that mêlée, he managed to slip through, reach the stage
and find a mike (one phase was working). In the darkness, the nine or ten-
year-old boy sang, danced, imitated well-known netas, abhinetas (political
leaders, actors) and school teachers, and kept the audience regaled for 45
minutes until the lights came on. The whole crowd laughed, whistled and was
in raptures till the electricity was restored and they found that it was a plump
little schoolboy who’d kept them thus enthralled.
 Being his mother’s pet, SS was an overfed child, much-inclined to be
podgy. But this fat little boy had averted a potential stampede with his natural
gift for holding a crowd spellbound. When the lights came on, he awoke from
the magic of the moment, blushed self-consciously and slipped away. But
he’d got a taste of audience admiration and it became a lifelong addiction.
Another incident further demonstrated his lack of reserve before an
audience. Annapurna and her husband, BC Sinha, had invited SS to stay with
them in Rajgir. One day, they took him to an intellectual meeting of
important personalities, including the Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University,
a very distinguished citizen. By this time, SS had picked up quite a bit of
Bengali from some of his childhood friends and could follow the speeches.
He heard the VC extol the virtues of the ancient Nalanda University, its
renowned discipline, its academics and its many facilities. It was a serious
lecture with many people listening in rapt attention when all of a sudden, this
rotund little boy got up and, unmindful of the hundreds sitting around him,
asked with confident naïveté, “At Nalanda, what were the facilities for people
to go to the toilet?” Annapurna and BC Sinha were flabbergasted; the VC
started fumbling and there was an uproar.
“It’s still an obsession with him,” laughed wife Poonam. “Whenever my
husband has to go anywhere, he first checks out what the restroom facilities
are!”
The incident in Rajgir showed that there was a sharp little mind ticking
behind that naughty exterior. He wanted an answer to a very basic human
need and had the guts to get up and ask his question, oblivious of the senior,
intellectual audience around him.
It was also proof that this was a boy whose oxygen was a large,
appreciative audience. He’d face them without a squirm, indeed welcome
them and bask in the ensuing attention.
But his somewhat staid, scientifically and academically-inclined family
didn’t comprehend SS’ natural aptitude for the spotlight. He himself was too
young to figure out which way to head. All he knew with growing certainty
was that he dreaded the sciences – Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry were
alien tongues that the rest of the family spoke with fluency while he
comprehended only the language of entertainment.
 His father had earned his impressive degrees from America way back in
the 1950s; it was an education that few dared aspire for and even fewer
achieved in India then. SS was still a child when his father left ‘paani ke
jahaaz mein’ (by ship) for America where he graduated from Kansas and
Pennsylvania State Universities. SS was a huge disappointment for the
scholarly parent but he was extremely close to his mother, perhaps the natural
ties of the last-born who got all her affection and protection. SS always
harboured the feeling that his father’s favourite was Ram, the eldest son,
maybe because according to convention, he would be the one to take the
family name forward.
The Sinha residence in Patna was named Bhuvaneshwar Niwas, after his
father. Years later, SS would thunder in his speeches about feeling a
particular closeness with Odisha, especially the city of Bhuvaneshwar
(Bhubaneshwar), because his father’s name was Bhuvaneshwar and his house
in Patna was called Bhuvaneshwar Niwas. It was the sort of rhetoric that
would unfailingly send the audience at his political rallies in Odisha into
raptures.
All through SS’ childhood, Amma was his best friend. He would curl up
beside her in the afternoons and press her feet or pull out grey hair from her
head. But the mischievous lad also struck a deal with her that she would pay
him one paisa for each grey hair. Sometimes, he’d purposely miscount and
inveigle a little extra out of her.
A lot of Amma’s emotional and not entirely practical nature rubbed off on
her favourite offspring, and Annapurna was often the recipient of SS’
emotional largesse.
“A magazine had stated that if he was so close to a cousin, imagine how he
would have been with a real sister,” Annapurna said, touched by childhood
remembrances. “I was an only child, so all my affection was heaped on him.
Despite a big age difference between Sonu and me, we would fight like kids.
When I’d stop talking to him, he would complain to his mother, ‘Dekho, moti
baat nahin kar rahi hai (Fatso is not talking to me).’ His mother would
answer in Bhojpuri, ‘Ley ho, tum log kahe aapas mein ladat ho (Why do both
of you keep fighting with each other)?’”
His early childhood, before the pressure of studies built up, was serene and
secure. It was during this time that he discovered the first passion of his life –
Hindi cinema. He was so mesmerised that he’d be anxious and restless until
he could catch the new film in town. His was the desperation of a junkie who
couldn’t wait for his next fix.
SS had an unexpected ally in one of his brothers. Unlike Ram and Bharat
who were academically inclined and, like their father, largely disinclined
towards films, Lakhan had a predilection for movies and fanned his youngest
sibling’s obsession with Hindi cinema.
“As children, you naturally tend to shield the youngest from your parents,”
shrugged Lakhan in his defence as he traced SS’ unpermitted forays into the
world that held him in a trance. “Sonu used to go for late night shows,
definitely not permitted by Baba. We would wait for him to return and
quietly open the door for him.”
He admitted, “Watching films was a trait he picked up from me. I was such
a buff, I would regularly buy Screen and Filmfare. I must’ve bought Screen
for 15 to 20 years from the railway platform where it would be available a
few hours before the newsstands in the city, and Sonu would eagerly take it
from me.”
Parental disapproval of the film industry was no deterrent for the besotted
young SS. “I’ve run even barefoot to the theatre just to catch a movie. I’ve
gone in the peak heat, even when there was a loo (hot winds that sweep
across North India in summer) at 48 and 49° Celsius to see a film,” recalled
SS. “If I had to wait for a week to see Mughal-e-Azam, I would be so bechain
(restless) that I couldn’t eat or drink until I saw the film. Once, there was
such a scramble for tickets that a lovely sharkskin bush shirt that my father
had bought me, got torn in the mêlée. But for me, getting that one-and-a-half
rupee movie ticket was of paramount importance. I must have seen Mughal-
e-Azam thirty or forty times – whenever I got a chance to see it. I just fell in
love with the film.”
Another film fascinated him so much that though he remembers neither the
title nor the lead actors, a shot from it remained deeply entrenched in his
memory. “There was a close-up of Jairaj or some other actor where he just
raised an eyebrow. It startled me and stayed with me. I wondered, ‘How did
that eyebrow go up and why?’ I was only a child then but it got stuck in my
mind.”
Those days, Hindi movie addicts would belong to either the Dilip Kumar
group or the Raj Kapoor camp. SS gravitated towards Raj Kapoor, although
they had little in common except that they were both Sagittarians born in the
month of December. For that matter, Dilip Kumar was also a December-born
Sagittarian but it was RK who drew SS to the screen, as the first film that got
lodged in his juvenile memory was Shree 420. The schoolboy sat agape in the
theatre as the song “Mera Joota Hai Japani” unspooled and he was awestruck
by the scene where Raj Kapoor spots a snake and comically runs away at
high speed. He had no clue that a high-speed camera had done the trick. “I
was totally infatuated,” said SS. “In fact, my second was also a Raj Kapoor
film.”
It was Shree 420 once more. His father had arranged to send all the sons in
the car with an orderly to Ashok theatre to watch Dev Anand’s Funtoosh. But
SS slipped out with the orderly and went to Pearl, the neighbouring theatre, to
watch Raj Kapoor all over again. His brothers saw Funtoosh comfortably
seated in the second last row. Since SS had to spring for the orderly’s ticket
too, he sat in the lowest class near the screen which cost 6 annas (before
1957, 16 annas made a rupee). To his everlasting regret, SS never did get
around to seeing Funtoosh.
Once SS realised that audience admiration gave him an adrenaline rush, his
mimicry skills and fondness for pranks drew people to him. To add to it was
“a face that resembles a battlefield” as he put it, with four distinguishing
scars.
Later in life, the scars were termed “sexy” and women swooned over the
signs of masculinity that he sported so unabashedly on his face. But the truth
was, not a single scar was earned for a display of bravado.
“Scar No 1 was sustained when I was riding a tricycle that wasn’t even
mine – it was my brother’s. To this day, I remember wistfully that I didn’t
ever have a tricycle of my own. The maid had gone to check if the milk was
boiling and in that time, I fell off and got Scar No 1 on my forehead.”
Scar No 2 appeared because of childish jealousy. “My father had bought a
very big tiger made of chini mitti (porcelain), which used to hang on the wall
of our small drawing room. I couldn’t understand why the tiger drew so much
admiration and attention from everybody, and the jealousy factor kicked in.
One afternoon, I prised the tiger out with a stick and it came crashing down
on my head. That gave me Scar No 2, again on my forehead.”
The third scar was imprinted near his ear (covered by his hair, so not
visible) when a cat clawed him so viciously that when he was rushed to the
doctor in a rickshaw, the whole seat was covered with blood. The bleeding
eventually stopped; the scar stayed.
Once again, a childhood antic delivered the fourth scar on his face near the
lip. His father was in America and his maternal uncle was preparing to go
there. His mother and aunt were busy when SS took a shaving blade that was
sharp on both sides and proceeded to shave his tiny female cousin. She got a
cut and started crying after which SS told her, “I’ll show you how to handle
it,” and began to shave his own face. The blade went so deep that it got stuck
in his skin and he started bleeding. Plastic surgery was relatively unknown
those days, so the scars remained. But decades later, a few years before she
passed away, his aunt told SS that the whole household had been in such a
tizzy over his uncle’s trip that they had quickly resorted to a home remedy –
tulsi ka patta (basil leaves) and ash were pressed against his cheek to stop the
bleeding.
All through his childhood, the natural inclination for drama blended well
with his repertoire of pranks. Once, when he reached home late and knew he
would be pulled up by his disciplinarian father, he feigned unconsciousness.
“Initially, Baba dismissed it as dramatics,” he chuckled, “but I carried the act
so well that everyone was taken in. It was only when they talked of calling
the doctor which meant injections that I miraculously regained
consciousness. The result was that there was all-round amusement at my act
and by then, my father’s anger had also subsided. My tactic of buying time
paid off that day.
“Another time, after a fight with one of my brothers, I pretended to have
lost my voice. I acted completely dumb. There was a suspicion that I was
putting on an act – someone even put a finger in my mouth to make me speak
– but my mother was soon convinced and a lot of theatrics followed. It was
only when the haahaakaar (excitement) got out of hand that I admitted I was
playing a prank on everybody.”
 Father BP Sinha was the no-nonsense academic. Mother Shyama Devi was
the putty in SS’ young hands, although on occasion, she would also whack
him. “But out of all four brothers, nobody got a beating from my father’s
stick except me,” SS almost boasted. “It was because of a very strong streak
of stubbornness – I get a glimpse of that streak in Sonakshi these days,” he
added with a touch of concern.
To make up for getting the rough end of BP Sinha’s stick, both Amma and
Annapurna enveloped him with their warmth. “Chacha used up the full quota
of punishment, so there was no question of any of us punishing or scolding
Sonu as well,” explained Annapurna. “I’ve only seen Chachi twist his ear on
occasion. She adored him. Those days, men managed all the finances. Still, if
Sonu wanted to eat something like say, mutton, Chachi would somehow
manage to get it from a hotel and feed him what he wanted.”
A foodie he was, and a foodie he remained. Mahmood Alam, a close friend
who grew up with him in the same locality of Kadam Kuan, remembered
with a smile, “Long before Shatrughan became a minister, he appointed me
his Food Minister. He liked eating a variety of birds like bageri, chaha,
murga, which would be cooked at our place. Even after we grew up,
whenever he came to Patna, we would make his favourite non-vegetarian
dishes and leave them with Amma who would serve them to him. If he had a
special guest, like Sunil Duttji, he would request me to get food made at our
place. There’s a photograph of Sunil Dutt and Shatrughan in the Kadam Kuan
house, sitting at the same table and eating the food that had been made and
sent to him from our place.”
The one unforgettable time SS got a taste of his father’s stick also had its
source in his fondness for food, accompanied by juvenile pig-headedness. “I
used to love my mother’s laddoos (Indian sweet) and one day I took a stand
that since I was a Number 9 (born on December 9), I would eat nine laddoos
and not one less. My mother tried to get me to eat one after which she would
decide about giving me more but I wouldn’t budge. It had to be nine or none.
By evening, my father who was then Deputy Director of Education, returned
in his Morris Minor and my mother who was at the end of her tether, told him
about my stubborn stand. He was so angered that he decided to give me nine
strokes of his stick instead. I cried a lot. I was the youngest and here I was,
getting a beating from my father. I was very hurt and angry. I think I cried
myself to sleep that night. But when I woke up, I found my whole body oily.
My mother had come in some time during the night and massaged my body
with oil. I’d slept so soundly after the thrashing that I wasn’t even aware of
her motherly kindness.”
BP Sinha’s formidable demeanour was feared by one and all. “His father
was so strict with timings that he would go to sleep at 9 pm and after that no
lights were allowed to be switched on, no water tap to be opened, no noise at
all,” recounted Annapurna. “Sonu was, of course, the first to break all the
house rules. He would return late, put his hand in through the window and
open the latch from outside while my uncle was fast asleep.
“Everybody was scared to go against his father, zaban kholna to door ki
baat thi (forget about opening your mouth in front of him).”
Everybody – except one.
“Sonu once went off somewhere without telling anyone,” Annapurna
laughed softly. “When he returned and was questioned, he replied that he had
informed his mother. His father said, ‘Today you tell your mother and go out,
tomorrow you’ll say you informed the maid…’ Sonu instantly shot back,
‘Kya dono mein antar nahin hai? Isn’t there a difference between Amma and
the maid?’ Sonu was both sharp and unafraid to counter anybody.” It’s a trait
that never deserted him – film world colleagues and politicians alike have
witnessed it time and again, much to their consternation.
To offset the disciplinarian parent, Shyama Devi was the quintessential
mother. SS articulated his closeness to Amma: “I liked going out with her.
It’s a dying culture with today’s children but I enjoyed going out with my
father too, sitting with him, listening to him, meeting his guests. These were
strong emotional ties which I don’t see in children today. If the car wasn’t
available, I’d happily go in a rickshaw with my mother. I was Amma’s
chhutka bauwa (little darling).” After Amma, only sister Annapurna and wife
Poonam have sometimes used bauwa as an endearment for him.
In his father’s presence, SS dared not voice his concerns about pursuing
Science as his main subject but he would even practise his singing and acting
in front of Amma.
“He was a first-rate comedian,” said businessman and BJP party man
Pravin Kumar Sinha, one of SS’ oldest friends. With just a year’s difference
between them, SS and Pravin became friends in 1953 when they studied
together in Ganesh Pathshala. “Those days, there was an extremely popular
play called Loha Singh on radio, written and conceived by Prof Rameshwar
Singh Kashyap from Patna University. Based essentially on three characters
with a rural background and folk songs, Loha Singh stood against social evils
but in a comical way. It was a masterpiece on radio and Shatrughan used to
do a perfect enactment of Loha Singh.”
His acting skills spilled into his real life when he would visit Patna
Medical College Hospital, wear a white coat and stethoscope, check out the
patient’s pulse and recommend orange juice very gravely.
The prankster also had his own logic to level the field on every front.
Retired banker Hiraji (full name: Birendra Mohan Sahay) who now runs a
charitable eye hospital for the underprivileged in Patna, recalled that even if
SS went into a shop, bought four pieces of mithai (sweets) and gave two to
his friend, “He’d take a small bit out of my share saying, ‘Since the money
was mine, how can it be completely equal? I must get just a little bit more.’”
“He was also,” Hiraji added wryly, “very bright at getting the better of his
friends.” He and SS went to different colleges but went together on a cycle
for the NCC parade. Hiraji reminisced, “Shatrughan would tell me to pedal
both of us all the way saying, ‘I’m providing the cycle, so you do the
pedalling. Otherwise, you can go on foot.’” The canny traits of a politician
were evident rather early.
The bicycle SS rode was his father’s old one made by a company called
Humbug. It was an ancient, heavy cycle and Shatru hated it. But he had to
ride the Humbug or nothing at all.
Patna businessman Pradeep Gupta who wears a moustache à la Shatrughan
and has often been mistaken for a Sinha family member, was another buddy
from the cheeky days of footloose mischief.
“In college, we were famous as the happy-go-lucky team. We often went
to the Medical College to rag freshers. Shatrughan was tall, so he would pose
as a senior. We ourselves were in Pre-University and sometimes the boys we
were ragging would turn out to be BSc and MSc students. They were dhoti-
kurta-teeka (rurally dressed) type of students from the village and we
couldn’t make out that they were our seniors. Umesh Panjiar, now a Senior
IAS officer and Head of the Electricity Board, was one such person whom we
ragged and he turned out to be our senior!
“There used to be the daughter of a doctor who would drive her own car to
college. In the 1960s, a girl driving a car was a rare and novel sight in Patna.
Shatrughan would come to my house and we would go doubles on the cycle
to college. We would purposely drive very slowly before her car and not let
her overtake us.
“One day, it was Saraswati Puja, and she was in a yellow saree. We started
singing, ‘Hey Ganga Maiya, Tori Piyuri Chadhayi…’ a popular song those
days from the Bhojpuri film Ganga Maiya Tori Piyuri… Piyuri was a yellow
saree in Bhojpuri.”
SS’ friends remembered the night they were returning after watching a
circus at nearby Harding Park. The rickshawala mistook the revellers for
outsiders, decided on a circuitous route through lanes and bylanes, and took
over an hour to reach Kadam Kuan. The young lads enjoyed the ride without
a word and when they finally reached, SS paid the rickshawala four measly
annas. “Only four annas?” gawked the driver. “Didn’t you see that it took me
one-and-a-half hours to bring you here?” His eyes twinkling with mischief,
SS asked him, “How many years have you been in Patna?” The rickshawala
said, “Ho gaya paanch saal, five years.” SS laughed, “Aur hamara ho gaya
unnees saal (And we’ve been around for nineteen years). We know Patna
inside out but we enjoyed your free ride all around the city. Thank you.” The
friends laughed heartily over having put one over the wily rickshawala.
Baba who dispensed discipline, Amma who fed, sometimes overfed and
shielded him, brothers who indulged and covered up for him, friends, plenty
of them all the time around him, outings with parents, a bright, inquisitive
mind and much mischief, conclusively indicated that SS had a warm and
wonderful childhood.
The whacks and the wahs, the praise and the punishments all came along
as a wholesome package.
Late Madhava Jee Prasad, also a childhood friend who shared alu-padval
(potatoes-snake gourd), bhujia ka nashta (a Bihari snack) and mangoes with
SS in their growing years, had laughed and recalled, “Shatrughan had to pay
so many fines in college that he finally said to the Principal, ‘Hamari fine se
Science College ki tijori bhar gayi hai (The college coffers are overflowing
with my fines).’”
His ‘fine’ situation left him with barely two-and-a-half to three rupees as
pocket money every month. He spent it all on watching films.
“Unbelievably,” SS recalled, “I still managed to save a bit here and there and
gave Ram bhaiya a loan of Rs 100 and another brother some Rs 92. I never
got either loan back!”
He also remembered that he himself had wheedled five rupees out of a
teacher called CD Sahay, for a movie ticket. But it was another detail that SS’
photographic memory volunteered. “CD Sahay retired a few years ago as
Chief of RAW,” he supplied, displaying his lifelong fascination for
policeman and bureaucrats which helped him keep tabs on who had headed in
which direction.
“We had another teacher named TP Sinha,” he produced another name that
had joined the IPS. “He was Ram bhaiya’s best friend. Before he left for
America, my brother had requested him to coach me in Physics which he did
every day of the week including Sundays, without charging me for it.”
Besides the free daily tuitions, TP Sinha had also given in to SS’ pleading,
and handed him approximately ten likely questions before his Physics exam.
But an indifferent SS who didn’t want to study for an exam, did nothing with
them. “Lo and behold, when I went to the exam hall, six out of the ten
questions were the ones my Sir had given me. And I had not bothered to
prepare for it.”
What he did do was to follow TP Sinha’s career with the pride of a Bihari.
“He was the first Director General of Police, Bihar and also the first DG
Police of Jharkhand after the State was carved out. He was the only IPS
officer to have served both States as DGP. He was also the first Special
Advisor to the Governor and was very active even after retirement.”
Sometimes, memories also hurt.
“We had a school principal called Shatrughan Prasad Singh and another
called Paras Nath Sinha,” he recollected and winced. “Due to my constant
mischief, one day, one of them called me in and hit me on my knuckles with
the duster. More than the physical beating, I was hurt emotionally and tears
sprang to my eyes. But I never told anybody about it. It’s the first time in my
life that I’m disclosing the fact that I got beaten on the knuckles by the
Principal.”
It didn’t, however, help to reform the errant student. “My antics went on
unlimited,” he continued, accepting that he took his studies so casually that
he approached even his board exams (in the final year of school) with a shrug
and a swagger. “When I’d appear for an exam, the students would be much
amused because I’d always be up to something that would make them laugh.”
There was such disregard for the importance of a board exam that he didn’t
even bother to study his time table. One day, he lazed around at home,
assuring his mother that he did not have an exam that day. The next day,
when he strolled into the exam hall, he realised that he had missed the Maths
exam the day before. There was hell to pay at home for that negligence.
Annapurna was witness to it. “I had come home on the day they found out
that he hadn’t sat for his Maths exam and he got such a thrashing from his
father! Despite all the bravado, Sonu was scared of his father. That’s why he
sat for the re-exam after losing a year. If Chacha hadn’t been there, he
wouldn’t have sat for it the next time either.”
One could completely empathise with his father’s exasperation because he
recognised the fact that his last born son was not low on IQ. In every sphere
other than studies, SS sparkled and showed that he was intelligent and
immensely gifted. Laboratory tests may have baffled him but extreme
curiosity, the guts to experiment and the fascination with movies continued
unabated. He couldn’t remember a line from his textbooks but reams of
dialogues from favourite films could be recalled without error. Even before
he got out of school, SS could mimic forty-five different voices to perfection.
He would brandish a sword and perform entire scenes from Mughal-e-Azam,
alternating between Prithviraj Kapoor’s heavy baritone and Dilip Kumar’s
relatively softer voice, making his audience laugh and cry with him. He
enacted complete scenes from Devdas, he copied Shammi Kapoor, he aped
the Principal and the Vice-Principal.
“Observation was one of my keen qualities,” he recorded. The sharp eye
for detail and the jumbo memory for rattling off pages and pages of lines
were early signs of where he was heading. “People in the film industry often
wondered how I could easily memorise a number of pages of dialogue but it
probably had its beginnings in my school days when verbose dialogues would
roll off my tongue with ease. To this day, it’s not difficult for me to do all
those scenes in different voices.”
It would be relevant to mention that every casual conversation with SS was
like an unrehearsed performance. Every time he narrated an incident, he
automatically switched over to the voice of the person he was talking about,
moving effortlessly from Dilip Kumar’s thin-nasal voice to Prithiviraj’s more
gravelly one.
Unfailingly entertaining but also an embarrassment, especially for his
father, SS’ unacceptable social behaviour continued and as he grew older,
girls began to figure in his escapades. Teasing the local girls appeared on the
agenda although he claimed, “It was always with a sense of humour. Never
did I do or say anything vulgar. Perhaps that’s why many of the girls grew
fond of me. If they had their way, I’d have been married twenty-five times
over in my college days itself. But by the time a girl started getting close, my
attention would have shifted elsewhere.” This trait too, accompanied him
down the years, leaving Poonam piqued all through their marriage.
Female attention at different stages of his life obviously meant a lot to SS
because it figured intermittently in his conversation, almost like an
achievement that needed to be chronicled. He might’ve perished as the
roadside Romeo of Patna if failure in the Sciences, and FTII beckoning him
at the right time, had not steered him towards a more fortuitous future.
Meanwhile, his aversion for studies remained unchanged. It included even
cheating in Std X when he copied every calculation and every equation from
close friend Pravin Sinha’s Maths answer sheet, and swaggered home to
announce that this time he had aced it. If not 100%, he would get at least
90%. But when the results came out, he was stunned to find that the school
had taken away his 90% boast – he got only 10%.
“I was disgusted with myself,” grimaced SS. “Even after cheating, if I
could get only 10%, I was most certainly doing something unsuitable for me,
it was being forced upon me. I decided then that Science was not going to be
my choice but there was no way I could convey this to my father. Even my
mother was scared to tell him. Times really were different.”
It is a distinct possibility that SS’ later unpopularity with the Principal of
Patna Science College and his growing defiance of rules had plenty to do
with his dismay at finding himself in a place that was at such odds with what
he was cut out for.
His father who was determined to make a doctor out of this son too, sent
the errant SS after he had passed out of school, to stay with his brother,
Jagdishwari Prasad Sinha who was Deputy Superintendent of Police at
Sitamarhi, and his daughter Annapurna. Incidentally, Annapurna was so close
to SS that it was only in Std X that he learnt she was a cousin and not his real
sister. “I cried a lot that day,” SS sniffed, baring an emotional side to him.
It was perhaps his uncle’s personality that set off a lifelong respect in SS
for the police force. Neeraj Kumar, Former Commissioner of Police, Delhi,
and currently head of the anti-corruption cell of BCCI, who called the actor
his Mama (maternal uncle), traced the source of SS’ admiration for the men
in uniform. “Police officer JP Sinhasaab was referred to and feared as Kadey
Khan (a strict, tough man), a terror all over Bihar. He was always posted to a
problem area and he would manage to control the crime rate there. Impressed
by him, Mama (SS) became fascinated with the police.”
Perhaps BP Sinha had dreams of his policeman-brother taming SS too,
when he packed him off to his house in Sitamarhi. SS was sent to Goenka
College in Sitamarhi with the hope that in the new atmosphere, he would
undergo a miraculous transformation. But that was a pipe dream as the
collegian didn’t even bother to check out what his syllabus was all about. In
Sitamarhi too, he came up with his own forms of rebellion. He once took out
a two-rupee pen and swished it around like a knife. The teacher thought he’d
really carried a knife into college. That and his unchecked antics with girls on
the campus ensured that he was soon out of that college too.
He left Sitamarhi and entered Patna Science College, considered one of the
best colleges of North India to this day.
He stepped into the best educational institution in the city on his own merit
but his attendance was more regularly registered in the local movie hall
where he still managed to catch every film that was released in Patna.
And his one true love affair with Raj Kapoor continued without a dip in the
intensity. He described, unabashedly, “I was, I am and I am sure I will
forever remain Raj Kapoor’s biggest admirer, although as people, we had
very little in common. Raj Kapoor was gore-chittay (fair-complexioned and
handsome), his antics were totally different. Most actors idolise Dilip Kumar.
I too call Dilipsaab an institution; I am immensely fond of him. But Raj
Kapoor was my everlasting love. Blue eyes and charming, I was honoured
that one day I could work with him, that too in my secretary Pawan Kumar’s
production, Khan Dost (1976). It was made by my own people under the
Ramayan Chitra banner.”
Raj Kapoor converted the clueless boy from Patna into an aspirant who
began to crave for a place in the same industry as his idol. In SS’ words,
“After seeing Shree 420, something happened to me. Gradually, I began to
see other people’s films too. But I was so intensely absorbed with Raj Kapoor
that I began to look up to even those who were close to him – Shankar-
Jaikishan, Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra, Mukesh. Mukesh became my favourite
singer; I began to sing like him too.”
Mukesh’s son, Nitin nostalgically said, “One of Shatruji’s earliest hit songs
was sung by my father. That evergreen number, ‘Kayi Sadiyon Se, Kayi
Janmon Se…’ which was picturised on Shatruji in Milaap was sung by
Mukeshji.”
SS was fortunate because one day, he would rub shoulders with all the RK
names he so revered, including “Nargis didi” to whom he wrote his life’s
only fan letter. She didn’t reply to it but years later, when he became a film
star, he told her that she could now reply to him in person. She did, by
visiting Poonam and him at home, along with her husband Sunil Dutt. But
SS’ fan letter had not gone to Mrs Dutt, it had gone to Nargis, the RK
heroine.
“No child at that age would’ve remembered the name Allauddin Khan who
was RK’s sound recordist,” went on SS. “But I knew even all his technicians
by name. I knew cinematographer Radhu Karmarkar, I knew his boys, Revati
and Gopal. All the names that featured in the title credits became flesh-and-
blood people for me.”
That pitch of adulation also had its inevitable downside. SS was forthright
when he admitted that he was so enamoured by Raj Kapoor that he began to
emulate everything about him. It included a long association with cigarettes.
“I have to make the point here that celebrities are role models and must
watch out for their behaviour in public life,” he admonished those who take
their social status lightly. “I was so thoroughly influenced by Raj Kapoor that
I started smoking too. Watching him hold a 555 cigarette between two fingers
was so fascinating, I loved it!”
With the wisdom of experience, he lectured, “One message I would like to
send far and wide through these pages is that celebrities have no idea just
how much of an influence they have on masses. Millions of fans feel they’ve
inched closer to their favourite idols by copying their antics and habits. Every
celebrity should realise and accept the impact he has on his fans.
“The habit of smoking that I picked up in school, continued through
college, followed me to FTII and came with me to the film industry. It took
me years to realise that smoking was not good for my health, or for my
family, for the environment or for society. It required great will power before
I could finally kick the butt. But at the end, I not only quit smoking without
any substitute, I also began to do anti-tobacco programmes and campaigns,
exhorting the next generation to give it up because the health of the nation is
the wealth of the nation. The campaign got an impetus when I became the
Health Minister of India.”
Given his admiration for all things RK, when SS watched Jis Desh Mein
Ganga Behti Hai, he was bowled over by Pran’s turn as Raka the dacoit. His
mannerisms and the wig so fascinated the impressionable young boy that he
even started imitating Pran’s walk, talk and speech in his everyday life. He
began to sport the same hairstyle as Raka and spewed all his lines, which he
naturally knew by heart, in front of the mirror.
Even today, Pran’s lines, “Ye policewala maar dalega...ye policewala hai,
sardar (He’ll kill all of us, boss...he’s a cop)” roll off Sinha’s tongue,
instinctively taking on the same voice and pitch as the late villain. “Buddhe
ka koyi dar nahin, khatka toh ladki ka hai ki kahin woh machal na jaye...
(The old man doesn’t pose a danger; I’m worried that the girl shouldn’t create
a problem).” He was Raka every day and one day when he was practising his
dialogues, his father caught him, saw his weird hairstyle and asked him if he
wanted a sound thrashing. That was the end of Raka in Patna.
“But the passion for acting had seeped deep into me though I didn’t know
where this obsession was leading me.”
 He remained clueless about where life was taking him until his friend
Arvind from Patna who was doing the Cinematography course at FTII told
him that the Institute had an acting course too, and steered him towards it.
Brother Lakhan actively encouraged the move.
Since Lakhan himself was inexorably drawn to cinema, he would visit
Bombay (as it was called until 1995) and indulge in typical fan-like pursuits –
visiting a film studio to watch a shoot or getting himself photographed with
stars like Shashi Kapoor and Asha Parekh. Details of these encounters would
be eagerly awaited by SS who’d add the photographs to his portfolio of film
memorabilia.
“Sonu had the confidence that he would make it as an actor. I also thought
he would succeed which was why I backed him so much,” Lakhan explained.
SS had a flair for debating as well. In school, when the lead speaker fell ill
before an inter-school competition, SS had stepped in at the last minute and
spoken impressively on ‘India is the land of fairy tales without fairies’. SS’
third brother, Dr Bharat Sinha MBBS, MD, a leading family physician in the
UK for over forty years, proudly chipped in, “He was a topper in debating in
the whole of Bihar State. In hindsight, you can see that he had a talent for
oratory and logic right then. Luckily, he moved in the right direction.”
“Destiny took me to FTII, and through it, I got my entry into the film
industry,” SS recorded with satisfaction. “Luck is the most important factor
for this kind of stardom and success,” he added. “Destiny and junoon –
unbridled passion – are the two major factors for my stardom.” (For a very
long time, he used to pronounce it as ‘is’tardom, a throwback to his Bihari
roots.)
Picking up important points from the clueless moments of his own life, SS
outlined a must-do blueprint for every youngster. The first was self-
assessment.
“I was never too good at studies. I was just about okay in sports. I played a
bit of table tennis and cricket but I was a fat child. What ultimately took me
far was my passion for art and culture. It made me Shatrughan Sinha.
“Passion for what you want to do in life can take you very far. But as I
have often said, the junoon has to be matched by another big factor – luck.
And that, unfortunately, is not in our hands.”
 He expanded on the thought: “God has been extremely kind to me.
However,” he said with uncharacteristic humility, “I don’t claim to be the
most talented one. There must be lakhs of people more talented than me on
the streets of Patna, Gaya, Darbanga, Ranchi or anywhere. There’s no
explanation for why one person makes it so big in life. It’s like a roulette
table where you play No 22 and the ball falls on that number.”
He asserted that when the ball fell on your chosen number, “Firstly, it
doesn’t make you great or superior in any way. Secondly, you can’t question
why it didn’t fall on No 21 or 23, because there is no logical explanation for
luck. Mere naam ka sikka nikal gaya aur chal gaya (Destiny picked my
name, and it worked). There are many talented boys. Manoj Bajpayee is very
good, Shekhar Suman is talented. They’re so deserving that they might make
it very big in future. Unfortunately, despite their capabilities, efforts and
intentions, they have so far not succeeded in terms of becoming huge movie
stars. With due respect, there was Ramayan Tiwari who played an assistant to
Pran in Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai or, years ago there was Bhagwan
Sinha who did small roles as a villain in Dev Anand films. They were good,
talented people but none of them achieved stardom. I met Mr Tiwari but I
never got to meet Mr Bhagwan Sinha. They were never really major forces to
reckon with in Hindi films but for us back in Patna, their names inspired awe.
I couldn’t dream of even reaching where they had, me with a face full of
scars.”
When SS went on about the undreamt-of greatness that visited him, it
could have sounded pompous, like a man who couldn’t stop boasting about
his grand success, especially when he repeated at regular intervals, “People
may call me great because till date, in the history of Bihar and Jharkhand, I
am the first and last star in the true sense of the word, the only Bihari Babu.”
But the rider that came along took the edge off the pompousness as SS once
again cautioned anybody who was delusional about his greatness. “I myself
never feel great, I only feel greatly blessed,” said he. “I did have the passion,
I did go after the passion, passion ko taraasha hain, nikhaarte gaye (I
polished the passion, constantly improved on it), but there is no answer for
why the lottery ticket fell into my hands and not yours. Thus, the winner of
the lottery ticket has no right to show ahankaar (arrogance/ pride) because
frankly, he just got lucky.”
 In his case, before destiny played its hand, only his passion prepped him
for his role ahead. His track record in Patna certainly didn’t portend any
greatness. Once, he even had the college attendance register burnt and then
played innocent by claiming he had 90% attendance.
All this snowballed into making him the Principal’s most disfavoured
student on the campus. NS Nagendranath, Principal of Patna Science College,
couldn’t wait to see the last of this campus no-gooder as his antics worsened
with every passing day. “He disliked me intensely and there was no way I
could have continued in the Science College. Had I remained there I would
surely have been rusticated,” SS accepted.
He dropped out of college in 1963 and ironically returned to the same
campus 12 years later, this time as a celebrity guest because he had become
the pride of Bihar.
The jubilant return to college remained a fresh memory for him. He played
back the scene with great enthusiasm. “You can imagine what an emotional
moment it was for me when the same college invited me as the Chief Guest at
the Diamond Jubilee celebration of Patna Science College – the black sheep
had returned as the blue-eyed boy!”
He conceded, “I believe they wanted to invite Jayaprakash Narayanji to the
function but he couldn’t make it and so I was invited.
“When I reached there, the entire Patna University had come to a standstill.
For the first time in the history of Bihar, somebody had become such a major
star after many hit films like Kalicharan and Vishwanath. That day, the entire
city of Patna was jammed; every road led to the Science College. The public
went crazy. IPS officer Amrinder Pratap Singh on his first posting as ASP to
Patna, who was deputed to escort me to the function, was swept away by the
waves of people and I could see only his cap bobbing up and down in the sea
of human heads. (Amrinder Pratap Singh went on to become Director, CBI.)
The girls had gone crazy, they broke through the barricades.” Without the
girls, the narration was incomplete.
His popularity overshadowed other respected alumni who had also come to
attend the function and this included the ex-Principal of FTII, Mr Jagat
Murari. An ex-student of Patna Science College, Mr Murari was, unlike SS, a
topper who had left college with a first class in MSc. “He was our guru at
FTII,” SS said reverentially. “He was giving his speech when I entered and
the whole stadium stopped listening to him to look at me and cheer my entry.
I felt really bad and embarrassed that day because I was very respectful
towards Murariji. But he had a smile on his face, a look of pride at his student
having become so popular.”
By the time he returned to the campus as a celebrity, SS had grown used to
the sound of his own voice booming before a mike, and he loved speaking
from a public platform. The girls figured even up there on the dais when he
gave his speech as the Chief Guest. He said into the mike, “After
experiencing the way the girls were coming in waves to get close to me
today, I have to tell you that I am the same person for whom the path would
get cleared when I walked past. All the girls would run and hide in the
common room and watch quietly from behind the safety of those walls…”
Those were early days of heady stardom when references to girls were
frequent even in his public speeches, a youthful trait that toned down
significantly after he entered public life as a member of the Bharatiya Janata
Party. Or, after he gained maturity, whichever came later.
But his speech as Chief Guest at Patna Science College was delivered
when swagger and brashness were constants in his personality. Describing his
own speech, he continued, “I confessed to them that when I had left college, I
had a lot of anger, aakrosh (bitterness over perceived injustice) stored inside
me. I wasn’t sure which direction I was heading in. I had so much of
frustration in me that I used to tell myself, ‘If I ever become somebody in
life, one man against whom I’d definitely take revenge in public would be the
respected Nagendranathji, Principal, Patna Science College.’”
This from the Chief Guest was greeted with deadly silence.
But he had thundered on, “…Today I want to tell all of you that if I were to
ever meet respected Shri Nagendranathji, I would fall flat at his feet,
shaastang lete (prostrate before him). I would ask for forgiveness and tell
him, ‘Sir, whatever I am today, is because of you. I was completely wrong in
feeling such resentment, such anger in my youth. Today, I admit that I got
marg darshan, guidance from you. If I had not been up to such youthful
tricks, you would not have thought of warning me with strict action and I
would never have thought of going to FTII. And if I had not gone to FTII, I
would not have become the celebrity, the star I am standing before you today.
I would not have come back as the Chief Guest at this function today. So Sir,
I owe all that I am today to you. The maan, the sammaan, ye sanskar aur
marg darshan (the respect and honour, the values and the guidance), I got it
all because of you… Sir, I think you realised much before I did that this
Science College was not the place for me to be in. You had realised that my
inclination for art and culture was calling me from another direction. So the
right direction came from you, Sir.’”
Whatever the impact of his theatrics on the audience, rare in a speech by
any Chief Guest, SS looked back with pride at his performance that day.
“That became one of my best speeches,” he patted himself. “I believe
people told Shri Nagendranathji about my speech and he was happy to hear
what I had said about him. But to my utter regret, I never did get to meet him
after I left college. No, he did not attend the Diamond Jubilee function.”
If this back-to-campus outing was an unforgettable moment for SS, so was
an uncanny meeting with Pandit Vishnu Kant Jha in the days when the young
rebel still rode his Humbug cycle.
SS narrated, “Ram bhaiya had excelled in studies and was going to
America paani ke jahaaz se. Pandit Vishnu Kant Jha was a very renowned
astrologer who had even been awarded the Padma Shri – perhaps the only
astrologer to have been thus honoured – that too in the days when these
awards were given very stringently, unlike today when they’ve lost their
value and have got diluted and polluted. It was said that he was the astrologer
to people in high places like Dr Rajendra Prasad and Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru. Some people also believed that unhone Kali Ma ko siddh kiya hua
tha, that he had imbibed many of Goddess Kali’s powers.
“When my father took all four brothers to meet Pandit Vishnu Kant Jha, I
went along absolutely half-heartedly. I was the most underestimated boy of
the family, so you can imagine how I was squirming to go before the
astrologer. I’d gone there riding that same old Humbug cycle, grumbling
about where to park it.”
What transpired there left him in no better mood at that time but began to
hold immense significance whenever he looked back at it.
The man of the moment was, of course, brother Ram who’d done
brilliantly in his studies and was off to America.
SS said, “Panditji looked at Dr Ram and it was amazing because he very
accurately remarked, ‘What’s he doing here? He’s got videsh jaane ka yog,
he should be abroad, in a foreign country.’ It was uncanny, he’d absolutely
hit the bull’s eye because my brother was leaving the very next week for
America. He said, ‘Saat samundar paar ka yog hai (His destiny will take him
across the seven seas).’ My father had given him no clues about any of us and
he asked Panditji, ‘What will Ram do in his life?’ Vishnu Kantji answered,
‘He will shine in Physics ya (or) Mathemathics, he has to become a very big
scientist.’ He was right on target because my brother was a first class holder
in Physics, a topper in Engineering and he became a scientist with NASA.”
When it was SS’ turn to show his hand, “I was so disinterested that I
showed it casually, holding it upright, like the hand of the Congress Party.
Panditji was equally casual as he glanced cursorily in my direction and then
suddenly he became very alert. He came closer, caught hold of both my
hands, looked at Kali Mata, then again at me and his expression completely
changed. I thought it was all a big drama. He took out his magnifying glass,
he peered at my hand again, looked once more at Kali Mata and the first line
he uttered to my father was, ‘Sinhasaab, is ladke ka to raj yog likha hai (He
has the destiny of a king).’ Imagine me, with Rs 2.50 per month and a
Humbug cycle, raj yog? But Panditji insisted, ‘He’s got chakras (rings) on all
ten fingers’, and he predicted. ‘This boy will become a very big neta of this
country, kuch aisa-waisa nahin banega, raj yog hai, raj yog (It won’t be
ordinary success, his destiny will be that of royalty).’ He will travel by hawai
jahaaz (aeroplane) as frequently as we travel by rickshaws. Not only will he
fly around the world, even his naukar-chaakar (staff) will travel by plane.
Desh-videsh mein (At home and abroad), he will be much feted and
celebrated. Aur to aur (Moreover),’ he forecast that I would have the most
beautiful wife one day. He used the words, ‘Poonam ke chand ki tarah (She
will have the radiance of a full moon).’ He actually said, ‘Poonam’; he
mentioned my wife’s name. I remember that very clearly.”
What seemed unbelievable to those who were witness to Pandit Vishnu
Kant Jha’s prediction turned into an incredible reality when they lived to see
it all come true.
Years later, film star Shatrughan Sinha was air-dashing from Mumbai
airport with his staff in attendance. As was his wont, the star told his personal
staff (which consisted of his Late make-up man Pratap and batman-valet
Bahadur) to go ahead and board the plane, he’d join them soon. Watching the
whole scene was Pradeep Gupta, his college friend from Patna who looked
like a man witnessing a miracle as he reminded SS about Pandit Vishnu Kant
Jha’s prediction: “Do you remember he had predicted that your naukar-
chaakar will also travel around the world by plane? That’s kismet.”
Poonam Sinha recalled a similar goosebump-giving story she had picked
up from her husband’s Late friend, Madhava Jee.
Fifty years after the incident, and one year before his own death, Madhava
Jee narrated it for the record. He peppered the narration with much Bhojpuri
as he recalled one hot afternoon when SS and he, still schoolboys, were
playing in the verandah of his bungalow. A Brahmin had appeared and said,
“Bahut pyaas lagi hain, bahut bhook bhi (I’m very thirsty and hungry).”
As per tradition, the Brahmin was given water and food, after which he
wanted to rest a while.
When he woke up, the ascetic felt indebted to them but didn’t have
anything to offer the children in return for their kindness – instead he offered
to foretell their future. He read Shatrughan’s palm, his fingers, his hand, his
head, even his toes, and announced, ‘Chakravarty’.
“Shatrughan had chakras on all twenty fingers and toes,” recalled
Madhava Jee. “The Brahmin saw chakras even under his feet, and forecast,
‘He will be such a big man that you won’t be able to pin him down.’
“He told us, ‘My name is Vishnu Dutt. In fifteen years, if I am not proved
right, you can raise a dog in my name.’ He was so confident. In our circle of
friends, no one expected Shatrughan to achieve anything significant. But
around 1972-73, we witnessed such a phenomenal rise in his fortunes that we
realised how right the prediction was.”
Those were early times when it seemed more fiction than prediction. In
fact, the school and college terror riding a Humbug cycle seemed the last
candidate for any kind of substantial achievement. More than anybody else,
SS himself was only too aware that he came off as inferior in front of better
achievers. In school, whenever SS compared himself to his buddy Pravin
Kumar Sinha, he lost out in his own esteem.
 “In school, I used to think Pravin was the last word in film star good looks.
He was very fair and good looking while I was the original scar face. But
today, everybody from my school probably thinks Shatrughan Sinha was the
best looking of the lot,” he smiled at the strange manner in which success
turned opinions around.
Certain innate qualities came to SS’ aid in his quest for fame and fortune,
one of them being, unwavering determination. “Once I made up my mind
about something, the determination to pull it off was omnipresent.”
The determination to go where few dared, surfaced more like an act of
rebellion during his college days.
He spoke of one particular incident. “A day trip had been organised for the
girls and boys of Patna Science College to a famous tourist spot called
Kokolat, a hilly area seventy to eighty kilometres from Patna. I was dropped
from the trip because of my reputation but I found that unacceptable. How
dare they all go out without me? I decided that irrespective of what it
entailed, I would be a part of it.
“A friend of mine called Dhyan Deo Sharma, a toughie who was very fond
of me, met me halfway at Bhaktiyarpur bus depot and took me with him in a
rickshaw which he himself drove. It was blazing hot but we went on that long
dusty ride and reached Kokolat when the bus was about to return. The
professor in charge, Mr DN Singh who didn’t like me at all, couldn’t believe
that I’d had the audacity to actually land up there. When he saw me sitting
inside the bus, he took it as a personal affront and put his foot down. He said,
‘This bus won’t go back to Patna. You have not been invited to join us on this
trip, so until you are out of this bus, it will not move.’ It was getting dark and
I didn’t want to be left alone in a jungle. But at the same time, I had to get out
of the bus. So, unknown to the professor, some of my friends helped me
climb atop the bus. There I was, up on the bus, lying down, holding the bars.
There were big vessels on top of the bus, picnic material. I was angry at being
thrown out and it was such a rough ride that my entire body was being flung
up and down. Inside the bus, the professor and others didn’t realise that the
thumping on the roof was me, they thought it was the vessels. En route, out
of frustration, I kept throwing out the vessels, utensils and plates. It gave me
sadistic pleasure to do that. I now realise that a ride like that was actually a
stunt man’s job but the determination was so strong that I managed to stay up
there till we reached Bhaktiyarpur. When the bus stopped for a tea and snacks
break, I got down, lit a cigarette and stood puffing before the professor.
Everybody was taken aback and wondered how I’d reached there. Some of
the girls were quite thrilled with this display of heroics. To this day, I can’t
forget the look of utter hatred on my professor’s face.
“But the story didn’t end there. My friend Dhyan Deo had some very
influential friends in the transport department there. We created a situation
where the bus just wasn’t allowed to leave. They pretended that the bus had a
problem. But by about 11.30 pm, I myself started getting edgy. I felt that with
girls in the bus, we should move. The professor looked completely helpless
seeing a sadistic smile of triumph on our faces. The determination of an
eighteen-year-old boy to make the authorities look apologetic and helpless
was so firm that when we saw it on his face, we decided to let the bus move,
and returned to Patna by a different one.”
To his credit, SS didn’t avoid talking about such escapades, however
poorly he may have come off in the bargain.
“I know it was a stupid, childish thing to have done. I shouldn’t have,” he
conceded. “I hold no grudge against that professor. If I were in his place
today, perhaps I’d have done the same thing he did. But I have tremendous
love and affection for Dhyan Deo, the friend who helped me that day. Why I
have chosen to narrate this incident at this stage of my life is to underline
how utterly determined I could be. Today it might seem like an insignificant,
even foolhardy feat but at the age of seventeen or eighteen, to have pulled off
such a big thing was very tough and the determination had to be very intense.
Anything could’ve happened to me that day.”
What did happen was that the wayward fourth son of the illustrious BP
Sinha got an extra dose of adrenaline after his successful run at defying
authority. There was no question of redemption as he continued to flounder
and fail in the subjects chosen for him by his father.
SS drew the portrait of a man who was so disciplined that he couldn’t
comprehend an unconventional son who refused to fall in line.
“In direct contrast to my father, I was never punctual all my life, whether I
had to meet Atalji or Advaniji or Jayaprakash Narayanji or go for a shoot. In
the studios, I was often told legendary tales of Pran’s or Madhubala’s
punctuality. But none of them could match my father’s discipline and
punctuality. My father often chided me that despite being his son, how could
I fetch up late everywhere and that too by hours? He’d ask me, ‘When
someone else arrives late to meet you and that troubles you, why don’t you
understand that your latecoming could also hurt someone?’ But as Oscar
Wilde said, ‘Punctuality is the thief of time,’ because you stop whatever you
are doing to reach somewhere on time. Going by the clock has always been
an over-extolled virtue,” SS dryly observed.
If the carelessness over his timing changed in later years, it was not BP
Sinha’s badgering that did it. Strangely, it was politics that somewhat
reformed him. “Usually people go into politics and bigad jaate hain, get
corrupted in their ways but I improved after going into politics,” he briefly
commented before returning to his father.
“My father’s discipline was something else. When I later went to the Film
Institute in Pune, I would send home a telegram telling the family when I
would be arriving. He had strict timings and if he had to go to bed at 9 pm, he
would, irrespective of whether I had reached home or not. He was so
particular about his timings that even when my brothers got married,
everybody had to scurry around to make sure he was given his dinner by
6.30-7 pm, or he wouldn’t eat at all. Breakfast was at 8.30 am, 10.30 to 11
am lunch, 6.30 pm dinner. No tea, no coffee, no alcohol but he used to
smoke.” On this front, it was a clear case of like father, like son, as SS
detailed, “My father smoked but he also had such strong will power that once
he quit it, he never looked back. He had begun to feel, how could he be a role
model if he smoked in front of his children? So he gave it up. I have the same
will power which is why I could also quit smoking and never go back to it.”
His father’s enforcement of discipline may not have had much effect on SS
but some important lessons taught by his father stayed with the actor. One of
these was a basic requisite in etiquette that one must show a person before
turning up at his doorstep. Another was the importance of how every action
should be weighed to see how it affects the other party.
“Once, when I went home from FTII, Baba was very angry. I also reacted
and wondered what was wrong with sending them a telegram. He told me,
‘Why couldn’t you have written us a letter? When your telegram arrived, first
and foremost, we had to get a glass of water, then sit and prepare ourselves
for it because telegrams usually mean bad news. A telegram brings
palpitations to the receiver. When you went to book your train ticket in
advance, why couldn’t you write a letter at that time telling us when you’d be
arriving? Why a telegram at the last minute when you knew your programme
well in advance and there was enough time for a letter?’ I realised he had a
point because I had taken the easy route by sending them a telegram at the
last minute which had disturbed them greatly. It had also unnecessarily cost a
lot more than a letter.
“Similarly, I once went home without informing my family and my father
was again very angry. I was taken aback: why should I inform anybody to go
to my own house? But what I learnt from my father that day has remained
with me to this day. It’s something I’d like to tell everybody else too. I
questioned my father and asked him, ‘Isn’t this my house? Why shouldn’t I
come home without informing anybody?’ And he said to me, ‘Do you know
that we were all going to Benares today? It’s sheer luck that the train was
cancelled and we returned home. What if you had come to a locked house?
Who’d have opened it for you? What would you have done?’ He taught me
that day that whenever you go anywhere, even if it is your own parents’ or
brother’s house, you must check with them beforehand when it would be
convenient to go over to their place. He was absolutely right. Today when
somebody turns up without an appointment, it hassles me because he is
coming at his convenience, uncaring about the convenience of the person he
is visiting. Some people feel bad about it when I make it clear that I don’t like
people dropping in casually without prior appointment. It is not a formality, it
is a courtesy. It is a vital lesson I learnt from my father.”
Irrespective of how fine a man he was, SS’ father was also a human being.
So he had his share of flaws. SS learnt one more life-changing lesson by
default – not to force a child to follow in the father’s footsteps.
“I want readers to realise from my experience that the aptitude of the child
is paramount and not what his parents want him to do. I was simply not
inclined towards it but I was forced to go to Patna Science College, and from
there to a homoeopathic college while my natural aptitude lay in a different
direction altogether. Luckily, I got admission to FTII, Poona, otherwise every
attempt was made to get me into a medical college in Patna. But by the time
that was arranged and I was summoned back to Patna, I’d seen FTII as my
escape route and destination. I’d made up my mind that FTII was where my
future lay. I knew that this was home.”
Brother Bharat gave a different spin to BP Sinha’s apprehensions about his
youngest son. “My father was concerned as a parent because Shatrughan was
surrounded by a wrong group of friends. Some of them from that crowd are
still around him. They are all worth minus-100 without Shatrughan.”
With BP Sinha unwilling to encourage or sponsor SS’ foray into films, it
was once again second brother Dr Lakhan Sinha who came to his aid. “FTII
was a new institute, Sonu must have been in the 2nd or 3rd batch,” recalled
Lakhan. “At first, he was sceptical and replied, ‘Huh, how am I going to be
selected?’ They used to select only ten girls and boys for the acting course
from all over the country. I argued, ‘If you can’t compete for FTII, how can
you compete against such big stars in Bombay?’ He was convinced with my
line of thought and he applied.”
The determination that drove a notorious young student to join a college
picnic in defiance of his professor’s dictum, surfaced once more when he
turned a blind eye to his father’s disapproval and swaggered his way to
Calcutta (now Kolkata) to face his first interview for admission to the
prestigious Film and Television Institute of India.
But it was dramatic on the home front before he got there.
Lakhan fleshed it out: “Photographs, application fee and so on must have
worked out to a few hundred which was a big amount those days. Luckily, I
was earning well – Rs 750 per month in the mid-sixties. So Sonu sent his
application to FTII although he thought he wouldn’t get in.”
SS was so sure that the stringent entry rules would disqualify him
straightaway that he didn’t dare hope to get a call for an interview in
Calcutta. Lakhan recalled the pessimism with much amusement: “When the
postman gave me the letter for his interview, Sonu was at the corner of the
street. I shouted out to him, ‘Hey, you’ve got a call for an interview,’ but he
didn’t believe me and walked off. I started running behind him with the letter
while he walked faster and faster away from me, thinking I was pulling a fast
one on him. I finally caught up with him and only after he read the letter did
he believe me.
“All this while, we had done everything behind Baba’s back. Now the real
problem surfaced: how to send him to Calcutta. At this juncture, my father
had to come into the picture and he straightaway said, ‘He is already so
spoilt. Once he goes there, he will get totally spoilt.’ But he did not oppose
him much because he felt Sonu wouldn’t be able to compete at such a level.
So Sonu went to Calcutta for the interview and when he came back, he was
more confident. But he was still a long way from getting in. When they were
selecting only ten, and you were from Bihar, you were already at a
disadvantage.”
Besides, SS had nothing on his resume to recommend him for an acting
course.
“With my scarred face and tall, lean, mean looks, I knew that the only
qualification I could fall back on would be my confidence,” SS took over the
narrative. “By the time I went for the interview, I had built up enough
confidence to go for it, and while other applicants were tense and rehearsing
scenes, I was back to being carefree and imitating people. People were sitting
under trees and enacting scenes. I had a firm, ‘I have to be selected’ belief
and I went in armed with only my stock of confidence.
“There were four centres for the interviews – Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and
Madras. That’s how these cities were named; they became Mumbai, Kolkata
and Chennai later on. There were other talented candidates like Kolyan
Chatterjee (from Calcutta) and Nipon Goswami (from Assam) who had also
been called for an interview. All of them were very surprised at my cool.”
His chest-heaving confidence was hardly enough to carry SS through the
portals of FTII and into the Hindi film industry. He had to know his
strengths, check his flaws and market his best, which he did instinctively. As
he pointed out, “What the corporate sector calls SWOT analysis which stands
for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, is something I did
with myself right from the beginning.”
Chicago-based orthopaedic surgeon Dr Upendra Sinha who knew him
from his college days, remembered, “After he returned to Patna, all of us
went to a small restaurant and when he showed us how he had enacted a
scene at the interview, my hair stood on end. I wrote on the wall with my
fork, ‘He has been selected.’ We were all immature but we knew that he was
different from us all. He was not normal like you or me, he was something
else.”
He did get selected – on his own merit. No Dad’s influence, no fancy
surname, no privileged seat. The swagger now had substance.
“The panel chose me because they found me very confident and felt I
could be moulded. They found me different and talented,” SS assessed the
acceptance. “The panel that chose me included ex-Principal Jagat Murari,
cinematographer Lal Jaswani and filmmaker Mrinal Sen who was the main
person. Later in life, in many of my speeches, I used to say that if anyone
considered me a non-actor, they may please contact Mr Mrinal Sen because
he was the culprit who chose me for FTII.”
Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha, the academician, was unimpressed by his
son’s admission to FTII and refused to sign the papers. Lakhan remembered
his father’s stand: “He said, ‘I won’t spend a single penny on him.’ He was
very angry with me as well. When applying, I had signed his form as his
guardian. So I took the responsibility of financing him. On an average,
Sonu’s expenses at FTII worked out to Rs 250 per month. Dressco was the
No 1 tailor in Patna and Rauf was its owner-cum-friend. Whenever Sonu
came for a vacation, he would go to Rauf and get one or two suits made for
himself. After he left Patna, Rauf would give me the bill. At that time, a suit
would cost about Rs 250. I remember when I went to the US, I’d ordered a
suit for myself and it had cost me Rs 300. Sonu would get nice clothes made
for himself. I was fine with that because I was aware that in showbiz, he
needed to be smartly dressed.”
For the well-qualified and conventional BP Sinha, his son’s decision to
learn acting was tough to come to terms with. “My father had studied in
America in the early fifties but he was still traditional enough not to accept
that one could undergo training for acting,” SS put it bluntly. Fortunately,
there was no real burden on the youngest son of a secure family to start
making a living and contribute to the running of the household. Besides, he
had older siblings to indulge him and speak up for him.
His brothers were game to let SS go forth and seek his fortune in the
manner he desired. He reminisced, “My eldest brother Dr Ram Sinha was in
America, Dr Lakhan Sinha was teaching at the Engineering College of
Technology in Jamshedpur and Dr Bharat Sinha was just settling down as a
doctor. I was very lucky that my brothers discussed it amongst themselves
and decided that since they were all doing well, they could take a chance and
let the youngest go ahead and pursue his dream. They felt, if he doesn’t make
it, he can always become a compounder. But the fact is, I wasn’t fit to
become even a compounder.” He added, self-deprecatingly, “Isn’t it ironical
that one day I became the Health Minister of India? That’s what a democracy
is all about.”
In 1965, when SS stepped out of Bhuvaneshwar Niwas to head for FTII,
there were three distinctly different emotions on display. Enthusiastic friends
who had gathered to see off the adventurous one were high on adrenaline.
Father BP Sinha was far too miffed to miss his routine – even though his
youngest son was leaving home after midnight to catch a late-night train to
Bombay, he went to sleep at his usual time. And mother Shyama Devi was in
an emotional twist – she almost fainted with anxiety.
SS gave a clear picture of the farewell scene in Kadam Kuan, Patna: “With
my mother fainting with emotional stress, I was in a turmoil. The rickshaw
had already been loaded with my luggage. But seeing my mother, I also
started crying and saying, ‘I won’t go’. Just as there’s a thin line between
pagalpan (madness) and bravery, there is a very thin line between a firm
decision and a U-turn. I nearly turned the decision into a U-turn and started
taking out my luggage from the rickshaw when my friends stopped me and
said, ‘No, no, go ahead.’ My mother too said, ‘Hum theek hai, aap jaayiye
(I’m fine, you carry on).’ I U-turned again and got on to the rickshaw. Still
crying, we reached the railway station. I went to keep my luggage in the
bogey. When I looked around, I was stunned – the most beautiful girl I’d ever
seen in my life was in my compartment. She was sitting right in front of me.
It was Promi, now Mrs Poonam Sinha.”
 2

The Climb To The Top

Tell your story… Tell everyone it’s possible,
and others shall feel the courage to climb their own mountains.

Paulo Coelho

The trauma of leaving home was too fleeting to dampen SS’ youthful spirit as
the excitement of a train ride with the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen and
the overwhelming sights of Maharashtra, overtook all other emotions. The
past went into soft focus, the future beckoned with its clear light.
The first time SS set foot in Bombay, he stayed in Chembur with Lakhan’s
friend Bipin (Brajendra Narayan) who too hailed from Patna. His first
glimpse of the city left him speechless. “I was struck by the awesomeness of
the city. What tall buildings, what broad roads! I reacted to the big city like a
typical Bihari bauwa.”
The awesomeness had its downside too, as the baby step he took into
neighbouring Poona was dispiritingly lonely. There wasn’t a soul to greet
him. It was a complete contrast to the full-throated life he had led in Patna.
Further, admissions to FTII started only two days later, so he had to pretty
much fend for himself in the new city. But with the enthusiasm of his young
years, he pushed ahead without a backward glance.
One of the first people he met and befriended on his first day in Poona,
was Mohinder Verma from the Cinematography course. “I stayed in a lodge
for the first couple of days,” SS smiled at the way his trek to stardom had
begun. “I was excited about being by myself in a new city and told Mohinder,
‘Pehle ghoomne chalenge, let’s take a look at the city and then eat at a hotel.’
I was really keen to get a good look at Poona. We went to Sambhaji Park but
a little past 9.30 pm, we were literally kicked out of the place. Those days,
there was no way you could get food at that time anywhere in Poona. I think I
got some milk from somewhere for 4 annas. So on my first night, I went to
sleep practically on an empty stomach.
“On the second day, Mohinder and I went cycling, double seat. We were
stopped by a policeman but realising that I was an outsider, he was kind
enough to let us off without a fine. That was also the day I got my first
culture shock when I saw girls cycling. Today you see girls in Lucknow,
Patna, everywhere but not in the late sixties. I actually stood there and gaped
at them because I’d never seen such a sight before.
“On the third day, I went to FTII and got my admission. I was noticed for
the way I looked. I was very lean with my shirt tucked in, very dark, tall,
almost 6’2” in height, and weighed only fifty-five kgs. I could see the others
gauging me, wondering whether to rag me or ignore me. I got ragged just a
little bit in the canteen. They asked me how many brothers we were. When I
said, ‘Four’, they asked me, ‘What would you have done if you were five?’ It
was mild ragging. Soon they saw my acting and when I stood on a table in
the canteen and did a villainous act, they were a bit taken aback. They knew
yeh ladka bhari padega, he’s going to be tough to get around,” he stated
unabashedly. “Slowly but surely, I became the ring leader, the canteen king.”
Here too, it was his cinema-loving sibling, Lakhan who visited him. SS
had spoken animatedly to his family about a Manoj Kumar-lookalike,
Trilokinath Parashar from Agra, a new friend he’d made at FTII. SS had
foreseen great stardom for Trilokinath (screen name, Parminder), something
that didn’t come true at all. When Lakhan reached FTII, the first person he
bumped into was Parminder. The warm and affectionate welcome he received
convinced Lakhan that his younger sibling’s ability to make friends was at
work here too.
It was also evident that SS had become one of the top students of FTII,
leaving Lakhan with the satisfaction of having backed the right horse.
“The acting course was very engrossing,” SS stated with the contentment
of one who’d found his true calling. “I was getting good, sound training and
enjoying it too. Asrani (the actor) was my tutor, Roshan Taneja was our
professor. Asrani has said in many of his speeches that the one person he saw
working on himself twenty-four hours was Shatrughan Sinha.”
It didn’t take long for SS to draw attention to himself. He also fell in love
with the city.
“In Poona, my next-door neighbours were Congress-I leaders Sushil
Kumar Shinde, former Home Minister of India, and Vilasrao Deshmukh, the
Late Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Vilasraoji would often remark, ‘Don’t
we look like long lost brothers from the Kumbh Mela?’ Many people felt that
we resembled each other: the same hairstyle, the same kind of moustache, the
same style of dressing. He and Sushil Kumarji were senior to me; they were
learning Law but all of us knew one another well.” The inclination to bond
with people outside the entertainment fraternity was obviously strong in SS.
Bonds with the opposite gender were also inevitable. “In Poona, for the
first time in my life, girls openly showed interest in me,” he recalled with
pleasure. “Poona was the first place where I was on my own. That’s why
Patna and Poona, Bihar and Maharashtra, hold a special place in my heart.
Like Lord Krishna’s two mothers, Devakimaiya and Yashodama, I was born
and brought up in Patna, Bihar but got my training and education in Poona. It
was love at first sight with Poona and I’m grateful to Maharashtra. I will be
grateful to this State all my life because if I hadn’t come here, if I hadn’t got
my training here, who would’ve even heard about me?”
Poona provided the foundation, Bombay gave him stardom. He loved the
acting course at FTII, so far removed from Physics and Chemistry. But here
too, his strong opinions prevented him from wholeheartedly accepting all that
FTII could offer him.
“I made two mistakes while training at FTII,” he rued. “I didn’t care to
attend dance and yoga classes; I was unaware of their importance in my
future. As soon as I’d enter the yoga class in the morning, I’d go into
shavasan (corpse posture in yoga) and fall asleep. If I was pulled up, I’d say,
I’m breathing. I treated the dancing lessons with the same disdain. Mrs
Malviya who taught us dance was beautiful – very fair with blue eyes. And I
tried hard to become her blue-eyed boy. I concentrated more on the teacher
than on what she taught us, and would be turned out of the class most of the
time.” By now all his natural traits that had somewhat been curbed as a wary
newcomer, came to the fore again and SS became both notorious and popular
on the FTII campus.
Ignoring dance and yoga classes proved costly later on in life as dance, he
discovered, was essential in Hindi cinema (even for a man) and yoga was
vital for his all-round well-being.
“Yoga, which I had neglected at FTII became such a passion with me in
later years that I’ve practised it with unfailing regularity for over thirty-five
years. It has kept my blood pressure in check and controlled the stress levels
that arise because of overwork, late nights and a sleep-deprived lifestyle.
Yoga also helped me combat the only bad habit I had picked up in life – my
very unhealthy habit of smoking.”
Among all his achievements in the glamour and political worlds, he
recalled with utmost pride his combat with tobacco. “It made me realise that
if it took such laboured effort to quit a relatively mild habit like smoking,
then how incalculable the effort must be to give up far stronger addictions.
That’s why I firmly believe that drugs, tobacco, zarda, gutka (addictive
consumerables), any kind of addiction, cannot be got rid of by scolding,
beating or threatening the user. They have to be handled with kindness,
understanding, maturity and patience, like you would treat a patient. An
addict needs encouragement, family support, the right kind of counselling
and love. That’s what helped me kick the butt, and I’m the happier for it
today.”
His second negligence at FTII caught up with him in the film studios of
Bombay.
“I had to pay a heavy price for not taking my dance classes seriously,” he
accepted. “During the filming of Raampur Ka Lakshman (1972), Kamal
dance master was picturising the chartbuster, ‘Pyar Ka Samai Kum Hai
Jahan...’ with Rekha, Randhir Kapoor and me, and I had to give thirteen
retakes. Another superhit song, ‘Pukaro Mujhe Phir Pukaro...’ picturised on
Farida Jalal and me in Buniyaad (1972), also required thirteen retakes to get it
right. They were ego-busting experiences.” He said regretfully, “If only I had
taken my dance classes seriously, I wouldn’t have had to face this humiliation
because otherwise I had gained popularity as a ‘one-take’ artiste.”
But in every other way, the training at FTII gave the unmoored SS an
opportunity to anchor himself, work towards a dream goal and cover new
ground. It was here that he first discovered the joy of an instant response
from a live audience. “I did Yatri, a play for the first time in my life,” he
could still recall its pleasurable aftertaste. “I got so many compliments for it;
it was a new high that I discovered. I played a complete villain who finally
breaks down and repents. Yatri was based on the real headline-making story
of a girl who had been abandoned at the railway station by her lover. Even
Jawaharlal Nehru and others had got involved in it and had supported the
girl.”
He was at home on stage because of the confidence he exuded. “There is a
very thin line between confidence and over-confidence,” he warned.
“Confidence has to be backed by something substantial, substantiated by
performance. My determination to head somewhere brought in confidence
and it was a huge asset for me at the Institute. The key to my comfort level on
stage was undoubtedly my confidence, a quality that took me very far in life.
Otherwise, I was bogged down by complexes too,” he revealed vulnerably.
“There was a very famous pose of mine where my fingers would cover half
my face. It was actually because I was shying away from girls, hiding my
scars and fearing jibes over scarface wanting to be a hero.”
FTII brought out a different dimension to the indifferent, irreverent boy
from Patna. “It is a fact that I was a very different person at the Institute,” he
acknowledged. “Unlike the science course that was forced upon me in Patna,
the acting course in FTII interested me immensely. That’s why I tell parents
who want to turn their kids into engineers and doctors, ‘Go by the aptitude of
the child. Don’t force your ambitions on him.’ Fortunately for me, I found
my forte at the Institute.
“FTII energised me. Every three months, I found my body and personality
changing and I could feel deep within me that I was on the right track. Today,
when I attend a function at any medical college as an honoured guest, I
maintain that if I had opted for medicine, I would still have been a student
because I would never have cleared the course. When I had to dissect a frog
in college and I saw blood oozing, my heart had frozen. I was simply not fit
for a career in medicine or surgery.”
At FTII, SS made lifelong friends and struck up a close equation with
award-winning cinematographers KK Mahajan and Manjul Prabhat, sound
recordist Dinesh Chaturvedi and Firoze Chinoy who directed his first student
film And Unto The Void. It became almost a cult film and was shown to
generations of students as a model performance about a condemned prisoner.
Another film titled Are We Doing All This? directed by Roshan Taneja on
student life also introduced SS to stylised acting. There was a scene in it
where he looked at a girl, turned around and growled, “Kuch thanda lao
(Bring me a cold drink),” with great panache. “Thanda lao” became so
popular that it was greeted with applause and cheer. A fan moment also
followed when a canteen boy at Maratha Mandir went up to SS and told him,
“Hey, ‘Kuch thanda lao’, bahut achcha dialogue bola (Hey, it’s a great piece
of dialogue).”
It was an early indication that SS had an impressive, impactful dialogue
delivery.
He later repaid his debt to his first director when he became a huge star in
Bombay and backed Firoze who had not made his mark in Hindi cinema. He
threw his star value into a film called Do Raha which Firoze had bagged as
director. “I did Do Raha free of cost only for him. The producer thought I’d
done it for him,” he snorted derisively. “And he promised me that after the
release, he would give me a Fiat car. I turned him down but he insisted that I
would have to take it; he wouldn’t accept a ‘No’. But once the film was
released, and it became a golden jubilee hit, forget about a car, I didn’t get
even a cycle for it!” It was a typical filmland promise – empty.
As students, Shatrughan and Parashar sometimes dated girls to make a
foursome. SS recalled, “Both of us had befriended two very nice and good-
looking girls from Fergusson College in Poona. But the girl I went out with
started getting too serious about me. For the first time in my life, I received a
love letter that ran into an entire sixty-four-page Titaghar notebook. She sent
it to me in Patna but I was not prepared for a commitment. By then I had met
Promi too, on the train to Poona. And all I could think of was my career.
There was another girl from a very big political family who was friendly with
Parashar but midstream changed loyalties and became very fond of me. She
would phone me up, wait for my calls. All these distractions happened as
they would to any young man. Subhash Ghai used to meet his girlfriend
Rehana (now his wife) and she would ask me to keep an eye on him. I’d go
out to look for him and find Parashar’s girl waiting for me. I saw her again
about ten to fifteen years ago. She was still very beautiful with the same
kashish (seductive appeal) in her eyes.”
There was a valid explanation for the repeated references to the opposite
sex and it didn’t revolve around treating them as conquests. “The reason I
mention the girls is to illustrate that life had brought me to a new crossroad. I
could’ve gone down any path,” said he. “But I was clear that I had to build a
career for myself in Maharashtra. As long as I was struggling, I avoided
getting into a serious involvement with any girl because my laqsh (goal) was
something else. I hadn’t come here to become a villain; my laqsh was to
become a big actor, a name that would blaze the marquee. You know what
the soothsayers had predicted for me.
“I didn’t lead anybody up the garden path because I was aware that I
hadn’t achieved anything in life. I had no money, no work, no name of my
own. I was looking for sahara (support) for myself; I could hardly have taken
the responsibility of looking after anybody else at that juncture. I had the
lagan, the dedication to make a name for myself. There were expectations
from me; I had expectations from myself and there were others too who were
watching me. If I had failed, I would have let all of them down. I could not
afford to go astray; I had to stick to the path that led to my goal.”
It wasn’t easy because there was also the big hurdle of overcoming
parochial prejudices against his State. At FTII, he encountered a marked bias
towards Punjabis who have traditionally been considered best suited for the
Hindi film industry.
“Yes, I saw a bit of it at FTII,” he recalled with regret. “Fortunately, giants
like Adoor Gopalkrishnan, from States like Kerala, had come to the Institute
before me. I was also fortunate that Ritwik Ghatak, a genius considered next
only to Satyajit Ray, was our Vice-Principal and he was very fond of me.”
The complex of being a Bihari gradually receded. Slowly, the prejudice
against the unconventional star aspirant began to melt.
One of the friends he made for life was Jarnail Singh (who is no more). It
was this hearty Punjabi who introduced the boy from Patna to the joys of a
Patiala peg.
“I didn’t even know how to drink and initially I had thrown up violently,”
SS recollected. “All through my years at FTII, I had a drink only on two
occasions.”
While he outgrew the complex of being from Bihar, regionalism persisted
on the campus. He traced it to Roshan Taneja, the teaching guru he looked up
to, and the only person outside his family whose feet he touched.
SS replayed the past: “Despite being one of the biggest success stories of
FTII, I am not a gold medallist. I did not even get a first class at the Institute.
And it had nothing to do with our performance.
“Unfortunately,” he explained, “parochialism had entered the precincts.
Today I don’t nurse a grudge against anybody. Some of them have become
very good friends of mine, and they’re really good souls. Baldev Khosa who
was a year junior to me at FTII is with the Congress Party in Mumbai. Jarnail
Singh who was in my class and would copy Rajendra Kumar, was affable but
very aggressive. Till the end of his life he helped drug addicts and did great
social service. But those days, the Punjabis had formed a gang. I don’t blame
them; they were also away from their families and homes. But in class too,
they would start talking to Tanejasaab in Punjabi which didn’t go down well
with many of us. He was a teacher; he belonged to all of us. But it put so
much pressure on Tanejasaab that even though many thought I would get the
gold medal, ours was the only batch where nobody got even a first class. If at
all I have any shikayat (complaint) against Tanejasaab, it would only be that
regionalism and its resultant pressure made us all second class pass-outs.
Imagine, the batch from which I, one of the biggest success stories of FTII
emerged, didn’t have a gold medallist or even a first class in it. In later years,
Tanejasaab was remorseful about it.”
If one were to overlook that parochial lapse, his gratitude to FTII remained
undiluted. “I cannot say for sure if I would’ve become such a big star if I had
not gone to FTII but I can say that had I not gone there, I would not have
become such a good actor,” SS was unstinted in his praise of his alma mater.
“If you have to become a Lata Mangeshkar or Mohammed Rafi, however
good a bathroom singer you may be, you’ve got to go through proper
training. Raw talent ko taraashna bahut zaroori hai, it requires polishing. I
learnt the importance of timing, discipline, performance, flexibility, body
language, the right use of language and more at FTII.”
Providentially, that unfortunate brush with regionalism didn’t leave him
embittered, especially because Maharashtra embraced him without prejudice
and with liberal warmth.
“I have often been asked if I had any problems because I was from Bihar,
and my answer has always been, ‘My janambhoomi (birthplace) is Bihar but
my karmabhoomi (workplace) is Maharashtra.’ If I had not come here,
perhaps I would never have achieved the kind of worldwide fame that I got.
Duniya mein meri pehchaan, value nahin hoti (I would have had no identity
in this world). Maharashtra is a land of opportunity and hope, yahan sapne
saakar hote hai. Dreams come true here for hundreds of thousands of people.
Personally, I have never experienced any prejudice or bhed-bhaav
(discrimination) against me. I will be grateful to Maharashtra for several
lifetimes for not only nurturing me but also my children and my family.”
It was not just Poona and Bombay but the Hindi film industry too, which
acknowledged talent without caste and colour reservations. SS talked of his
entry into Hindi cinema joyfully.
“Like Asrani, my junior colleague Paintal too, used to remark that I was
constantly evolving and progressing. The first realisation that my confidence
gave me was not that I was ahead of others but that I was not less than
anybody else. It gave me a sense of equality. In the film industry, the only
colour that is recognised is that of success and the only smell they avoid is
that of failure, wherever it may come from. That’s why some people even
from Maharashtra or Punjab have not made it while an unconventional Danny
Denzongpa from Sikkim and Mithun Chakraborty from Bengal could hit the
big-time in the seventies. It was such a huge change for the film industry that
Raj Kapoor remarked, ‘We had fair-skinned heroes at first and now we have
black ones.’ It didn’t matter whether we came from Bihar or Meghalaya or
Kerala. The film industry accepted us without reservation.”
 Poona and FTII became home turf for the boy from Patna. But in 1967,
there was another upheaval in store as he came out of the comfort zone of the
FTII campus to face the sprawling city of Bombay, armed with only a
diploma in acting as his passport to the film studios.
His name was a major point of debate. In a sea of rosy-cheeked, blue-eyed
Punjabi boys led by the Kapoors, Kumars and a Deol, there came two ‘Big
B’s with unusual faces and unrecognisable surnames. They were two
stubborn men from the Hindi belt who didn’t exchange their natural identities
for the promise of stardom. Amitabh Bachchan who became the world-
renowned Big B and Shatrughan Sinha, the beloved Bihari Babu of Hindi
cinema, were both six-footers, their names coincidentally added up to the
same total of fifteen letters, their distinctive voices and clear diction became
legendary, and each upturned existing formulas in the film industry.
Considering the overwhelming odds stacked against him, especially in his
chosen field where Kapoorian good looks ruled, when he walked in, SS’ gait
was tinged with the arrogance of one who believed that stardom would one
day belong to him. He agreed with a chuckle, “True, I entered the film
industry announcing, ‘Confidence, thy name is Shatrughan Sinha!’ I came in
with the swagger and confidence of a star saying, ‘Accept me as I am, scars
and all. I won’t do plastic surgery; I won’t change my name.’”
It wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Initially, he was very apprehensive. “I
didn’t have the shadow of a far-off relative in Bombay. How would I survive
in the strange, big city?”
Unease over the future was a common fear shared by many of the diploma
holders rolling out of FTII. During one such discussion, a senior called
Mohan Kaviya (who later worked with filmmaker Mohan Saigal), gave SS a
tip that boosted his self-esteem: “Either prove yourself better or prove
yourself different.”
“That became my biggest mantra,” SS proclaimed. “I firmly resolved right
at the beginning that I had to be better than the others or at the very least, be
different from the rest. Slowly but surely, I gained that position. To this day, I
don’t claim to be better than everybody else but I’m certainly different from
the rest.”
His style of dialogue delivery became an instant hit with mimicry artistes,
and “Khamosh” became his one-word identity.
“Surprisingly, ‘Khamosh’ didn’t come from one of his films,” revealed
fellow Bihari, Shekhar Suman. “It was Prithviraj’s thunderous ‘Khamosh’
every time he vented his anger in Mughal-e-Azam that inspired Sonu bhaiya.
He repeated it with such flair that he became famous for it.”
“Khamosh” became such a part of SS’ repertoire that he was himself
surprised by its impact. “Stardom can often give a twist, almost a new life to
something,” SS observed, struck by the by-products of fame. “‘Khamosh’
would normally translate into, ‘Silence’ or ‘Shut up’ which is not amusing, it
is offensive,” he analysed. But once it became his takeeya kalam, his
signature exclamation, “Khamosh” became a word that made the listener
smile. SS buoyantly agreed, “Girls, children, everybody loves ‘Khamosh’.
Even in Pakistan, little kids would come up and say, ‘Uncle, just once, please
say “Khamosh!”’ The way I used the word was another manifestation of my
being different from the rest.”
He had other strengths too that offset the absence of conventional film star
good looks or a godfather in the industry.
Dr Upendra Sinha, a friend from Patna, talked of SS’ memory. “He’d
remember hundreds of telephone numbers and always had a huge network of
contacts all over the world.”
There was the additional ability to remain unruffled at all times. Upendra
narrated an incident that illustrated SS’ equanimity. “When he had just come
out of the Institute, I visited him in Bombay and stayed with him at Lovely
Guest House in Santacruz. One night at 2 am, there was an earthquake. The
whole building was shaking and people were rushing out. But even in that
commotion, he shrugged casually and said, ‘Don’t worry.’ I was surprised
that he could stay calm even during an earthquake.”
On that visit, SS took Upendra to meet veteran actor Balraj Sahni. “We
met his handsome son Parikshat too who had just returned from Moscow.
Later, I wanted to see the salty waters of Bombay. I’d never seen a beach
before. Shatrughan dropped me to Juhu beach – he had some work to do –
and promised to come back and fetch me. I went for a run on the beach when
I saw Parikshat jogging with a companion. He greeted me warmly and said,
‘Hello doctor. I can tell that your friend is going to be somebody very big one
day. He’s just got it in him.’”
SS was making an impact.
His pocket money used to be Rs 150 per month which took care of all his
expenses at FTII and in Bombay while he hunted for work. The princely sum
got him one starry 555 cigarette a day, the brand his idol Raj Kapoor smoked.
A bottle of cola was available for 25 paise and the actor remembered with
fondness that Rs 1.50 at a Sardarji’s hotel near Bandra Station fetched him a
whole meal that included rajma (kidney beans) or dal (lentils), mutton and
tandoori roti (Indian bread made in a clay oven). Green chillies and onions
were on the house. All the strugglers, including Subhash Ghai, would get a
satisfactory fill there. But that was an infrequent once-a-day treat, and
carrying on without the next meal became almost a daily ritual.
Evenings at an adda (cheap liquor den) were also regular features where
strugglers met and networked. Contacts were made and given and each drew
from the other the confidence and courage to keep forging ahead.
Those were the days when Krishna Kunj Lodge in Andheri provided a roof
over SS’ head, a roof under which also lived and dreamed four other
strugglers. The rent: Rs 60 per month which came out of his total budget of
Rs 150. His roommates included Bipin Upadhyaya, the Sinha loyalist who
stayed with him till the very end (Bipin passed away in 2008), RR Pathak
who became a film publicist, and sound recordist Suresh Kathuria (a name
often seen in the credit titles of hundreds of Hindi movies).
When life was just fine on a budget of Rs 150 per month, any sum above
that was a bonus to be welcomed. That was precisely what happened to SS
within months of stepping into Bombay. Creatively well-acknowledged
filmmaker, the Late Mani Kaul who was a senior from FTII, directed SS to an
office at Natraj Hotel in Marine Drive where an English film was under
production.
“It turned out to be the office of King Brothers who were making the Maya
Series in English,” SS recalled. Karan Diwan, once a veteran actor, was in
charge of the production department. “The first film I worked in for the Maya
Series was named The Witness in which I had the role of a villain. Karan
Diwan liked me and asked me, ‘How much will you charge?’ I had no clue
what to ask for.”
 What fee to quote and how to ask for it, was an art that FTII had not taught
him. “I also had no relative connected with films nor did I have any practical
experience,” SS pointed out. He, therefore, chose to remain silent and was
taken aback when Karan Diwan asked him if he’d be okay with a fee of Rs
150 a day. A day? That was his sum for the entire month. “It was a big
amount for me,” he stated guilelessly. “If I had negotiated with him, perhaps
I could have got Rs 500 or even Rs 1,000,” he remarked in hindsight. “But I
didn’t know that then and I thanked him.” It was a four-day assignment
which worked out to Rs 600, a huge bonus for the lad.
An excited SS went home to Patna and gifted his mother a saree – it was
his first gift from his first earnings to the mother who had backed him
unquestioningly. It didn’t matter that his first assignment in Bombay
wouldn’t even figure in Wikipedia on his list of films.
“I laid the saree at my mother’s feet and gave the rest of the money to my
parents,” he placed on record. “Giving your first salary to your parents is an
indescribable feeling. It’s something which today’s generation does not
follow,” he added.
When SS returned to Bombay, he swung by the King Brothers’ office to
say ‘Thank you’, and the visit turned out to be fortuitous. An Englishman
who was passing by, paused, gave him a second and then a third look.
Perhaps he recognised him as the actor from The Witness. The Englishman
was a film director called Allen Barren and, whatever the reason for his
interest in SS, he offered him a dacoit’s role in his next film, The Khandur
Uprising. An over-enthusiastic young SS grabbed the offer, and clinched it
with a bit of straight-faced fibbing.
SS acknowledged that he had indeed uttered an untruth to seal the deal. “I
was offered the chance to play the lead role of a dacoit with a rider – I had to
know horse riding. The truth was, I had never ridden even a donkey in my
life but I pretended that it would pose no problem at all. Allen was so pleased
that my fee went up to Rs 200 a day. I thanked him profusely. I had five
days’ work in this film and we went to Kashmir for the shooting. For the first
time in my life, I flew by plane – I cannot ever forget the experience.”
SS may have come a long way since the Rs 150 fee. But he didn’t have a
long or frustrating waiting period as work began to trickle in almost
immediately after he emerged from FTII.
After his debut flight, SS also got his first taste of the good life when he
shared a houseboat in Kashmir with renowned writer and theatre personality,
Pandit Satyadev Dubey (who passed away in 2011).
“We had a wonderful time out there. I used to order two fried eggs every
morning; there were no restrictions on eating and drinking. We got beer on
location. So how can I ever be anti-America?” he questioned. “I also saw an
air-conditioner for the first time.”
The icing on the cake for the young man who was still footloose and
fancy-free came in the form of a lady doctor with whom he quickly struck up
a two-way exchange of affection. The lady rushed to his help when his lie
came unstuck.
“It was great going until the first shot was to be taken – on horseback,”
winced SS. “The director said, ‘Gallop, start with a trot, then gallop.’ I had no
idea what a trot or a gallop meant. He placed the camera in a vehicle and told
me to follow it on horseback, holding a gun. Instead, I held the seat of the
horse tight and wouldn’t let go even when the director screamed, ‘Leave it,
leave it.’ Then he said, ‘Sit straight on the horse and aim your gun.’ I tried to
pull the trigger but there was no sound, and that’s when he caught on that I
had lied – I was no trained rider, no rider at all.”
Even in this situation, the new actor who’d been caught out didn’t cower or
cringe but blustered his way out of it. “I fired three, four shots in the air and
charged the director with abusing an Indian! I dramatised and politicised the
whole thing,” SS unabashedly confessed, revealing another early sign of a
politician in him. “All the army men got angry and they too agreed that this
was no way to talk to an Indian actor. Actually I was the one who was truly at
fault,” he remorsefully added. “But I chose to go for melodrama.”
He continued to dramatise the situation much to the poor American’s
dismay. “In the second shot, I had to run, take a leap and ride off on
horseback. The running was fine until I made a big blunder. I should not have
approached the horse from behind and startled it. But I did just that. I came
from behind, kept my hand on the horse and jumped. The horse panicked,
gave me a sound kick and I fell. I bruised my knee but the dramatics I
indulged in exceeded the injury. The lady doctor proved very useful at this
point. She started attending to me and that felt really good. She bandaged my
bruise and recommended rest. The director was naturally upset at this and had
to change the whole sequence. I was made to sit in a car because I was now
the injured soldier. Finally, we came to the last shot. A trolley rehearsal took
place at 5 pm on the last day. In about 2 minutes, the shot would have been
over but the cameraman and his team came down from the trolley. They
refused to shoot for even a minute after 5 pm and the one single shot was
done the next day. By 9.30 the next morning, it was canned but I got paid an
extra day’s fee of Rs 200.”
At FTII, horse riding and swimming were not on the curriculum. “With
great difficulty, they taught us how to drive a car,” he snorted. The incident in
Kashmir, however, prompted SS to clean up his act and add riding to his
armour until he was at ease on horseback.
Television was practically unknown in India in the sixties but many actors
could make a living with assignments like the Maya Series which was for
MGM on American TV. It also helped that irrespective of the medium, word
spread about the new boy with big expressive eyes and an impressive
dialogue delivery.
It was a matter of pride for SS that his style of acting set off a series of me-
toos which prompted another comment from him. “People from all over the
world have copied me,” he said, “but to this day I have never copied anyone.
I seem to have been a role model for many. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m
still looking for my role model.”
The inspirations, however, were many and the several hands that helped
him on his trek to stardom found a permanent place in his heart, one of whom
was the genial Dev Anand. But there was more affection and respect for the
Late actor-filmmaker than gratitude. As SS put it, “People said that Dev
Anand gave me a break. It suited me to go along with that.”
The non-debatable point was that Dev Anand was extremely courteous to
the unconventional-looking FTII-trained actor. “It was my great luck that
Devsaab would talk to me with warmth and politeness,” acknowledged the
star from Bihar. “He had a lot of style about him; it was intoxicating to be
with him. You automatically felt like going limp and talking like him.
“He offered me the very insignificant role of a Pakistani Colonel in Prem
Pujari (1970). It was a tiny role but there was a particular shot in it where I
threw a cigarette into my mouth with much flair. It caught the attention of
many and I got noticed though it was only a very small part.”
Along with the difficult task of gaining recognition, SS had to grapple with
the right name to flash across the screen. Today it seems unreal because he
has made such a strong impact with his name. But the truth is, he was once
known only as SP Sinha.
His name mutated quite a bit before he pinned it down to the heavy weight
Shatrughan Sinha. “I had another small role of a police inspector in the Late
Mohan Saigal’s Manoj Kumar-Asha Parekh starrer Saajan (1969). In both
Prem Pujari and Saajan my name in the credit titles was SP Sinha. But I felt
that it didn’t suit me, it sounded like a retired bureaucrat’s name. My name in
college was ‘Shatrughna’ Prasad Sinha. People were finding ‘Shatrughna’ a
tongue-twister. I dropped the surname Prasad to make it simpler and I
changed my name to ‘Shatrughan’ which was easier to pronounce.”
Filmmaker Mani Kaul who had directed him to King Brothers for his first
assignment, was instrumental in SS freezing his screen name as Shatrughan
Sinha. He had helped SS see the wisdom in retaining his own name for the
screen by raising the question, “If people can remember Richard Burton and
Rock Hudson, why won’t they remember ‘Shatrughan’?” It was Mani Kaul
who uttered the truism, “Kaam chalega toh naam bhi chalega”. If your work
is accepted, your name will be too. It firmed up Sinha’s decision to go with
the name he had been christened with.
Brother Bharat wondered if he also had a hand in SS’ decision. He said, “I
was in medical college when Shatrughan came out of the Film Institute and
talked about changing his name. It was a fashion with young people to think
of a name-change. I remember telling him at that time, ‘Don’t ever change
your name. A family of four brothers named Ram, Lakhan, Bharat and
Shatrughan is so unique in this world, you won’t find another like us
anywhere else. So never change your name.’ Maybe what I said got stuck
somewhere in his memory.”
But it was a name that changed with the region where it was uttered. SS
narrated with delight, “Punjabis would call me Shatrughanj like Paharganj or
Daryaganj. Bengali friends would make it Shatrughno, like I was Dr Noka
bhai. Gujaratis would turn it into Shatrujan Siyan. People in the North-East
would call me, Chatulgan Chinyah. South Indians would go, Shatrughnaa.
My Sindhi mother-in-law would call me Shatrughun (rhyming with goon),
‘Arre Shatrughun, ladki ka chakkar chhodo, itna bada actor ban gaya (Stop
chasing skirts, you’ve become a very popular actor today).’” SS’ voice
changed as he mimicked the different accents to perfection.
A tongue-twister for a name, fast-track dialogue delivery and dynamic
screen presence led to the editor of Stardust, Shobha Rajyadhaksha (now
Shobhaa De) and her colleague Uma Rao joining forces to coin the nickname
‘Shotgun’ for him. It stuck to Shatrughan for life.
But before the nicknames came from the media, he had to catch the eye of
the people who mattered. As noted earlier, the few from Bihar like Bhagwan
Sinha and Narayan Tiwari who had found some work in Hindi films were not
really stellar names who could play godfather to a lanky youth from their
home State.
“When I went to meet Mr Narayan Tiwari,” recalled SS, “he thought I’d
come like a tourist or a fan to see him shooting and said, ‘Come in the
afternoon, I’ll be shooting with Dara Singh.’ Actually he was in no position,
unfortunately, to help anybody else. Then I met Chitraguptji, the great music
director, also from Bihar. He was a thorough gentleman but it wasn’t his time
at the top either. Years later, when I made a film titled Bihari Babu, I went to
Chitraguptji for the music. By then the shoe was on the other foot, I had
become a star. But when I started out in Bombay, those who were already
working here were themselves in no position to help anyone.”
However, graduates from FTII watched out for one another. SS’ senior,
Mohan Kaviya introduced him to Gogi Anand who in turn took him to his
uncle, Dev Anand. “When Devsaab gave me a role in Prem Pujari, I thought
he would take me to London but my work was completed in one day in
Nashik-Shirdi itself,” chuckled SS.
He did all that strugglers of his time were wont to do. Pawan Kumar, SS’
secretary of more than forty years who started taking care of the actor’s
professional career from 1969, would accompany him on his bus rides to the
studios. “He would choose to sit right in front on the top deck where nobody
who may recognise him would see him,” remembered Pawan. “We’d take the
bus to Worli and from there, a taxi to the studio gate.”
Strugglers’ tales had a charm of their own, especially in hindsight. SS
remembered, “When we’d all sit together in the evenings, my friends would
tell me, ‘You don’t have what it takes to be another Pran. Prem Chopra is
very good looking, so don’t even try going there. If at all you make it, it will
perhaps be in Joginder’s category.’ At this, somebody else would pipe up,
‘But Joginder can at least do the bhangra (dance form of Punjab),’ while
another would say, ‘Never mind, isko acting toh aati hai, he does know
acting if nothing else!’” Thrown together by common desires, the sessions
were thus a mixture of well-intentioned advice, hearty chuff-ups and cheeky
put-downs.
The strugglers who met every day included Subhash Ghai, a senior from
FTII. SS and Subhash Ghai shared a stormy equation that crossed four
decades and swung from intimate bonding to complete intolerance of each
other, with long periods of hanging in between the two extremes.
SS was extremely forthcoming about his friendship with Subhash Ghai
which dated back to 1965. “Subhash was a senior who had passed out when I
went to FTII but he would keep returning to the campus to meet Rehana in
Poona. When they finally got married, I was well on my way to becoming a
star. I had my own car by then, a Ford Consul with the number plate 315
(which added up to his favourite number 9) that earlier belonged to Sharmila
Tagore. Maybe Sharmila was unaware of who had bought it but owning her
car gave me a big thrill. It was in that car that Subhash set off for his
wedding. He got married in filmmaker Atmaram’s bungalow in the
prestigious Juhu-Vile Parle Development Scheme (JVPD).” Atmaram (Guru
Dutt’s brother) had directed Subhash Ghai as an actor in Umang (1970) and
lived in JVPD, the same starry area where SS later built his own sprawling
bungalow, Ramayan.
“Under the chairmanship of Mr Subhash Ghai,” declared SS, tongue firmly
in his cheek, “I got introduced to all the addas frequented by strugglers –
Minnie ka adda, Pascal ka adda, Aunty ka adda. Those were the days of
prohibition in Maharashtra and the local police would sometimes raid them.
Bipin, Subhash Ghai, ace cameraman KK Mahajan and I were part of the
same gang that met regularly and struggled together. Sometimes Javed
Akhtar would join us. At one time I was to share a room with Javed Akhtar in
Bandra but he turned me down because the rent was Rs 60 per person. He
used to cough up that amount with great difficulty and he was afraid that if I
didn’t come up with my share, he would have to pay for me as well. So he
said, ‘No’. But all of us would meet.
“I was no drinker. It was Subhash Ghai who played a lead role in turning
me into a drinker. We used to get feni from Goa for four annas, dal vada
(Indian snack) to go with it for another four annas and Panama Wills
cigarettes. I used to close my nose and drink because I couldn’t really bear
the smell. We would sit and drink every evening.”
Drink and network. Encouragement arrived for the scarred aspirant from
several unlikely quarters, including the owner of an adda.
One day, SS was overjoyed to find his photograph on the sets of Dev
Anand’s film published in Screen, the film weekly. It called for a celebration
but Pascal, the owner of a bar in Khar, had a different reception for his Bihari
customer that evening. Pascal wouldn’t accept money from SS that day and
also told him, “Don’t come here from today onwards.” He generously offered
to have his liquor delivered to the young actor wherever he wanted, advising
him that an adda was no place for a rising star to frequent.
“I was extremely touched by his gesture and concern for my reputation and
image,” quipped SS. “Pascal told me that day, ‘You will become a very
major actor, there’s a buzz about you.’ I believe he had told Rajendra Kumar
the same thing. When he told me that it wouldn’t befit my status to be seen at
his bar, I knew that this was a very genuine well-wisher. I never went to his
bar again. As Pascal had foreseen, I did become a major star but for the next
five years I didn’t touch alcohol at all.”
His respect for Pascal’s call to stay away was also because SS himself was
conscious of his status in society and cautious about not being caught in the
wrong place or in dodgy company. A strong advocate of uncompromising
behaviour by celebrities, he believed that since they made an impact as role
models, their conduct had to always be way above reproach. It was a
recurring thought in his narratives.
Just as he began smoking cigarettes because Raj Kapoor looked so heroic
with his 555 pack, he narrated another incident that had left an impression on
him way back in his school days. “I’d gone with Lakhan bhaiya to meet
Prithviraj Kapoor at Hotel Pilani in Patna,” said SS. “He was such an
impressive-looking man, gora-chitta, wearing a silk lungi (unstitched lower
garment), smoking a cigarette stylishly. He was Raj Kapoor’s father to boot. I
was watching him with awe when I overheard him talking about a child
sitting nearby. He said that the child’s parents had left him there saying, ‘He
doesn’t study, doesn’t do anything, take him to “Bambai” and make him an
actor.’ I heard Prithviraj Kapoor remark, ‘Left to myself, I’d take the pants
off such a child and bum pe do chabuk maar deta (plant two whiplashes
across his bum).’ My face fell in a second. The famous father of such a
famous man, what kind of language was he using? I was so disillusioned that
I didn’t want to hang around any longer. When a man I looked up to used
words like ‘pants off’ and ‘bum pe chabuk’, I was shattered.”
He was disappointed enough to narrate the incident many years later to his
senior friend, Dharmendra who was also known for his colourful Phagwara-
style abuses.
“When Dharamji would start his, ‘Ben ki...’ (typical abuses involving
mothers and sisters), I’d tell him, ‘You are admired as Dharmendraji. If you
use language like this, won’t the person you are abusing be shattered the way
I was when I heard Prithvirajji use crude Hindi words?’” SS’ argument would
make the essentially good-natured Dharmendra stop mid-sentence and admit
sheepishly, “Arre yaar, Shatru, you are right.”
“If you were to hear Atalji or Advaniji use street language like, ‘Ay saala,
do kaudi ke biddu (You there, bloody worthless fella)’ or a four-letter word,
won’t you be disillusioned?” questioned SS, as he went on to state, “I have
always believed that a public figure must conduct himself in such a way that
he lives up to people’s expectations. With due respect, when Nitin Gadkari
was the BJP adhyaksh (President), he passed a remark about Lalu Prasad
Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav and said, ‘Kutte ki tarah talve chaatte hai
(They behave like dogs)’, which I found unpardonable. Ultimately he had to
apologise for it but by then he had come down in many people’s esteem. The
same Nitin Gadkari once also said, ‘Is Afzal Guru the damaad (son-in-law)
of the Congress? Has the Congress given its daughter to Afzal Guru?’ I find
such language despicable and strongly feel that it lowers your status before
the public. When Sonia Gandhi said something much milder like ‘Maut ke
saudagar (Merchants of death)’, there was such an uproar. One could
actually have forgiven her for that lapse because her grasp over Hindi was so
minimal.”
This was fortunately not the insincere posturing of a politician. Said FTII
junior and close friend Shashi Ranjan, “Contrary to his image of being a
motormouth, Sonu does not abuse even when he is amongst buddies. In all
these years, the maximum he’ll come to using a swear word is by going
‘hmmm’. He can never bring himself to actually mouth a cuss word and he
still does a double take when anyone is abusive in front of him.”
In his early days too, for all his swagger and notoriety, SS was never the
abusive rowdy. Perhaps that was one of the traits that drew seniors to
recommend him. His fluency with Bengali also helped him make friends in
the right places. The otherwise egoistic Ritwik Ghatak would even visit him
at home.
“Because I spoke in Bengali, Biswajeet also liked me and would take me
around in his car. He thought I had it in me to make it big in films. That’s
why when I became a star I did a Hindi film free of charge for him. I also did
Manmohan Desai’s Naami Chor (1977) with Biswajeet where I came in only
at interval point and still got a lot of applause.”
SS was childlike in recalling what a kick he got out of riding in fancy
wheels with celebrities. “The first time I had the good fortune of riding in an
Impala car which was a great status symbol back then was with Bharat
Bhooshan. I would go with him in his Impala till his house after which his
driver would drop me. But even if I had to go only a short distance and it was
raining, I would tell the driver to leave me at Dadar Station just to get a
longer ride in his car. It didn’t matter that it meant coming back by train,
dripping wet.”
SS would also ride with Dev Anand in his Fiat, another reason to feel
thrilled.
SS was still a small-timer but he was making his presence felt even when
he appeared for a flash on screen. And he liked hanging out with the big fish.
“Once, I went with Dev Anand in his car to FTII and felt very privileged to
go with him to my campus. On the drive to Poona, I was watching him
keenly and was very amused when he wanted to empty his bladder en route.
Such a big star but he needed to find a tree quickly. Ultimately, never mind
the cars coming and going relentlessly, he just had to relieve himself!” As
wife Promi pointed out earlier, toilet facilities were always a fetish with SS.
“At FTII, Devsaab delivered a lecture. I had got a part in Prem Pujari by
then and I thought he would mention me in his speech. But Dev Anand was
all about Dev Anand though I must admit that he spoke very well.”
Among the few names on his ‘Thank You’ list, there was only one heroine
– perky, toffee-nosed Mumtaz.
Pawan Kumar underscored Mumtaz’s hand in his career. He remembered a
Manmohan Desai film in which she was the heroine opposite Biswajeet, and
Ratan Mohan was the producer. Her cousin Roopesh Kumar was keen to play
the villain in it. But she put her foot down and rooted for ‘this new boy
Shatrughan Sinha’, a decision that really cheesed off her cousin.
“It was a great honour to know Mumtaz,” said SS affectionately. “I was
shooting for a Ramsay film called Ek Nanhi Munni Ladki Thi (1970) as the
villain and Mumtaz was the heroine. I also had the privilege of working with
two veterans in that film. One was Prithviraj Kapoor and the other was
Jayant, Late Amjad Khan’s father.”
At this point, SS made an important digression: “I must be the only actor
who has acted with the maximum number of people; it must be another
record that few can match. Right from Dilip Kumar to David Dhawan, from
Ashok Kumar to Anil Dhawan, from Prithviraj Kapoor to Raj, Randhir, Rishi
and Ranbir Kapoor, Babita and Neetu, from Nana Palsikar to Nana Patekar,
from Balraj Sahni to Akshay Kumar, Leela Chitnis and Lalita Pawar, from
Zeenat Aman to Zarina Wahab, Asha Bhosle to Asha Sachdeva via Asha
Parekh, from Meena Kumari to Tina, Leena and Reena, from Jayant to
Amjad and Imtiaz Khan, from Kanhaiyalal to Kishore Kumar, Keshav Rana
to Keshto Mukherjee, from Salman and Shah Rukh to Saif Ali Khan, I have
worked with them all. Even Amitabh Bachchan did not have the good fortune
of working with Meena Kumari but I did in Mere Apne. I was lucky that I got
to work with such a variety of people. I learnt a lot and picked up pointers
from each of them. Jeevan and Pran were irreplaceable. How many have
worked with Manoj Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor,
Rajendra Kumar, Dharmendra and Jeetendra, besides Dilip Kumar and Dev
Anand? I guess it merits a place in the Limca Book of Records.”
 Coming back to Mumtaz, SS claimed it was, “Love at first sight with a lot
of affection.”
“Mumtaz really appreciated my performance and behaviour. On the first
day itself, she offered me a lift home; she had an open Buick or Impala. At
that time I lived in the Krishna Kunj Lodge at Andheri but I was game to go
all the way to Gobind Mahal on Marine Drive (in South Bombay) just to chat
with her. She too had a great sense of humour and we chatted happily all the
way to Marine Drive from Madh Island via Filmistan Studio. When we went
to Poona for an outdoor shoot, Mumtaz presented me with a silk lungi and
kurta (Indian clothes) which I wore very often. It gave me great pleasure to
wear something that Mumtaz had gifted me. It saddens me that I don’t know
what happened to these after a few years.”
The friendship lasted longer than the outfit. “We became so friendly that I
could even go up to her bedroom. But let me make this very clear. It was a
completely platonic, above-board friendship between two like-minded
buddies. There was never anything romantic or sexual in this friendship but
Mumtaz definitely went out of her way to help me in my career. This
friendship, however, also cost me dearly when it came to doing movies with
filmmakers like Yash Chopra who was then said to be romantically involved
with her. Mumtaz was so fond of me that we’d sit together, have lunch and
chat in her bedroom. I got four films because of Mumtaz – Pyaar Ka Rishta
(1973) with Sultan Ahmed, Naami Chor and Shararat (1972) with Biswajeet
and Manmohan Desai respectively, and Khilona (1970) which was the
turning point of my career.”
Khilona was the film that set him off on the ride to stardom. But it was also
the film which he nearly lost for a handful of reasons. “That’s true,” he
confirmed, as he outlined the details. “I had actually been turned out of
Khilona. I had great respect and affection for LV Prasadji (famous producer
from the South) but they thought I would look too young in front of Mumtaz
and Sanjeev Kumar. Agha Jaani Kashmiri, the writer, was in favour of taking
me; he tried his best to support me. But it was Mumtaz who really pushed my
name forward. Her cousin Roopesh Kumar was miffed because his sister was
recommending my name so much. I returned dejected from my meeting with
the producers of Khilona because I really wanted to do that role of a Bihari.”
But it was a role that destiny had reserved for him. In fact, it was Khilona
that gave birth to the film industry’s Bihari Babu. The current Director
General of Police Homeguard, Mumbai, Rakesh Maria’s father was closely
associated with Bhappi Sonie Productions, and he liked SS. Maria was a
well-loved man who had a close friend in the production unit of Khilona. All
of them pooled their contacts and wangled a call from LV Prasad for SS.
“I was still staying at Krishna Kunj Lodge in Andheri where six of us
shared a room. I went from there to meet Prasadji and he confirmed that in a
few days, they’d start shooting with me in the cast. Uff, I was flying, I was so
excited to have bagged Khilona from LV Prasad! I did that role for about Rs
4,000. When I had worked for Rs 150 and Rs 200 per day, this was a big
amount but it was an assignment I’d have done for any sum.”
Being aboard, however, didn’t necessarily translate into smooth filming.
He stumbled on the very first day of shooting.
“Mumtaz was doing a mujra (dance form originating from courtesans in
the Mughal era) at the end of which I had to say, ‘Wah, wah, Chand Bibi,
wah.’ For some reason, the ‘Confidence, thy name is Shatrughan Sinha’
swagger deserted me and I just couldn’t bring myself to say something as
simple as, ‘Wah, wah’. I think I was blanking out because everybody’s focus
was on me. It was unnerving for a newcomer to live up to expectations with
everybody looking on with so much resentment and saying, ‘Theek tarah
bolo (Say it properly).’ Even the make-up man said, ‘Kahe ko ghabrata hai,
arre theek bolo na (Don’t be so nervous, just deliver your line properly).’
Lunch break was announced without a single shot canned. I was sure they’d
drop me from the film. It was at this juncture that Mumtaz really spoke up for
me. The Leo woman was at her fiery best when she ticked off everybody for
putting so much pressure on me. She stood there saying, ‘What’s with all of
you? Why is everybody directing him and pressurising him? Is this the way
to treat a newcomer?’ There was silence everywhere and my confidence
returned with her support. We hugged each other with the glint of a tear in
the eye and I finally gave the shot. I had been demoralised because there were
so many people who didn’t want me there,” he repeated softly.
“Later on, Sanjeev Kumar, the hero of the film, became my one true friend
for life. We did have a misunderstanding after a few years where we’d even
stopped talking to each other. But once it was sorted out, we embraced each
other and became such good friends that I believe, any understanding that
comes after a misunderstanding lasts forever.
“Mumtaz helped me so much that she would even carry prints of my FTII
film And Unto The Void to producers to show them my work. We didn’t have
videos or DVDs then, so she would carry these prints around. She showed it
to so many producers – I shall always be indebted to her for it. But there was
a lot of irresponsible, loose talk about us. It was totally untrue but was
perhaps instrumental in my losing out on BR Chopra’s Ittefaq. They were not
getting Rajesh Khanna’s dates and talks were on between the banner and me
to do that role with Nanda. After I lost out on Ittefaq, I never got a chance to
work with Mr BR Chopra or Nanda, although years later, I did get the
opportunity to work with his brother Yash Chopra in Kaala Patthar.
“It was strange how I lost Ittefaq. We had a meal at BR Chopra’s place, we
talked of dates and everything was finalised when I heard from people that
Yash Chopra didn’t want me in the film. Losing that film proved the saying
that there is many a slip between the cup and the lip because I had been
finalised to do the role. I was heartbroken but I also found consolation in the
fact that they had got Rajesh Khanna’s dates. He was the reigning superstar
and anybody would have preferred him to a newcomer like me.”
The hurt lingered for a while and surfaced when BR Chopra offered him a
plum role in Dhund.
“Call it naïveté or foolishness but because I was still miffed over losing
Ittefaq, I turned it down,” SS explained flatly. “By then I had also started my
journey as a leading man and Dhund turned out to be a great break for Danny
who became a star with that film.”
The misconstrued friendship with Mumtaz thus helped and harmed SS.
“Whatever the setbacks caused by the friendship, Mumtaz was
undoubtedly of immense support to me,” he maintained. “Before her
marriage, she was keen that we do one film as hero-heroine which we hadn’t
done so far. There had been an offer for Rajkumar Kohli’s Naagin but I
couldn’t do it. Nonetheless, many years later, after marriage and two
children, when Mumtaz made a comeback to films with my close friend
Pahlaj Nihalani’s Aandhiyaan, she was very keen that I do the role of a
politician opposite her, which of course I did.
“Once indebted, always indebted,” he quipped. “So I’ll always be indebted
to Mumtaz and we are friends to this day. A few years ago, when she was in
the early stages of breast cancer, I went to London and met her.”
On her part, Mumtaz had the satisfaction of knowing that she had placed
her faith in the right person because the unknown young actor she strongly
recommended packed a punch even in inconsequential roles and made a
positive impression everywhere he went. He began with one-day assignments
in films like Pyaar Hi Pyaar and soon graduated to substantial parallel roles,
standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the same hero, Dharmendra.
“My kismet was brilliant,” he remarked. “I was lucky to have made such
an impact that even a reputed writer like MJ Akbar (currently Rajya Sabha
MP and spokesperson for the BJP) told me, ‘It was after watching you smoke
stylishly in Prem Pujari that we started smoking cigarettes. And you’ve
kicked the butt leaving us with the habit?’ In Pyaar Hi Pyaar, Pran played a
blackmailer but there was a twist in the tale where he began to be
blackmailed by somebody else, which was me. I had to sit on a chair and talk
over the phone. Surprisingly, this small scene got a lot of attention; a lot of
people liked me in that shot and wondered who this new boy was.”
It wasn’t very long before he was recognised well enough for the lay
person to start seeking his autograph. The first brush with such fame was
imprinted in his memory.
“I was at Delhi airport when an airline official came running up to me,
asking for an autograph. I looked behind to see whose autograph he was
asking for and was pleasantly surprised when he said to me, ‘I want your
autograph; you were so good in Pyaar Hi Pyaar. One day you’ll definitely
become a very major star.’ I signed one of my first autographs that day. The
airline official’s name was Shambi. He’s now well settled in Chandigarh and
leads a happy life with his family. He became a friend and I have kept in
touch with him to this day.”
Signing an autograph was a big deal because, along with his dreams of
stardom, SS had also been practising the perfect signature.
“A lot of people have found my autograph very artistic and flamboyant.
But it didn’t come about spontaneously,” he disclosed. “I was struggling and
wasn’t getting Khilona but I was confident that I would make it as a star. So,
sitting in my room in the Andheri lodge, I would endlessly practise my
autograph. The autograph you see now was not born overnight. Many hours
of labour and practise have gone into it.”
On the journey to stardom, there were the customary heart-breaking
rejections too but they didn’t leave him thirsting for revenge. A certain
producer who had paid him Rs 100 and then thrown him out of his film,
returned a few years later to sign him as a hero opposite Zeenat Aman. “But I
didn’t hold a grudge against him because let’s face it, he hadn’t dropped me,
he had thrown out an unknown newcomer. I took it as a question of demand
and supply. Similarly, when he came to sign me on as a hero, he wasn’t
coming to me personally but to a star. And since the terms suited me, I did
his film. By adopting this attitude, I managed not to harbour toxic feelings of
revenge.”
Pawan Kumar had an amusing story to share. While working in Ratan
Mohan’s film Shararat (1972), director Manmohan Desai told SS that he had
recommended his name for another film he was making for producer Kamal
Mehra and to drop in at the shooting to finalise the deal. “We went to Shree
Sound Studio in Dadar where the shoot was on and three chairs were put out
on the side of the set for us to talk to the producer who asked us what Sonu
would charge as his fee. We were in a fix because we had no clue what to ask
for, so we threw the ball in his court and said, ‘You tell us what you’re
offering us,’ while he insisted that we quote our price. Our dilemma was that
Sonu was getting Rs 6,000 for the other film he was doing with Manmohan
Desai. We were scared that if we quoted the same fee and this producer found
it too high, we would lose the film. We just wouldn’t talk of the fee until the
producer finally gave up and said, ‘Okay, I will give you Rs 20,000. Would
that be all right?’”
“All right?” Pawan Kumar laughed as he recalled the incident. “It was
more than all right and we grabbed the film. I’ve talked about this to show all
that Sonu went through in his rise to the top.”
SS’ elephantine memory recorded the desperation and rejection he
encountered on the way, episodes that added to his determination to succeed
where others might have folded up and faded away. He remembered that all
through the filming of Mere Apne where he finally walked away with
accolades for his performance and dialogue delivery, he felt that Gulzar
favoured the better-looking Vinod Khanna. One particular maar-peet (fight)
sequence that he filmed for Mere Apne also lingered in his memory for
another reason. He remembered that within a minute of the make-believe
fight, Vinod Khanna and he were panting like they’d run a marathon. It
stayed with him because in later years, the memory helped him kick the butt.
It wasn’t Gulzar alone who was impressed with Vinod Khanna. Vinod
Khanna’s tall, broad-shouldered good looks and personality drew open
admiration from close contender SS too who accepted with frankness, “There
were three personalities I greatly admired after coming into films. One was
Dharmendra who had come with Deven Verma to FTII. So good looking, red
cheeks, fair complexion, hair blowing – I just kept looking at him. He was the
first star I met in my life and I didn’t know what to ask him. Imagine, I was
tongue-tied before Dharmendra and when I finally found my voice I asked
him, ‘Which hair oil do you use?’ Dharmendra looked at me and said, ‘I
don’t apply oil in my hair.’ There was an embarrassing silence before I asked
him, ‘On Sundays do you go to the races?’ He looked at me again and
replied, ‘No’. After that I didn’t have the courage to ask him anything else!
“Vinod Khanna was another person I admired greatly for his personality
and the third was Kabir Bedi. Unfortunately, the kind of success that Kabir
saw abroad with assignments like Sandokan, couldn’t be replicated here and I
always wondered why he didn’t make it to the big league in Hindi cinema.”
Making an impact in the humble roles that he was given, SS began to
climb the charts and made a lot of friends on his way to the top. Anil
Dhawan, who was two years junior to him at FTII, also became a very good
friend. “I have seen Anil’s brother, director David Dhawan practically grow
up before me,” SS stated.
FTII students had a way of standing up for one another, sometimes even
stepping back to let the other be in the limelight. When filmmaker BR Ishara
went to SS to cast him as the hero of Chetna, a runaway hit in its time, “I
convinced BR Ishara that with my scar face, I wouldn’t suit the role and
introduced him to Anil Dhawan as a good alternative. Instead of playing the
hero, I did a 10-minute guest role in Chetna which became the highlight of
the film.”
Once again, it was a set of popular dialogues that firmed up his presence in
the film. “If people remembered Rehana Sultan, the heroine of the film who
was one year senior to me at FTII, and Anil Dhawan who was two years
junior to me, they could not also forget Shatrughan Sinha in Chetna. My
image as someone who could do wonders with dialogue delivery was
established with Chetna,” he reported.
The story of a call girl caught the fancy of the public with huge posters that
had an ‘A’ written between Rehana’s long legs. One of SS’ saucy lines in the
film, “As the age of a girl goes up, her price comes tumbling down,” became
an instant hit and was repeated ad nauseam at stage shows and fan gatherings.
“‘Umar badti hai to daam ghadta hai bachche,’ became a very popular
dialogue,” SS reeled off. Chetna was one of the first few films that marked
the enthusiasm of the audience for an unconventional new entrant who wrote
his own rules of stardom.
“Even my entry in Chetna, where I stylishly disembarked from a plane,
fetched a lot of applause,” remembered SS, as he went on to narrate an
incident that spotlighted his popularity. “Sudarshan Nag, the cinematographer
of Chetna, was a good friend of mine from Himachal Pradesh. He later
directed Rajinikanth and me in KC Bokadia’s Asli Naqli. After Chetna was
released, I had gone to visit Nag in Delhi and when I came out of his house, I
found crowds milling around his place. I wondered who had arrived there
when I was told that they had gathered to catch a glimpse of me. It was the
Chetna effect.”
SS had arrived and stardom was within grabbing distance.
Brother Lakhan who was headed westward to get a PhD in Mechanical
Engineering in Texas, remembered the speed and intensity with which his
popularity rose. “I was in Bombay in 1969, en route to America, when Sonu
took me to Bandra Talkies to see Saajan where it was running for the tenth or
twelfth week. Not many people recognised him.
“In 1972, Raampur Ka Lakshman was running in Houston, 90 miles from
my University. I went to see it with a couple of friends and was pleasantly
surprised when the audience began to clap on his mere entry. Even more
surprisingly, somebody announced, we are happy to have his older brother Dr
Lakhan Sinha with us and everybody said, ‘Get up, get up.’ When I got up,
the whole audience clapped. That was when I realised how popular he had
become.”
 Father BP Sinha who seemed outwardly miffed with his son’s choice of
career, also watched SS’ climb with paternal pride. Brother Bharat disclosed,
“Though my father was never a filmgoer, he saw Prem Pujari before
anybody else in the family. Shatrughan had played a Pakistani colonel in it.
Later, when one of our young relatives remarked that Shatrughan had played
a sepoy very well, Baba was so angry that he retorted, ‘You call a colonel a
sepoy?’ He had watched it so carefully. So in his own way he was also proud
of Shatrughan.”
“Three films played a very important role in making me the talk of the
town,” SS traced his trajectory. “One was Chetna. The other was a film that
Dev Anand gave me as compensation for that tiny role in Prem Pujari. He
cast me in Gambler (1971) which didn’t do well but I got resounding claps
for my dialogues and mannerisms. In fact, I stole the scene from Dev Anand
for which the credit must go to him for having allowed it. I had a line that
went, ‘Mera haath jala hua hai, Your Honour (My hand is burnt, Your
Honour).’ It was a vital piece of evidence with which I got Dev Anand freed
from a murder charge in the film. Even during the shooting of that particular
dialogue at Mehboob Studio, from the clapper boy onwards, everybody had
applauded me. So I was certain that the public would also appreciate it. The
third film that boosted my career and took me forward was Khilona (1970)
directed by Chander Vora which really upped my popularity with girls. My
dialogues like, ‘Sharafat se mere saath Bambai bhaag chalo, top ki heroine
bana doonga (Come with me quietly to Bombay and I’ll turn you into a top-
selling heroine)’, became so popular that for the first time, my face was on
the banners along with Mumtaz and Sanjeev Kumar. With my hair tossed
aside carelessly, I was up there on the hoardings. The songs of the film also
went on to become chartbusters.”
Soon, very soon, more films brought him even more popularity. Heads
turned when he entered, his face brought a smile of recognition, even his
unpronounceable name rolled off the tongue with more fluency. He was
beginning to live the dream that had brought him from Patna to Bombay.
“Two other films put me firmly in the limelight,” the narrative gained
momentum. “Bhai Ho To Aisa (1972) and Raampur Ka Lakshman (1972)
were films that fetched me unprecedented applause as the villain. In BHTA,
when I drape a red shawl around me and go down on my knees to ask for
forgiveness, or in the last scene in RKL when I tell the hero, ‘Maa ko batana
mat ki main hi hoon (Don’t let our mother know that I’m the culprit),’ people
would actually shed tears and sympathise with the villain. Midstream while
shooting, director Manmohan Desai had to change many scenes in both films
because of public demand. People had started looking forward to seeing me
on screen and he had to make suitable changes to cater to the growing
demand for me. This was especially true with female fans and that prompted
the Late Khushwant Singh, Editor of The Illustrated Weekly Of India to
write, ‘Shatrughan Sinha is the first villain in the history of Hindi cinema to
have created a romantic aura around him.’”
It was strange indeed that a screen toughie was getting such an ovation
from his public. Nikhil Kumar, retired Commissioner of Police, Delhi, former
Governor of Nagaland, and an encyclopaedia on Hindi films, was an SP in
Pondicherry (now Puducherry). In an effort to pick up Tamil, the police
officer watched a lot of Tamil films and would, in the process, also catch up
on the occasional Hindi film. He reported to SS that when he threw the line,
“Aaye toh keh dena Chhenu aaya tha (If he turns up, tell him Chhenu had
come for him)” in Mere Apne, the audience jumped up and gave SS a
standing ovation, some literally standing on the chair or seat. The Tamil-
speaking audience who didn’t know Hindi, couldn’t follow a word of what
was going on in the film but for some inexplicable reason, they connected
with the Bihari actor. Nikhil Kumar was stunned that a Hindi-spouting actor
could have such an impact on the audience in the South. He was particularly
proud that the actor came from his home State, Bihar.
Interestingly, SS himself had not attended the premiere of Mere Apne
because he strongly believed that filmmaker Gulzar had favoured co-actor
Vinod Khanna over him. Despite holding Gulzar in high regard, it was a
feeling that persisted all his life. “It was not a misplaced feeling because
Gulzar had done it at the cost of the film,” SS defended his stand. “It was
because of my own personality and my dialogue delivery that I still scored
and walked away with equal honours, if not more. And I became a star after
Mere Apne.”
Another high-ranking police officer, Neeraj Kumar who was creatively
involved with many projects of filmmaker Prakash Jha, and, therefore,
understood cinema, also commented, “Astonishingly, Shatru Mama packed a
wallop in South India even at the height of the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil
Nadu. Those were the days when the main film would be preceded by a
newsreel or documentary, usually made or commissioned by Films Division
of India. During the anti-Hindi riots, the short newsreel happened to be that
of Randhir Kapoor’s marriage to Babita, a glittering event where the topmost
stars of Hindi cinema arrived in style. The audience in Madras watched them
all unmoved. But when Shatrughan Sinha stepped out of his car and made his
entry, loud applause broke out and reverberated all around the hall with some
front-benchers standing up and cheering. They gave him a standing ovation
for merely entering a wedding. Shatrughan Sinha’s impact was thus felt
through the length and breadth of the country and wasn’t restricted to Bihar.
“The remarkable feature of his success,” Neeraj Kumar added, “was that it
was entirely self-made. He exemplified optimism and stood for the fact that
you could achieve anything on your own, that success didn’t need a
godfather.”
SS’ self-confidence also became legendary, spawning its own set of
amusing stories. The former cop narrated one of them. “One of the stories
that I heard about him many times over but which never failed to amuse me
was about the time Rakesh Maria’s father had come to his lodge and said, ‘I
want to meet Shatrughan Sinha.’ Subhash Ghai was sent down to tell him,
‘He’s having a massage, you’ll have to wait.’” Neeraj Kumar laughed at SS’
audacity when he was a virtual non-entity. “His is a very unique life. To live
life on your own terms and to succeed to such an extent is not an everyday
story.”
Stardom arrived but it took a while for it to sink in. “I was taken aback by
the overwhelming reception, even a little afraid to acknowledge it,” SS
shared his feelings. “At the premiere of Dost, I went to the balcony and heard
loud reactions from the audience which I mistook for hooting. There were
tears in my eyes because I thought the film had flopped. I had changed my
voice in the film – I was the first actor to do that by the way – and some
people had made me nervous by asking me, ‘What’ve they done to your
voice? Or, is the sound quality bad?’”
Pause for a moment to understand that the remark about changing his voice
was no off-the-cuff comment. It was a well-directed swipe at Amitabh
Bachchan who, years later, changed his voice in Agneepath.
 But to return to the premiere of Dost, it wasn’t booing but cheering that
was being heard in the hall. The unique phenomenon of applause for the
villain was at work again. “It started with me and died with me,” noted
Shatrughan. “Even my friend Amjad Khan who was hailed as Gabbar Singh
in Sholay, did not get the kind of applause I got as a villain. Incidentally, by
the time Sholay was made, I had already become a star, so I didn’t do the role
of Gabbar Singh which was offered to me. Nor did I do the role that Amitabh
eventually did in Sholay which had also come to me.”
The villain getting applauded in film after film, set off a round of research
studies in different universities. In the film industry, distributors were quick
to pick up the vibes. When filmmaker SD Narang’s Babul Ki Galiyan (1972)
with Hema Malini and Sanjay Khan was released, the biggest cardboard
standee that was displayed at the entrance of various theatres was that of the
villain and not the lead pair. “If there was a 6 ft cut-out of Hema Malini, there
was a 5 ft cut-out of Sanjay Khan and a 25 ft cut-out of mine with the line,
‘Shotgun Sinha in Babul Ki Galiyan,’” SS smiled. “I was not the hero of the
film. I was a mere villain with a price tag of only Rs 25,000 but was
considered the main draw according to trade experts. All this was unheard of.
The next time I worked with Hema Malini, I was her hero in the same
filmmaker’s Do Thug (1975).”
SS floated along the route charted for him by destiny, doing his job with
infectious joy.
“None of what happened to me was planned,” he accepted. “I had people
asking me why I had turned a hero. There were also those who asked why I
had become a villain in the first place if I wanted to be a hero. But none of
this was in my hands; I just went with the flow. What I did was, I didn’t treat
a negative role as that of a routine villain but took it up as a character and
stylised it. Living up to my maxim of, ‘If not better, then be definitely
different,’ I brought mannerisms into every character. In Raampur Ka
Lakshman, when I beat up someone, I looked at my watch to see if it was still
running well. Nobody had done this before me. Rajinikanth did it years later.
I had copied it from my own Institute film An Angry Young Man in which
Jaya Bhaduri was the heroine and I, the hero.”
It was a paradox that SS played the title role of ‘Angry Young Man’, an
image that later got attached to his FTII co-star’s husband, Amitabh
Bachchan. The words ‘Angry Young Man’ are etched in Amitabh’s resume,
not SS’.
Whether SS should have moved from playing the villain so effectively to
playing the male lead, was a debate that remained inconclusive. SS justified
the move: “The thunderous applause that would greet my entry or my
dialogue was heard by exhibitors (theatre owners) and conveyed to
distributors. The distributors in turn conveyed it to producers and directors.
And the same filmmakers who saw me only as a bad boy were compelled to
accept me as a leading man. That’s why, after destiny, I would give credit
only to the audience for my success in films or in politics.”
But there was also the harsh truth that despite hailing from FTII where he
was exposed to the best of world cinema, the training ground from where
respected names like Mani Kaul and Adoor Gopalakrishnan emerged to make
a name in award-winning arthouse cinema, SS was so swept away by
commercial Hindi cinema that he remained more a star of the seventies than
an actor respected for his craft. This charge had evidently crossed his mind
too, as he was ready with an explanation for it.
He mused aloud, “There were reasons. The topmost one was that beggars
can’t be choosers. The truth was, none of the art filmmakers offered me work
the way commercial cinema did, just as commercial filmmakers didn’t offer
anything to arthouse actors like Om Puri or Naseeruddin Shah. And let’s
accept it, the charm of commercial cinema was always something else,” he
declared without inhibition. “Whatever the route taken, ultimately every actor
aspired for widespread commercial saleability. Commercial cinema accepted
me wholeheartedly and made me such a big star that I never had the time to
pause and put questions to myself. I, therefore, accept that I became a victim
of the rat race.”
According to him, upgrading himself to the main slot in the rat race was
simply a natural progression of events. By the time Heera (1973) and
Blackmail (1973), his last two films as villain rolled along, distributors were
demanding that his character be given some sort of redemption at the end.
People had grown too fond of this villain to accept him as completely black.
“That’s true,” he nodded. “I was the first villain who was invited to Sophia
College (an all-women’s college in South Mumbai) as their Chief Guest. I
must be the first villain who was asked to solve women’s emotional problems
in Eve’s Weekly, in an Agony Aunt sort of column. And I was the first villain
over whom women fought; even heroines fought for my attention when we’d
all be shooting in the same studio.”
The attention went to his head.
“I did get carried away with all this adulation,” he admitted. “A lot of big
films came my way: Sangram, Aadmi Sadak Ka, Kalicharan, Dost,
Vishwanath, Samjhauta, Aa Gale Lag Ja, Dostana, films with Manmohan
Desai and Harmesh Malhotra who were the big commercial names of the
seventies.”
He acceded, “I did regret somewhere deep within me that I wasn’t a part of
parallel cinema. I had come here to become a good actor and it was necessary
to do meaningful cinema too. But before I could establish myself as a very
good actor, I became a very big star. However, you have to credit me for
trying to encourage good cinema in my own way whenever I got the
opportunity to do it. That’s why I did Goutam Ghose’s Antarjali Jatra
(1987).” SS had seen Ghose’s much-applauded and much-awarded Paar
(1984), an offbeat film that starred Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah and Om
Puri, before he went on board for Antarjali Jatra.
Antarjali Jatra was his first foray into arthouse fare, twenty years after
passing out of FTII in 1967. SS was still a saleable commercial star when he
did this low-budget, non-mainstream film in which he played a chandal (low-
born), an outcast working at a crematorium. It was the sort of role that would
normally have been offered to Om Puri or Naseeruddin Shah, the staple
names that upheld the morale of parallel cinema.
At first, SS was actually diffident about pulling it off. The ‘Angry Young
Man’ of FTII had disappeared in the haze of commercial adulation. “My
confidence had gone for a toss and I was on the verge of returning from the
location,” he accepted with characteristic honesty. “When I saw the reality of
art cinema, that I would have to be this bare-bodied chandal, I felt I couldn’t
do it. Ultimately I did it and got a Grand Prix too, for it. But when I first
reported for the shooting of Antarjali Jatra, I lost my nerve. For the first time
in my career, I was unprofessional. Instead of shooting in the cool climate of
Kashmir (which I’d got used to in commercial cinema), here I was in the 48°
heat of Bengal’s Sagar Deep, that too in a low-budget art film which did not
permit pampering its actors. I couldn’t perform in those conditions. People
started saying, ‘Send for Om Puri or Naseeruddin Shah’. My co-stars were
Rabi Ghosh, the comedian, and Basant Choudhury, a big actor from Bengal.”
Ultimately, the magic of Goutam Ghose prevailed as he stood his ground.
He had conceived the role with Shatrughan Sinha in mind, visualising his
walk, his gait, his eyes and his body. The filmmaker explained to SS,
“Getting Om Puri will be a cliché. To have Shatrughan Sinha in the role of a
chandal will be interesting.”
SS wanted to go home and even suggested that Gautam face the camera
and do the role himself. “But once the shooting started, there was no going
back,” SS conceded. “I was sold on the role and became a chandal for the
next few weeks. I remain indebted to Goutam Ghose for believing that I
could do it and for convincing me to stay put and do it.”
That one honest tryst with the camera in a realistic film like Antarjali Yatra
led SS back to his FTII roots and he followed it up with Kasba (1991), a film
with Kumar Shahani, and a repeat act with Goutam Ghose (Patang with
Shabana Azmi in 1994). These films did not work miracles for his bank
balance or bring him mass adulation. But they helped him touch base with
himself as an actor. “I do think that a good actor must do art films riyaaz ke
liye, as a practice session.”
He added wistfully, “Either they feared my stardom or they’d heard stories
about me. But it was my misfortune that filmmakers like Shyam Benegal
never approached me. Or they were not allowed near me,” he rued with the
wisdom of hindsight.
SS even produced an art film in 1983. He called the film Kalka and based
it on the exploitation of coal miners of Dhanbad by a powerful combine of
the local mafia, the management and the trade unions. Lok Sen Lalwani, an
internationally acclaimed documentary filmmaker who had won several
awards, was signed as director. SS was determined to make this earthy and
off-the-commercial-beat. “It was a film against the mafia but shot in the heart
of the mafia lands,” he smirked. He could do that, walk into the lion’s den as
it were because even the mafia saw Hindi films and Shatrughan Sinha was
the pride of Bihar. Nobody would dare harm him...or his cast and crew.
 He exhaled with satisfaction, “The Chief Minister of Bihar, Shri Jagannath
Mishra had very kindly declared us as State guests, put a plane at our disposal
and had the whole State machinery watch over us. But the so-called mafia
also supported me because I was their Bihari Babu. Once, when the director
needed a tamancha or a katta (a pistol or a sharp, axe-like instrument) for one
scene but couldn’t procure one, PTI flashed the news that the Bihari Babu
couldn’t get a tamancha for his shooting. The moment they heard it, many
people stepped forward and offered us eighteen tamanchas!”
SS referred to the goons who controlled the coal mines as the ‘so-called
mafia’, not committing himself to branding them. “They came and asked us if
we were making a film against the mafia,” he remembered. “We said, ‘No,
we’re making a film against the system.’ They didn’t quite understand the
word ‘system’ but were okay about it. Then they asked me why the
government had to give us so much security. They said, ‘You are our Bihari
Babu, you don’t need security, not even a strand of your hair will be touched,
just go ahead and shoot here without fear.’ They had only one request. They
told me to make the film I wanted but to also listen to their side of the story.
‘Hamra sideva bhi sun le.’ It was really very gracious of them and we could
film Kalka without any untoward incident. Even on the days when there was
some miscommunication and the police couldn’t be there on time, we went
ahead and shot our film with a crowd of 50,000 looking on.”
Kalka didn’t fare well at the box-office but fetched its makers a lot of
critical acclaim and got a tax-exemption in many States. SS starred in it too,
along with Raj Babbar, Sarika and Rekha Sahay, a theatre actress who later
married Sinha’s close friend, Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahay.
Those occasional forays outside his comfort zone satisfied the actor in him
but it was soon back to business on the commercial circuit. It took SS another
decade to step out of complacent stardom and return to another medium that
had given him immense satisfaction in his unspoiled FTII days. Could he, a
Hindi film star used to retakes and cuts, do an entire act on stage before a live
audience? He tested himself in 2002 when he returned to theatre to do a play.
“I thought it was time to test my skills on stage and so I did Pati Patni Aur
Main, a humorous theatre play with Rakesh Bedi and Bhavna Balsavar as my
splendid co-stars. Before I went into it, I gave it a lot of thought and decided
that the stage was the most important platform for any actor. For the
discipline, for the voice culture, for the range and for the performance, doing
theatre was like a workshop. Fortunately, the Dhoots of Videocon supported
me unstintingly when they came in as sponsors. We did the play with tickets
and without, and it was one of the biggest hits on stage. I also contributed to
it with my one-liners and punchlines. Ramesh Talwar directed it well, Sanjay
Goradia, a good actor and theatre producer, gave the play a professional
touch. I did Pati Patni Aur Main as a learning experience. Just as I did art
films for a better grasp of my craft, I grabbed the play as a refresher course.”
His audience cut across party lines and social delineations. It was the only
play to have been watched by Prime Ministers Atal Bihari Vajpayee and
Manmohan Singh. The latter’s wife Gursharan Kaur later remarked that it
was one of those rare moments when she saw her husband actually laugh.
From Sonia Gandhi to Jyoti Basu, AK Anthony and SM Krishna to Farooq
Abdullah, from Vilasrao Deshmukh and Lalu Prasad Yadav to Sushma
Swaraj who saw it four times and Yashwant Sinha who went a fifth time,
from Madhavrao Scindia and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat to Kalyan Singh and
Rajnath Singh, from artist MF Husain and actors Dilip Kumar and Anil
Kapoor to Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Govinda, every show was
packed with big names.
The fact that he didn’t experience stage fright was one part of the story.
Pulling off a stage play was easy also because remembering lines was SS’
forte, a quality that the film industry was well acquainted with. His
colleagues soon began to label him the fastest dubbing actor in Hindi cinema
who also had clarity of pronunciation and perfect diction.
SS’ gift was amply displayed one day when Amitabh Bachchan and he had
a tense moment during Dostana.
“My make-up man Pratap had died tragically, so I had not reported for
shooting,” SS explained. “But I had to shoot the next day because the set was
to be dismantled after that. The producer, Yash Johar, had requested me to
come early because Amitabh was going out of town and had to leave at 2 pm
sharp. It was already noon and I hadn’t reported for work. Yashji called
several times to say that Amitabh had been waiting since morning. Zeenat
Aman was there, Raj Khosla the director was waiting, there was a big set
waiting for me. By the time I reached, it was nearly 1 pm. By the time I
greeted everybody it was 1.15. By the time a bit of touch-up on the face was
done, it was 1.30. I did my make-up and listened to the long dialogue
simultaneously. It was a long scene of about 350 feet, one of the highlights of
the film. The dialogue was a seven or eight-pager, I hadn’t even touched it. I
stood where I had to, the director said, ‘Start sound,’ and at 1.35 pm the shot
started. Everybody said that I had caused tension on the set because I had
turned up late and Amitabh had to leave at 2. But I said, they had all made me
tense because they didn’t give me enough time for a rehearsal. Anyway, I
started my dialogue, I was in a space of my own in my head and it was only
when there was a thunderous applause at Mehboob Studio that I came out of
it and realised I had given an almost perfect shot. There were tears in the
anxious director Raj Khosla’s eyes as he remarked, ‘Koi karke dikhaye (Let’s
see anyone else try it).’ To be very fair to Amitabh, he hugged me and said,
‘What a beautiful shot.’ I was all set for another take. It was 1.45 by then. I
repeated the shot but halfway through it, Amitabh stopped me and said, ‘That
was your best shot, now forget it.’”
It was one of the countless times when long dialogues running into several
pages were like putty in his hands. There was a method he applied which,
along with his natural abilities, gave him that much-envied memory.
“I don’t concentrate on the grammar,” SS parted with a tip. “I look at the
content, what does the scene say? Scene ka arth kya hai? Once you grasp
that, because you already have a command over the language, you don’t
encounter a problem. That’s why I concentrate on the content, then I look at
the words and see where exactly the commas are, and my confidence takes
me through it. It is the clarity of what the scene is about that is paramount in
dialogue delivery. I guess that’s how the very proficient Amitabh Bachchan
also goes about his dubbing.”
Goutam Ghose had set aside ten days for SS’ dubbing because he was a
non-Bengali who was spouting colloquial Bengali in the film. But SS took
only one day to dub for any film. For Vishwanath, he had gone into the
dubbing theatre at BR Films around 9 pm and completed the entire film by
1.30 am.
“The memory power is in my genes. And the concentration comes from
practising yoga,” he explained. “I would once again suggest to young actors
that for confidence, for relaxation and for concentration, yoga and meditation
are very vital.”
 He explained what had turned him into a regular practitioner of the
therapeutic regimen.
“In the seventies, I used to suffer from low blood pressure,” he unveiled a
largely unspoken part of his life. “Whether I slept at 4 am and woke up at 10
am, or whether I slept at 10 pm and woke up at 6 am, I would wake up tired
all the time. I used to smoke a packet of cigarettes during the day. Wherever I
went, I would ask someone at the studio to massage my back or my feet or
my shoulders. I would eat and want to sleep again. This was early in my
stardom, just after Kalicharan when I was doing films like Do Shatru (1980).
That was my condition when I was also doing Kranti (1981). My producer-
director and co-actor Manoj Kumar knew a bit about Medical Science and
understood what was happening to me. He caringly took me to Dr Mukesh
Batra, a homeopath. I don’t really have great faith in homoeopathy nor do I
have much knowledge of it. In fact, I’m pretty cynical about it because God
knows how many frauds and quacks there are in the name of homeopathy.
But I needed help. I used to joke that most of my heroines were leaving me
because instead of romancing them I would be asking them to massage my
back and my feet!
“At Dr Batra’s, once I learnt that I had a low blood pressure problem, the
fighting spirit in me surfaced. Way back during Mere Apne, I had become
aware of the harmful effects of smoking after the way Vinod Khanna and I
had been panting one minute into an action shot.
“Vinod Khanna probably smoked more than me but he was also physically
much stronger than me. When I saw him panting, it struck me that if in our
youth, our stamina was ebbing like this, then smoking and tobacco would
turn out to be eventual killers. At that time itself, I had subconsciously begun
working towards giving it up. Thanks to my yog shakti (strength built up
through yoga) and discipline, I could quit smoking in later years without
picking up any other habit.
“Yoga,” he expounded, “is the reason why, despite my strenuous schedule
which includes acting, two Cabinet berths and several terms as an MP,
through all the stress and strain of life, even today, 90% of the time my blood
pressure is as good as that of a twelve-year-old child. It is a steady 120/80.”
How he kicked the butt was once again a lesson in determination and firm
resolve.
“I was not a heavy smoker but,” he said in self-admonishment, “like a
woman can either be pregnant or not pregnant, she cannot be slightly
pregnant, you are either a smoker or a non-smoker. There are no in-betweens.
When I decided to give up smoking, I was fortunate to get some really good
yoga teachers including the Late BKS Iyengar. With a variety of asanas
(postures) like padmasan, seershashan, vajrasan (names of yoga postures),
taking in water from one nostril, taking it out from another, I went to a very
high degree of yoga. I would drink almost fourteen glasses of water and take
it out. Today I am not as regular as I once was but thirty years of intense yoga
has helped me all my life. Yoga not only cured me of my low blood pressure
problem but also calmed me, cooled me down. It helped my memory a lot,
seershashan (head-stand) in particular, was a big help. Through meditation
and breathing exercises, my grasping power went up. Yoga curbs short
temper; a cool head helps you think better, handle stress better. Over the
years, I have become a man who doesn’t shout, doesn’t lose his temper. I
don’t use four-letter words or abusive language. I would credit yoga for all of
this because it took the stress out of my system.”
Henry, his make-up man of nearly three decades, stood witness to his
master’s equanimity as he revealed, “I returned to work with him because of
his nature. Once, I had reported drunk for work and that was the only time Sir
was annoyed. But even then he didn’t shout at me, he only made me
understand that what I was doing was wrong.”
Before this fount of goodness was carried too far, it was imperative to
revisit that scene with Amitabh Bachchan in Dostana when SS fetched up
late but delivered a seven-page dialogue at one go. SS may have reeled it off
without rehearsal. But there was another side to the coin: many of his
colleagues pointed to this very scene (and many like it) as examples of SS’
misplaced complacence.
Since acting, dialogue delivery, charisma, stardom and the ability to rattle
off long pages of lines, came to him easily, he was content with merely
meeting a deadline. It was a sad case of not building a lasting edifice as he
didn’t put any effort into taking his performances, indeed his acting career
itself, to a much higher level, for he took his work far too casually, waylaid
by the perks of stardom.
 Unlike every other person around him who fanned his flaws and repeated
only what he wanted to hear, there was a singular lack of sycophancy in
Pawan Kumar, SS’ secretary of more than forty years.
“According to me,” Pawan Kumar said with complete forthrightness,
“Sonu’s biggest career-mistake was to turn hero. I did not agree then and I
maintain to this day that he should have remained a villain. Are good villains
not given their respectful place in society?” he argued. “Sonu had an
unheard-of appeal and unique status as a villain which he could not replicate
as hero. As a villain he worked with the biggest and best of ‘A’ teams. But as
a hero, he got only the second-grade stuff. I do think he would have had a
unique place in the history of Hindi cinema if he had stuck to what he was so
good at.”
Equally bluntly, Pawan Kumar didn’t mince his words when he said, “His
wanting to become a hero combined with his chronic latecoming worked
against his reaching the heights he could have as an actor.” That perceived
lack of dedication was a failing which prevented SS from rewriting the
history of Hindi cinema, pointed out Pawan Kumar.
SS himself introspected, “Perhaps it’s true that I got carried away. But
there are a lot of films where you don’t have to exhibit great acting, you are
signed on only for your name, your presence is all that’s required. It happens
to all of us.
“A lot of Dharmendra’s films, many of Jeetendra’s films or many of mine,
were made only to cash in on our popularity. Your memory and your
confidence carry you through it. But I won’t accept the cliché that Shatrughan
Sinha is Shatrughan Sinha in every film,” he said obstinately. “Amitabh
Bachchan is also Amitabh Bachchan in every film; Aamir Khan is also Aamir
Khan in every film; Shah Rukh Khan is also the same in every Shah Rukh
Khan film. You saw Charlie Chaplin too, only as Charlie Chaplin in every
film or Raj Kapoor as RK in every film with only a fractional difference in
some places.
“There are only a few films which need gravitas, and your intensity can be
seen in them. Like Amitabh Bachchan’s superlative performance in Black. It
made me once again acknowledge him as a very superior actor. You saw my
acting in films like Kalicharan, in Gautam Govinda, in Vishwanath, in
Antarjali Jatra. You can’t expect that kind of intense performance in a
Harmesh Malhotra or Kewal Mishra or Rajkumar Kohli film. I’m not putting
them down; they have all been friends of mine. We’re talking about their
kind of cinema. For that matter, the performance you got from Amitabh
Bachchan in Sholay, was certainly not what you got in Shaan. I am no
exception. I got carried away in terms of stardom, in terms of rat race, in
terms of glamour, thanks to my weakness and my desire for the good things
in life. It was also because I got the goodies too soon on a platter. It took
barely a year-and-a-half for recognition to come my way.”
There are many, including close friends like Salim Khan and Subhash Ghai
who watched him go up and down the ladder, and felt disappointed that SS
didn’t allow himself to grow as an actor.
But he did strike out elsewhere, outside his safe corner in the film industry
when he made the journey from film star to star politician. His first foray into
politics was way back in 1975 when Indira Gandhi’s Emergency was
clamped with a gag order on the freedom of press and other liberties granted
under the Constitution of India. SS had emerged from his starry Juhu-Vile
Parle bungalow in 1977 to join seniors like Dev Anand and Vijay Anand in
raising a collective voice against the Emergency on the platform of the hastily
cobbled National Party which succeeded in temporarily pulling down Indira
Gandhi’s Government. Most of his colleagues returned to the studios, SS was
hooked.
“I wanted to remain a star and use my stardom as a platform for social and
political work,” he traced the roots of his new career. “I began to look for a
party that would contribute to the building of society. Whether its moves
were right or wrong, its intentions had to be honorable. After giving it deep
thought, I started meeting a few key people. I started meeting RSS stalwart,
the Late Nanaji Deshmukh. I started listening to Jayaprakash Narayan. I
heard him remark that those who went into politics after retiring from films
were good people but they were only the second best. The best were those
who came in when they were still energetic, still keen and eager to do
something, they were the people who could contribute more. People like
Jawaharlal Nehru and Gandhi had left behind their silver spoon existence and
gone into public life. I wouldn’t even begin to compare myself with any of
them but Jayaprakash Narayan’s words influenced me deeply. It dawned on
me that if I had to enter public life, it had to be now and not when I had
retired from the film industry. Perhaps that’s why people take me more
seriously even though I am from the film industry, especially the North
Indian film industry. They’ve seen my courage, my consistency, my character
and my transparency. In all these years, there has never been any allegation
or even an FIR lodged against me. People could see that out of the entire film
industry all over the country, I was the only person who thought of social
responsibility and joined the BJP. It was not the party in power; nobody
joined the BJP at that time. I got a lot of encouragement from Jayaprakash
Narayan to step into politics at that juncture. When Jayaprakash Narayan was
hospitalised at Jaslok, I used to go and meet him, sometimes with Manoj
Kumar also, and chat with him in Bhojpuri.
“I would also go and meet Ramnath Goenka at Express Towers. Nanaji
Deshmukh would come to my house. Ram Jethmalani became a friend and
remained one forever. When Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s adopted daughter was
getting married, he personally came over to invite me. Because I had to catch
an 9 pm flight, he said, ‘We’ll have the reception at 7.’ We attended the
reception, went to the airport and caught the flight. All those meetings and
friendships played a big part in deciding which way to head in politics.”
But there was a dichotomy there. Despite being a fierce opponent of the
Emergency, SS was eager to befriend the high offices of the Prime Minister
herself and began to visit Indira Gandhi. In fact, he was awestruck enough to
be tongue-tied before her.
“During the Emergency, I met Indira Gandhi,” he admitted and cockily
added, “As usual, I reached late for my meeting with her. There I was sitting
in a British India library kind of atmosphere with hushed whispers around me
that asked, ‘How come you’ve come now when Madam gave you an
appointment for 10 o’clock? It’s 10.20!’ I said, ‘Let Madam know I’ve come,
and please check if she can meet me.’ It was the time Justice Jagmohanlal
Sinha had declared her election invalid (1975) and I had sent him a
congratulatory message. She was calling different groups of people to gauge
how they felt about the Emergency. She had also called Nargis and Sunil
Dutt.
“In my entire life, I was never as nervous as I was that day when I went in
to meet her. The moment she got up and welcomed me, there was no
coordination between one line and the other that I uttered. I talked gibberish.
Ultimately, I said, ‘Madam, I’ve become very nervous,’ and I asked her for a
glass of water which she graciously gave me herself. She was good at
mimicry I believe, and I later heard that she used to mimic how I had
behaved with her that day. We had a nice long meeting. One thing that struck
me was – what a star she is. I still maintain that of all the Prime Ministers I
have met and with due respect to Atalji, Manmohanji and Modiji, Mrs
Gandhi was the true star. I was fascinated with her.”
He admitted that he was fascinated enough to have even followed her into
her party notwithstanding the wide gap in their ideological leanings. Besotted
after that first meeting, SS went visiting the PMO every time he got a chance.
Fortunately for him, Indira Gandhi’s Personal Secretary, the formidable RK
Dhawan was willing to entertain his requests.
“Every time I met her, she would extend the time allotted to me and keep
talking to me. Perhaps both of us had won each other over,” he injected
wishfully into the narrative. “I found not only motherly warmth in her but
also a father’s disciplinary distance. That’s why I call her the biggest star
ever. Once, I was so stupid that on my way from Patna when I had only four
hours in Delhi, I called up Dhawansaab and asked if I could come and meet
her. He asked me, which month do you want to meet her, and I said, now. He
remarked, ‘Bihari hai toh Bihari hi rahega (Once a Bihari, always a Bihari)’
but I remember she did call me the same evening at 6 pm. I was at Akbar
Hotel and I was surrounded by so many girls who wouldn’t leave me that
when I went over it was nearly 7 pm. I was told that she had waited till 6.30
and left. That was one time I missed her but there were many more meetings
thereafter. I would go and meet her even on a Sunday when she normally
wouldn’t meet anyone. Videos had come in recently and she was quite
childlike as she said, ‘Oh, I’ve forgotten to put off the video. I’ll go and put it
off.’ Once there was a rustling noise in the room and I said, ‘It’s nothing
Madam, just a leaf that’s fallen.’ This was just after Operation Blue Star. But
she was so inquisitive, she was saying, ‘I hope it’s not a lizard. How could a
lizard have come in?’ I was fortunate to have seen the child in her.
“She would say that I could do a lot. She had some vision, some plan for
me. I’d even discussed Operation Blue Star with her.”
It was Operation Blue Star that finally felled her in 1984. Not only would
the history of India have changed if Mrs Gandhi had survived the
assassination attempt but SS’ political career would have too. Unmindful of
how it would sound to his own party, the actor-politician, known to march to
a beat of his own, dropped discretion and confessed, “If Madam Gandhi had
survived, despite my being against the Emergency, the way she gave me so
much affection and placed such faith in me, perhaps I would have joined the
Congress.”
Whatever his decisions, whether to make a transition from villain to hero
or which political party to align with, the one steadfast companion who stood
by him, irrespective of the circumstances, was the beautiful young girl he had
seen in the train to Bombay.
 3

Meeting And Marrying Miss India

Poonam Chandiramani
No relationship is all sunshine but two people can share one umbrella and
survive the storm together.

Anon

In 1965, as soon as SS boarded the train at Patna and stowed away his
luggage, he was struck by the most beautiful face he had ever seen either on
screen or in life. Sitting in front of him was Poonam Chandiramani who
would one day become his wife, Mrs Poonam Sinha.
“I had never seen such a beautiful face in my life,” SS went back in time,
acknowledging that it was unreal and dramatic. “Nobody would believe such
a filmi story but it happened to us. She had come to Patna for a distant
relative’s marriage and was returning to Bombay by the same train that I had
boarded, in the very same compartment. She was in a skirt, still in school,
and I was later called a cradle-snatcher by my friends. There was a portly
lady by her side – it was her aunty and my future mother-in-law. There was
also a man sitting with them, perhaps a cousin. Promi was looking out of the
window but she saw me enter. There were requests made by others in the
compartment for me to change my seat but my friends whispered to me, ‘Mat
change karna, mat change karna (Don’t change your seat), such a pretty
girl.’ She was a school kid with two plaits. I was conscious of her and I kept
nudging my friends not to annoy her family. It was a two-day journey and I
told them, ‘You’ll go away and I’ll have to face the music with her people.’
“I remember everything about that first glimpse I had of Promi. The date
was June 27, 1965. Her aunty who brought her up thought I was a very
decent boy while I was secretly and totally floored by Promi’s beauty. I
noticed that she was crying. She was a pampered child and her aunty must’ve
scolded her for some childish antics.
“So there she was, crying softly and here I was, also crying at leaving my
house. Both of us were sitting there opposite each other, each crying for a
different reason.” He succumbed to a tempting wisecrack: “It’s another
matter that after marriage and three kids, we are still crying. The location and
time frame have changed but the situation is the same.”
The fear and tears at leaving home and Amma were soon replaced by
unfamiliar stirrings in him at the vision before him. He chuckled, “Those
days, there was a very popular Hindi film magazine called Madhuri. For the
first time in my life, I wrote a filmi dialogue, ‘Itni sundar chehre pe aankhon
mein aansoo achche nahin lagte, rona nahin (Tears don’t look nice on such a
beautiful face, don’t cry)’, put it into the magazine and handed it to her. I
thought she would find the gesture that of a true hero but she flung the
magazine out of the window.”
Unfazed, he took even that as a positive sign and the two-day train ride
sped by with ecstasy submerging all other emotions. “It was good enough for
me that at least she had not complained to her aunty,” he smiled. “I felt like
I’d got a small consolation prize. Watching such a beautiful girl fast asleep
really fascinated me. The train passed through six or seven tunnels. I had
romantic notions of touching her, giving her a hug, pulling her towards me.
In the third tunnel, I brushed against her foot and that was enough to give me
a thrill and goosebumps. But all of a sudden I was struck by some quick
flashbacks.”
 A few episodes from his unruly life in Patna cautioned him to exercise
restraint. He replayed them: “I once sent a love letter to a girl in the
neighbourhood. She gave it to her mother who showed it to my mother and
slam, I got one smack across my face from Amma. That wasn’t the only time
I got a few thappads (slaps) from my mother. On another occasion, I’d gone
to a neighbour’s terrace to look at a girl. I wanted to do something hero-like.
The girl used to talk to me comfortably, so I thought I’d won her over. I went
to her terrace and while distracting her with some talk, I gave her a quick
peck on the cheek. I didn’t dare to kiss her on the lips. I did that and quickly
returned home and watched her reaction. I watched as she started
complaining about me to her people. She was shocked that I could do this to
her. Her people were in a quandary over how to handle it because my family
had a very good reputation. So finally, they came and told my mother about
it. I got slap No 2 that day.
“Another slap I remember was the one I got for opening the bag of a lady
who’d come to our house dressed in a beautiful white saree. I was a child and
curious to know what was in her bag. I got a resounding slap No 3 for that. I
was told that one should never open or look into a lady’s bag. The impact of
that slap has remained with me to this day. Forget any other lady’s handbag,
to date I have never looked into even Promi’s or Sonakshi’s bag.”
All those slaps for his misadventures with the opposite sex flashed by as
the train made its way through the tunnels. He said sheepishly, “The
flashbacks stopped me from going anywhere close to Promi but as the tunnels
sped by, I knew that my chances of ever touching her were getting dimmer
and dimmer. Finally, when we entered the last tunnel, I touched her feet
quickly and ran inside the bathroom. Of course, she had no clue that I’d
touched her. I told her about it much later in life. It was also a very foolhardy
thing to have done because if her aunty had seen it, my life would’ve been
over before I reached FTII. But I think by the time we reached Kalyan (a far-
flung suburb of Mumbai), Promi had sensed that this guy was trying to get
fresh with her. ”
When the train pulled up at Kalyan, SS had to alight to catch another train
to Poona while Promi and her aunt carried on to Bombay. At this juncture,
his filmi leanings came to the fore again.
“I was confident that before I vanished from view, she would turn and give
me one last look like they do in the movies,” he unabashedly admitted. “But
she must’ve been inspired by the song, ‘Mudh Mudh Ke Na Dekh Mudh
Mudh Ke (Don’t look back)’ because not once did she turn to look at me
while I must’ve looked back a hundred times hoping to catch her looking at
me. That was a huge disappointment for me although she later told me that
she had looked at me.”
The serendipity did not end there. Her formidable aunt had thought him
decent enough to part with their address in Bombay, asking him to drop by
and meet them.
“Our meeting this way when I was beginning a new chapter in my life, was
all a part of my destiny,” he mused. “Pandit Vishnu Kant Jha’s prophecy had
described my future wife in perfect detail. He had said, ‘Gori ka gol chehra,
poonam ke chand ki tarah, iski biwi sabse sundar hogi (With the face of a
full moon, his wife will be the most beautiful one).’”
SS now had twin reasons to look forward to his life in Maharashtra. One
was his passion for cinema, the ardent desire to be famous, to be a film star.
And the other was this new unplanned love interest whom he had to woo and
win.
It was difficult not to keep track of Poonam Chandiramani whose beauty
won her a Miss India crown and set her off on a sparkling career as a fashion
model. Moreover, SS had her address. When she became a celebrity, he was
still an unknown entity.
“We remained in touch, so I knew when she won the beauty pageant. We
also had common friends,” he explained. “I stayed with Lakhan bhaiya’s
friend Bipin, and Promi also stayed in Chembur. Her folks and Bipin’s
people got talking and she learnt about the family I came from. When Promi
became Miss India, it was all over the papers. Those days, becoming a beauty
queen was quite a craze unlike today when beauty queens are a dime-a-
dozen, like awards functions,” he sniffed with pride.
Everything about Bombay made the boy from Patna go wide-eyed. And
there was the stunning girl in the train he had to visit.
“I went to meet Aunty but as luck would have it, Promi had gone out,” he
recalled his disappointment. “Aunty, however, greeted me warmly and was
very hospitable. I later heard that when Promi came back, she felt very bad
she had missed meeting me. Once, when I went to a studio in Andheri as a
struggler along with Mehmood’s younger brother Anwar Ali, there was a big
crowd gathered there. It was the mahurat (the auspicious start to a new
venture) of a film; the media was there in full attendance. It was the mahurat
of Promi’s film. I was a part of the milling crowd when a lady brushed
against me and said, ‘I’m very sorry.’ We turned around and faced each other
and it was Promi! When she saw it was me, she said, ‘Oh, it’s you. Aap kab
aaye (When did you turn up)?’ It was quite a big deal then for the heroine of
the film to be talking to a struggler so nicely. It really lit me up, it made my
day and I could sense the positive vibrations between us.”
Poonam took the screen name Komal and did several films like Jigri Dost
(1969) opposite Jeetendra. It was she who tasted fame before SS but it was he
alone who had stars in his eyes and a dream-target to reach. Poonam was
largely unambitious and not driven by career-goals to succeed at any cost. It
suited the conservative Bihari who considered it a qualification. “Promi was
never very keen on an acting career,” he said. “Her aunty had no children of
her own and had adopted Promi who was her brother’s daughter. She took
special care of her, treated her like a flower, and was very strict with her. I
haven’t seen any star-mother or guardian chaperone a girl so vigilantly.”
When despite her hawk-like presence, it finally dawned on Aunty that the
young man she had trusted had entirely different ideas about her niece, she
actually felt betrayed.
SS nodded, “When she realised that it was getting serious and was not a
platonic friendship, she felt as if I had stabbed her in the back because she
had trusted me. After that, whenever she met me, she wouldn’t be looking at
Promi but would sit before me and look me straight in the eye. It would
promptly shame me.” Shame him but not stop him; meeting her on the sly
was an excitement the young man could not resist.
“Promi and I had started meeting occasionally,” he went on. “I started
getting a few films. And then came a film called Dharti Ki God Mein (1971)
in which both Promi and I acted. It was directed by Kewal Mishra who later
made a very big box-office hit with Vinod Khanna and me called Do Yaar
(1972).”
It was during the making of Dharti Ki God Mein that the friendship
blossomed. “While doing her make-up, she would see me in the mirror and
our eyes would lock. She would give me a slight smile,” he recalled. “And
then we went to Agra for a shooting schedule. She was the heroine of the
film, Sunil Dutt’s brother Som Dutt was the hero and I was the villain. While
shooting, the crowds got unruly; there was a lot of stone throwing and chaos
and in this mêlée, she and I got locked together in a bathroom!”
In the confusion where Promi’s protection was paramount, her aunt could
do nothing to stop the two from being thrown together unexpectedly. Of
course, they made the most of it. “We talked in whispers and for the first time
I felt an unsaid, unspoken chemistry between us. It was fleeting but it was
there. I wasn’t imagining it any longer.”
The shooting progressed. They got closer and made common friends.
There was Superintendent of Police, Bhanot in Agra. Bhanot’s daughter Usha
became a huge fan of the actor and then of ‘Poonam didi’ too. The others
sensed what was brewing between the heroine and the villain but Aunty had
not caught on. She was quite happy to have all of them travel in the same car
from the hotel to the location, and had no reservations about SS going over to
their room for a chat. But it was all under her watchful eye; meeting alone
was never under consideration.
“When we shifted location to Delhi, what was happening between us
slowly got exposed,” said SS. “It was like the proverbial 1,000 violins
playing in the background.” Poonam’s formidable aunt could no longer
remain impervious to what was brewing between them and she was not
willing to play along. “She became even stricter thereafter,” winced SS.
“I was becoming more and more popular but Aunty was adamant that
Promi and I should not be thrown together again,” he continued. “For
example, when the film Paras (1971) was offered to her, the moment her
aunt got to know that I was also in it, she turned it down. It turned out to be a
blockbuster and Farida Jalal who did that role won a Filmfare Award for it.
But Aunty had decided that I was a bad influence on Promi, so irrespective of
the money being offered, she said a firm ‘No’ to working in any film with
me.”
The embargo couldn’t stop the young suitor from wooing his lady.
“We tried to talk, to meet. But Aunty put a stop to all communication.
Telephone calls were never given to her. Her aunty would tell her that there
were good proposals coming her way, to choose from them and settle down.
Promi was getting proposals from very prominent Sindhi families. For a long
time, we couldn’t meet at all. Imagine, we hadn’t even got around to holding
hands and our relationship was already getting nipped in the bud!”
Like cinematic romances, there were side players who pitched in and
helped the lead pair meet furtively. “Promi had a helpful maid called Zubeida
and through her, we would try and meet. Promi’s cousin Sunita (now Sunita
Ruparel, still very close to us) and a friend called Pushpa (now Mona Narang,
a close friend to this day), ferried letters to and fro or told us when we could
catch a glimpse of each other.” The roster of close allies also included actors
Asrani, Paintal, Subhash Ghai, Amitabh Bachchan, sometimes Anwar Ali,
and friends like Yogi from Patna and Bipin Upadhyaya who had shared the
same room with SS in the lodge in Andheri.
There was also a telephone operator from MTNL who would listen in on
their conversations and became very friendly with SS. But later, when the
star began to draw away from Promi, the same operator switched sides. “She
would fill me in on all his extra-curricular activities,” Promi gleefully
recollected.
The additional excitement was that SS’ popularity was on the rise and he
was gaining so much recognition that they had to be even more careful not to
be spotted in public.
In 1971, during the Indo-Pak War when curfew and blackout had been
declared, SS and Promi had one of their more daring dates. A message had
been sent to her that he would be going over to her place at night. “My
friends and I had decided to go in a car and meet her. We’d also decided that
if we got caught, we’d run away and get married in court.”
Looking back, SS couldn’t believe their naïveté. “We had no idea how to
go about a court marriage or where we’d stay the night. And I’d set out like a
great warrior. My supporter and adviser that evening was my former FTII
tutor, Asrani Sir. Bipin, Yogi and a few more buddies were with me. We
were full of himmat and josh (confidence and youthful energy), brimming
over with bravado. None of us were drunk, by the way.
“Promi who had spent the whole day oiling the latch so it wouldn’t creak,
had told her grandmother about our meeting. But when the time came, the
grandmother chickened out and decided that she wanted no part in this. She
turned her back on Promi and went to sleep. It must’ve been about 1 am
when we reached her house. We parked the car; she saw me from the
balcony. We went up to the first floor and she opened the door very
nervously. But this was her way of reassuring me that it was not one-sided
and that she had faith in me. If we’d been caught, bahut joote padte (there’d
have been hell to pay). I had no idea what to say to her, what to do with her,
how much to hold her, how far to go. But what happened that night was, the
series of slaps which had begun with my mother came a full circle with a slap
I got from my future wife! It was more of an affectionate tap on the cheek for
keeping her waiting and not moving forward. Fortunately, it was also the first
and last slap I got from her.
“After she slapped me, we conversed, whispering in each other’s ear. I
assured her that things would work out for us, that I had started working. I’d
slowly started making a name for myself. We made plans. The romance
continued through letters.
“That night I fortunately returned in one piece and still single after visiting
Promi. So we didn’t have to run away or have a court marriage or indeed, get
married that day.”
As Promi and SS grew closer, now assured of each other’s love, his career
began to soar. “After films like Chetna (1970), Khilona (1970), Gambler
(1971), Raampur Ka Lakshman (1972) and Bhai Ho To Aisa (1972), were
released, people had started recognising me. I became popular with the young
crowd. We still managed to meet surreptitiously.” Again, perhaps thoroughly
influenced by his passion for cinema, his romance with Promi also took on
filmi tones. “I’d hide my face and slip into Aurora Talkies where she’d
somehow cajole her uncle into bringing her. I’d wear dark glasses or specs,
walk with a droop or with a limp to avoid recognition and go into the theatre
with Yogi or Bipin to spend a few minutes with her. We watched Sound Of
Music, one of the few films in that period which I saw till the end because of
her presence.
“Simultaneously, my status in life changed from struggling actor to a star
you could no longer ignore. I had started life in Bombay from Krishna Kunj
Lodge where five or six of us shared a room. All the others thought I’d
become an actor one day so I was given the privilege of the window seat – a
bed by the window. Soon I shifted to a two-bedroom flat in Lalubhai Park in
Andheri. It was given to me free of charge by my helpful friend Trilokinath
Parashar. As my popularity grew, I moved to a one-room flat in Anthony
Mansion on 29th Road in Bandra on a rent of Rs 200 per month. A lot of
letters from Promi were delivered to my flat in Anthony Mansion by Zubeida
and others.” One unforgettable letter had come at a critical moment when he
was wondering how to pay his rent of Rs 200. And voilà, immediately after
Promi’s letter, there arrived a packet from a producer with Rs 3000 in it for a
film!
“It proved again how lucky she was for me,” he remarked. “From there,
my next big step was to Devdoot in Bandstand where I saw the really dizzy
heights of stardom.”
Moving into Devdoot was one of his biggest achievements for he had
coveted the flat from a distance for many years.
“An actress called Zeb Rehman used to stay in this two-bedroom flat in
Devdoot,” he remembered. “On the ground floor lived BK Adarsh, Founder-
Editor of Trade Guide. Dr Rahi Masoom Raza, the writer of Mahabharat
lived on the first floor. He grew very fond of me and was like a guardian
figure to me. There was a college of Architecture which had its hostel in
Bandstand where Taj Lands End now stands. I often stayed there as a guest
paying Re 1 per night. From that hostel, I used to look up at this flat in
Devdoot and dream of living there one day. Fortunately for me, Zeb Rehman
moved out of that flat and an extremely decent Parsi gentleman who owned
it, gave it to me for a monthly rent of Rs 800. It was a wonderful flat. I felt
very proud and happy to move into it. I felt I had arrived, I felt I had come
home. Fortunately, today I own that flat too.
“It felt so wonderful to live there. From every room you could see the sea.
There was no need for an air-conditioner because it was so breezy and
beautiful. We put in an air-conditioner much later. I lived in that rented flat
when I did all my famous films. Khilona (1970), Mere Apne (1971), Dost
(1974), Kalicharan (1976), were all shot while I lived there. It was
considered a very lucky flat for me and everybody said I had to buy it. The
owner had no intentions of selling it but he was really decent and as a special
case, he let me buy it from him. When I’d taken it on rent from him, I’d made
it clear that forget a written agreement, the day he wanted me to vacate it, I’d
move out. I’ve always wanted above-board dealings where I can look a
person in the eye anytime in life. He appreciated that quality in me which was
why when I later wanted to buy it, he sold it to me.
“When I took it on rent I did often wonder how I’d manage Rs 800 every
month to pay the rent. To go from a rent of Rs 200 to Rs 800 was a big jump.
To top it, a broker had taken most of my money and absconded. But it was
the place from where my career really took off. For the first time in my life, I
saw lakhs of rupees coming into my house. It was here that I signed Gaai Aur
Gori (1973); Mr Chinappa Devar had come to that flat to sign me up. It had
created waves then because it was said that the full and final amount that
Rajesh Khanna had been paid for the colossal hit Haathi Mere Saathi (1971),
was what I got only as signing amount. Big-time filmmakers like Manmohan
Desai, Dulal Guha came to that house to sign me up. It was only after
Kalicharan that I bought my bungalow in Juhu which I named Ramayan.
“But for a good two years, I kept going back to Devdoot. I couldn’t bring
myself to really leave it. My wife and family used to call it Shatrughan
Sinha’s Mazar-e-Mohabbat (mausoleum of love like the Taj Mahal).
“By the time I settled down in Devdoot, I had sent my brother Ram bhaiya
and NN Sippy, a Sindhi producer who made runaway hits like Woh Kaun Thi,
with a marriage proposal to Promi’s aunty. Aunty had thrown it out saying,
‘Look at your brother and look at my daughter. She is so fair and beautiful
that even if they posed for a colour photograph, he will come out in black and
white!’”
What Aunty didn’t reckon with but Promi feared with the instinct of a
woman in love, was that the constant spurning of his proposal would drive
him into the arms of a proliferating number of admirers. And she was right.
Devdoot was not only the apartment where commercial success and big-
ticket filmmakers entered in abundance, it was also the bachelor’s pad for
many a ‘heroic’ tale.
SS’ coterie watched with growing excitement his rising score both as a
film star and as a wild young man. Along with the film offers and the lucre,
they kept track of the willowy figures that weaved in and out of his life. At
one time, his cronies even opened an A-Z account – every time SS scored
with an admirer, the alphabet with which her name began would be ticked
off. The goal was to tick off all 26 alphabets and if the endeavour had to be
aborted, it was not due to lack of numbers but because they were stumped by
the alphabet ‘X’. No one interesting enough whose name began with ‘X’ ever
came within their purview.
The image-conscious politician of today would probably dissociate himself
from such boisterous adventures. But in the incorrigible seventies, score
cards and swapping of stories were de rigueur with young men.
Promi sure had much to worry about.
SS admitted with his normal candour, “As I began to taste big-time
success, other girls came into my life. Perhaps I had a small-town mentality. I
also had an inferiority complex about my scarred face. After getting slapped
and scolded, here I was with girls of all kinds, co-stars, girls from good
families, socialites, models, company executives. They were all ready and
willing to have a scene with me. I wasn’t into casual flings but I did go a bit
berserk.”
The one giveaway of where his ultimate loyalties lay was that only Promi’s
name reached Bhuvaneshwar Niwas.
“He had told his mother all about Promi,” squealed Annapurna, “and when
I went to Patna, he told me too about her. He showered so much praise on
her, paid her so many compliments and said, ‘She is too good for me’ so
many times that we looked forward to meeting her. I still have the long, long
letters that Promi would write to me those days. It was not the era of leisurely
and daily phone calls, hardly anybody made calls all over the country then.
So all our communication was through letters.”
Further proof of which way he would eventually head surfaced when he
sent Annapurna into a tizzy over a gift for Promi. “When he was returning to
Bombay from Patna, he casually asked me, ‘Do you want to send her
anything?’ We had no idea what the film industry was like. So I went to the
shop and got a very beautiful silver set with filigree work from Cuttack, very
elegant. He looked at it, cast it aside and said, ‘When you go home, give it to
your Dai (old maid).’
“I was in a dilemma; all my jewellery was at my in-laws’ place. I had only
one small ring with me, a very old one with a butterfly on it. I gave that to
him and he happily took it for Promi.” Poonam has it with her to this day.
So while the other girls flitted in and out, his heart truly beat only for
Promi. And their love story unexpectedly took a favourable turn when FTII
buddy and actor Anil Dhawan got married to fellow actor Rashmi.
SS met Promi and her family at the reception at Sun-n-Sand and Aunty
was impressed that despite his obvious popularity, he made time to look after
them. It was mere yaar ki shaadi (my buddy’s wedding) and SS was the de
facto host. But when it was time for them to leave, he personally drove Promi
and her aunt back to Chembur in his car. He now had his own vehicle too.
“That was the beginning of Aunty thawing towards me,” SS remembered.
“But Aunty was also getting swayed by rumours about my growing number
of girlfriends. To an extent, there was some truth to the stories.”
Perhaps to check out the territory before she yielded her niece to it, one
day Promi and her aunt paid a surprise visit to his bachelor’s pad in Devdoot.
“It was more like a surprise raid,” he mock-trembled. “As luck would have
it, I was sitting inside with a girl. She was only a friend, nothing more, but
meri jaan nikal gayi (I was caught completely off-guard). All of a sudden, to
have Aunty there when there was a girl inside the flat was unthinkable. We
passed her off as a neighbour who’d dropped in to use the phone. Luckily,
Promi played along in front of Aunty and saved the day although I had to pay
for it later when we met alone.
“From then on, everything simply grew and grew. Promi and I were going
strong. My career took off brilliantly. My stardom was on the rise and along
with all that dizzy success, my craze for a few new things also grew. It was
natural. I had come from a small town, small compared to Bombay, and I
began to get a bit carried away with all the attention. One of the reasons was
also because I couldn’t really meet Promi alone. Here I was getting all the
attention any man would want and on the other hand, whenever I met Promi,
it would be in front of everybody else. If we went for a drive, her whole
khandaan (clan) would be with us. We got no privacy at all. For the first time
after five years, I got to hold her hand, that too inside a theatre when we were
watching Subhash Ghai’s film, Umang (1970). As always, we had to make
elaborate plans to meet there. I informed her that we’d be going to see this
film and she had to work on her uncle and coax him into bringing her to the
theatre. Holding her hand in the theatre felt like an electric current. During
the interval, before the lights came on, I slipped away.
“Promi was still doing films but going slow with her career, being very
picky. A lot of people felt she should become an air hostess but her family
was against it. She did films only to buy time. The craze for SS was going
stronger; night life and parties came with it. There was no anchor for me at
home since Promi couldn’t be with me openly.”
For five years after stardom hit him, SS did not touch a drop of liquor.
“I wasn’t much of a drinker,” he explained. “It was much later when
Sanjeev Kumar became a close friend or when I had Subhash Ghai’s
company that I really started drinking but certainly never heavily. Of course,
I don’t blame either of them for my developing a taste for alcohol.”
It wasn’t alcohol but success that he found heady.
“I got carried away with company, stardom and attention,” he admitted. “It
was natural that with a bit of flirting you start getting intimate with the
opposite sex. I was called ‘cocktail eyes’, ‘bedroom eyes’, ‘Shotgun’, ‘lady
killer’ – a lot of epithets were used for me but no matter what people said, the
fact was, I never was a womaniser, I don’t even like using the word. I was
certainly not a bed-hopper. I always believed that respect was a must in any
relationship.”
However, once Aunty relented and came around to accepting the
relationship, it was no longer mandatory that she would be sitting between
them every time they met. “Promi and I would go on the terrace at Ramayan
and talk for hours on end.”
Aunty also allowed Poonam to act in Sabak (1973) which starred
Shatrughan Sinha.
But now the shoe was firmly on the other foot.
Poonam had put her career and popularity on the backburner to turn herself
into the ultimate woman for SS. But he who had too many distractions in his
life, particularly a co-star by the name Reena Roy, was no longer the one-
woman man who wanted Ms Chandiramani at any cost.
Overtures began to be made by Aunty to take the romance to the next level
but the prospective groom had tasted blood. And caught between them was
Poonam who faced what she had feared – he officially called it off just when
Aunty had been completely won over.
He may have snapped ties with her temporarily but his family in Bihar
didn’t follow suit. “We felt very bad when Sonu and Promi didn’t talk to each
other for years,” Annapurna frowned. “I stayed in touch with her all the time.
We were keen to see them married.
“I can’t ever forget the first time I saw her!” exclaimed Annapurna as if
she’d seen a vision. “We had come to stay at Ramayan and Promi was
shooting in Nepal for Dev Anand’s Ishk, Ishk, Ishk (1974). Through Pawanji,
with great difficulty, we contacted her and asked her to come down. She
came in a white saree with her aunty and when she got down from a Fiat car,
I got my first glimpse of her. I just stood and looked at her, she looked so
ethereal, so beautiful, so fragile, I thought she would be blemished if I
touched her. We tried very hard to get them together and after that Sonu and
she began talking again.”
Like all the people who had sized up SS, Annapurna too read him right
when she observed, “Promi has always had such a special place in his life
that he could never bear one word against her. Sonu won’t tolerate it even if
the children have a fight with their mummy. He has the ravaiya (style) of an
old-world zamindar about his woman, agar inka bal bhi baanka hua toh
baukhla jaate hain (He won’t allow any harm to come to her). Even when
they were not talking to each other, he continued that one trait of being ultra-
protective of her.” It was a dead giveaway that whatever the issues between
them, he was serious only about Poonam.
“But we couldn’t comprehend what was going on in his life in Bombay.
We would hear that he had gone astray but everybody would also tell us,
‘The film line is like that,’” Annapurna shrugged.
“I broke off with Promi during Sabak,” SS said crisply. “I told her simply
that she was too good for me, she deserved better, to please leave me alone.
In every area, she was just perfect. Everything she did was to please me. She
moulded her whole life to suit me. I couldn’t believe this sort of dedication.
Once Aunty came around, she started expecting me to give her more time,
more attention which I could not give her.” More than attention, she naturally
wanted his complete fidelity which SS could no longer give his lady.
 Confirming that he had strayed from the fold and put Poonam’s
unwavering loyalty to the test, SS disclosed, “There was no communication
at all between us for about three years but much later I came to know that she
had kept tabs on me. She would call my house and talk to the staff, ensure
that I was being looked after well in her absence. She would make blank calls
to me; she’d hear my voice over the phone and gauge my mood of the day.
She was very intuitive and the vibrations were strong. She used to cry a lot,
lost weight, became a vegetarian and turned to God.”
His midnight dates, those furtive touches in a darkened cinema hall and the
desire to take her home receded into the background as SS grew close to
Reena Roy, the heroine of Kalicharan, his first runaway hit as a hero.
“That’s true,” he accepted. “I became very close to my heroine. I will
always be guilty of having put Promi through a lot of trauma at that time.”
He didn’t just abruptly end his relationship with Poonam, he even gave her
grief when they were shooting for Sabak.
He rued, “When we’d stopped talking during Sabak, I refused to shoot
‘Barkha Rani...,’ a super hit song of those times, with Promi. It was,
therefore, picturised on Jayshree T and another actor called Abhijeet. But
after the film was released, Jugal Kishore, one of the finest human beings I
have ever met, requested us to shoot the song together. If you ever watch the
song, you’ll find only some parts picturised on Promi and me although we
were the lead pair. To this day, the song has Jayshree T and Abhijeet in the
interludes.
“Jugal Kishore was such a good human being and a perfect producer that
on the 10th day of every month, he would pay me my instalment. Even if I
forgot about it, he would turn up on the 10th to make the payment. I agreed to
shoot the song which was such a chartbuster but all through the shoot, Promi
and I never spoke a word to each other. But I admired the way Promi
remained graceful through it all and never gave me any cause for stress or
complaint. She didn’t embarrass me at any time or try to force a conversation
between us.
“By the time we got around to shooting the song, things had worsened
between us. I didn’t want to face her anymore. My mother and my sister were
contacted and they were with me when we shot the song in a single day at
Jugal Kishoreji’s farm.”
Their break-up would have been permanent if it hadn’t been for Poonam’s
dogged determination to walk down the aisle with this man alone. Beautiful,
eligible and considered a premium catch in her community, Poonam was
inundated with proposals from illustrious Sindhi families. But she stood her
ground. Once, when her family had insisted on her meeting one of these
eligible candidates, she had broken a plate over her own head, stamped her
foot and refused to look beyond the boy from Patna.
“She was determined that she would marry only me,” said SS, flattered
that a woman he had chased and desired had devoted her whole life to him,
and him alone. “It was as if the day she opened her eyes, she saw me and was
hooked, booked and cooked for life,” the pleasure evident in his voice. “She
did everything to be my ideal partner. Today when I see a cookery show on
TV or read about a master chef, I can proudly say that there is nobody to beat
Promi. Once she knew that I was a foodie, she started learning to cook and
became a pro at it. Chinese, Italian, Bihari, Bengali fish curry, diet food,
high-protein diet, combination foods, she mastered it all. Nobody could stand
up to her. She had turned vegetarian temporarily but she cooked mutton,
chicken, whatever I fancied. Her aunt was also a great cook.”
He appreciated it three decades later but swept away by stardom and the
attention showered upon him by a bevy of girls topped by co-star Reena Roy,
he had no clue what Poonam was up to. He later learnt that she had stayed in
touch with his mother who had also decided that this was the devoted wife
her son really needed.
The film world was witness to the silent battle between the two women
most prominent in his life. At one time when Poonam sported a diamond ‘S’
stud on her nose, Reena Roy stepped out wearing shades that had SS
inscribed on both sides!
This kind of blatant affection, where each literally wore her love on her
nose or over her ears, chuffed the man who was caught between them. Like
Dharmendra-Hema Malini and other saleable screen couples, SS and Reena
Roy also signed a slew of films and lived in bliss. But Poonam was not one to
back off without a fight.
“I didn’t know that Promi was still in touch with my mother,” said SS. “I
didn’t know that she was still calling up every day and telling the staff what
to make for me, ensuring that I was being taken care of. I didn’t know that
just like her maid Zubeida, one of my staffers was also helping her and
keeping her informed about me.”
By now the action had shifted from Devdoot to Ramayan, the dream
bungalow he had built and named as a tribute to his family.
In 1980, Shyama Devi decided that it was time to rein in her wayward son.
SS knew his game was up when he awoke one morning to find Poonam in an
off-white saree and her aunty in white entering Ramayan. His mother was in
the city, staying with him.
“It was about 11 am when I saw them going in to meet Amma,” he vividly
described the day. “The door shut and they were closeted there for the whole
day. I knew my goose was cooked and I couldn’t escape a face-off anymore.
They came out at 7 pm; all day I’d been watching the door. When they came
out, neither Promi nor her aunty embarrassed me in any way. But one look at
her swollen eyes and I knew, ‘Beta Shatru, tu to gaya (You’ve had it).’ I
went in and fought with my mother, asking her not to interfere in my life. But
when she demanded to know, ‘Too good for me ka kya matlab? What do you
mean by, she’s too good for me?’ I was cornered.
“Also, when I saw Promi inside Ramayan, I knew that she was still the
special one. I still cared very deeply for her.”
But there were too many women in his life for him to decide upon only
one. He remarked light-heartedly, “My problem was not whom to marry but
whom not to marry!
“It was not only a certain actress who had entered my life,” he disclosed.
Like comic book hero Archie who bought ‘You’re the only one’ cards by the
dozen for each of his ‘steady’ girlfriends on Valentine’s Day, SS was
unabashedly ‘going steady’ with more than one girl simultaneously. The list
tumbled out. “I was also going steady with a tall, very well-educated
corporate executive who was a South Indian Brahmin, another short little girl
who is now married. I had many friends then. I have been very fortunate that
most of my girlfriends were very fine young ladies. What all of them had in
common was that they were willing to let me go if I was leaving them to
marry Promi. To this day, some of them have remained unmarried,” he
added. Their single status seemed to make him feel a couple of inches taller.
After his mother had led him by the ear, he sheepishly asked Promi,
“Despite knowing all that’s happening in my life, will you marry me?”
She didn’t give in on the spot. A romantic scene had to take place and it
did. He smiled affectionately, “To her eternal credit, she kept her dignity by
replying, ‘I’ll give you an answer if you propose to me properly’. Finally, on
the terrace of Ramayan I proposed to her conventionally, on bent knee, with a
rose in my hand.”
One is not sure about the other women in his life but for Reena Roy, it was
a wrench. Shatrughan Sinha and Reena Roy were a popular, celebrity couple
and everybody had accepted their off-screen intimacy. So when he chose to
openly wed Poonam, it was a humiliating public rejection for Reena Roy. But
she too, accepted his marriage without kicking up a ruckus. “She was very
gracious,” said SS. “She said, ‘If it’s Promi, it’s okay. Anybody else and I’ll
kill you.’”
Reena Roy had no choice but to be graceful about it especially since she
and her man were still commercially in demand. Besides, he continued to
stay in the relationship with her despite the change in his marital status. It
was a reality that Poonam had accepted when she became his wife. In fact,
while Bipin, Subhash and all his close friends were distributing his wedding
invitation to guests in India, SS and Reena Roy were together in London
doing a stage show. “Yes, I wasn’t even around for the wedding
preparations,” he accepted.
Two days before he wed Poonam, he was on a London stage with Reena
when Kalyanji-Anandji made an announcement that Shatrughan Sinha was
going back to India the next day to get married. Reena stood by his side
publicly while the bride who knew just what was unfolding in London waited
for her big moment in Bombay. In this very dramatic triangle, both women
stood by him with Reena Roy even driving with him to Heathrow to see him
off – the ultimate ego boost for a man.
But if SS expected Reena Roy to continue being devoted to him despite his
marriage to another, he was in for a surprise. “After my marriage I could see
her battling confusion,” he revealed. “Sometimes she would fly off to the
Rajneesh ashram, sometimes stay over with someone in America. She
wouldn’t talk to me for days. I could not give her the position that she felt she
deserved. I couldn’t do anything about it.”
If he couldn’t, she could. Reena Roy found cricketer Mohsin Khan from
across the border and married him before she could change her mind. That
move hurt everybody around, including her man in Bombay. For she had not
only married a good-looking, eligible bachelor with a name of his own but
she had also done the unthinkable – crossed over to Pakistan for domesticity.
Unfortunately for Reena Roy, the nikah (Muslim marriage) on the rebound
didn’t last even an innings and she returned to Bombay a single woman. It
was rumoured that in her later battle for the custody of her daughter Jannat, it
was her former lover who helped her. Jannat was finally brought to India and
Reena changed her name to Sanam.
If SS had a hand in Jannat’s return to her mother, he was circumspect
about it. “I don’t believe in kiss-n-tell stories,” he said seriously, the
flamboyance vanishing. “To this day I think of her with respect and affection
because she gave me a lot of comfort, calm and peace when I was going
through the dilemma of my marriage. I will forever remain obliged to her for
that. Whenever we meet, it is with dignity.”
SS’ friend Dr Upendra Sinha explained how the actor had made up his
mind. “He told me, Reena loves me but Promi worships me.”
For the occasion, Mahmood Alam, SS’ friend in Patna who had factories in
Firozabad, got two dozen glass bangles made to order with the names
‘Shatrughan’ and ‘Poonam’ inscribed on them. “They were made especially
for their wedding, I don’t think you can get such bangles made anywhere in
India,” Mahmood Miya said with pride. “Bhabhi ne itni chudiyon ki kadar ki
(Poonam Bhabhi valued the bangles so much) that she wore them for almost
twenty-four years.”
Twenty-five years later, when the bangles had broken, one by one,
Mahmood Miya got Poonam’s wrist size and made another set for the Sinha
couple’s silver wedding anniversary, despatching his special gift with a pilot
from Sahara Airlines. “Bhabhi wrote me a letter that the occasion on which
she received them made them even more special. Sonakshi would also come
to my shop in Patna, pick up all the bangles she liked, wear them from wrist
to elbow and say, ‘Uncle, Uncle, maine itni baangdi pehenli hai (Look, I
have worn so many bangles).’”
For Poonam, the marriage that happened after fourteen emotionally heavy
years, was a vindication of her everlasting belief that her devotion would one
day chasten him. She was even willing to wed him on his terms which meant
that she became his wife while he was still involved in a relationship outside
his marriage. Karan Johar’s father, the Late Yash Johar had a stag party
before the wedding; Subhash Ghai threw one after. The wedding itself was at
the Taj in South Bombay. The emotional strain Poonam was under became
evident when during the saat pheras (Hindu wedding vows), the bride
fainted.
When he took her home to Ramayan as his bride, there was more in store
for the newly-wed Poonam as the air-conditioner in the master bedroom on
the first floor inexplicably caught fire. It was put out before it could spread
throughout the bungalow but the new bride felt a sense of deep foreboding
and saw it as an ominous sign. It was left to her husband to reassure her that
her stepping into his house was actually auspicious because it was probably
her luck that had saved the whole place from catching fire.
The marriage was Poonam’s first step to getting her man to stay by her
side forever, even if it meant the kind of compromise few women would
willingly accept. He was still involved with Reena Roy and for quite a few
years, he shunted between wife and girlfriend, a situation Poonam had
walked into with eyes wide open. As the grapevine put it, “He was married
here but was honeymooning there.”
What would perhaps be an unthinkable, unacceptable position for a more
progressive woman was perhaps a vainglorious situation for a man who
thought that a wife at home and a mistress outside was the ideal space to be
in. There could be no better proof of manhood for a man whose machismo
was his pride.
However, the reality was that beneath the macho bluster hid an anxious
man. SS insisted that it was far from a dream situation for him. “I had to
make a choice when I married Promi while I was still very involved with my
co-star,” he acquiesced. “It might sound like a great position to be in for a
man but it is actually very traumatic,” he shared, as he described what a man
actually goes through when he’s caught between two women. “You are guilty
when you are with either of them. It wasn’t as if I wanted to cheat on either
but it takes time for a man to withdraw from an emotional situation. Promi
stood like a rock beside me and waited patiently for me to withdraw
completely from the relationship outside our marriage.
“In terms of emotions, in terms of suffering, stress and tension, Promi
really went through a lot.”
Annapurna chuckled, “After marriage, Promi would spend all her time in
the kitchen getting food ready for Sonu and his friends. When they went for
their honeymoon to America, Lakhan said, ‘Check out if she’s in the kitchen
there also while he is partying with friends.’ When they returned, we found
out that was precisely what had happened.”
The Sinha clan was aware of SS’ daily need to entertain or be entertained
and Poonam’s kitchen routine while he socialised. Like everything else that
came with the territory, Poonam accepted it as a part and parcel of life as Mrs
Shatrughan Sinha.
The marriage that has lasted over thirty-five strong years was not a
cakewalk for either of them. “When we got married and she came to stay in
Ramayan, Promi used to say, ‘My banwas (exile) of fourteen years happened
even before marriage,’” remembered Shatrughan. The reference was to the
fourteen-year exile that Lord Ram spent in the jungle with his wife Sita, once
again a part of the Ramayan, the mythology so closely linked to the Sinha
family.
“It was a difficult period for me also because withdrawing from an
emotional entanglement elsewhere was taking its time,” SS explained.
“Promi used to cry a lot but she knew I was trying my best. Sorting out our
lives took its own time because it was a question of a commitment to the
other party also. When I was with her (Reena) outside, I was faced with the
question, ‘You’ve set up your home. So was I a toy to be used and cast
away?’ It was not a comfortable position to be in. I have to tell every man
that an extra-marital situation puts you on a perpetual guilt trip. When you
are at home, you feel guilty about neglecting the other woman. When you are
with her, you feel guilty about your wife. On karva chauth or teej (festive
occasions on which North Indian women fast for the long life of their
husbands), you are caught not knowing where to go first when both have
been fasting all day for you. What are you supposed to do? The situation
leaves you stressed and tense.”
There were also situations which seemed amusing in later years but caused
Promi untold heartache. SS narrated one such incident that could’ve caused a
conflagration at home had Poonam not been his patient pillar of support.
“I was in Pakistan and the telephone operator at the hotel was in a fix when
there were calls from both (Poonam and Reena) at the same time, and they
both asked the operator to be put through to me first. Promi had gracefully
given in that time too. She told the operator, ‘Never mind, put her on, she’s
like his sister!’
“I’d taken Yash Johar with me to Pakistan and he knew that I was
frantically hunting for a parandi (fancy hair extension) all over Karachi. I
didn’t even know what a parandi was but I desperately wanted to bring back
one. However, the market was closed because it was a Friday. When we
returned, Yash Johar told Promi how frantically I had looked for a parandi all
over Karachi for her. And Promi looked confused because she had never
asked for one. Only then did Yash realise that it was the other person who
had asked me to get it for her!
“Despite situations like this, Promi continued to be understanding. I was a
victim of emotions and weakness,” emphasised SS. “It took time but I
gradually got out of it. That’s why today whenever we have an argument, I
tell Promi that if on a scale of one to ten I was right up there at number ten
for my weaknesses, over the years I have improved and stand at a much
better number now. On the other hand, she was a perfect ten to begin with but
while all her other qualities are still fine, she has started losing her temper,
answering me back; there’s hypertension. She’s the one who has changed for
the worse over the years.
“Perhaps,” SS mollified himself with the thought, “it is a catharsis for
Promi after all the years of trauma that I put her through. So I would think her
temper tantrums today are justified.”
Producer Pahlaj Nihalani, one of Shatrughan’s closest friends during his
stint in films and in his career as a politician, endorsed Poonam’s
graciousness about the situation with Reena Roy. Pahlaj’s professional
association with SS began with Hathkadi (1982) which also starred Sanjeev
Kumar and Reena Roy in important roles. And he was caught in the cross-fire
between the two lovers.
“After Hathkadi, I was keen to repeat the same setup of Shatru, Reena,
Sanjeev Kumar for my next film, Aandhi Toofan,” divulged the producer.
“But Reena said a firm, ‘No’ to my offer. She said to me, ‘Tell your friend to
make up his mind. If he gives me an answer, I’ll do the next film with him.
Otherwise, it’s a “No”. I’ve made up my mind that if he doesn’t marry me,
I’m going to get married in eight days.’”
In 1982, Shatrughan was already married to Poonam but was still
emotionally bound to Reena Roy and wouldn’t cut off ties with her.
“Sonu was shooting at night for a film called Telephone (1985) in a hotel
in Juhu when I went across and repeated Reena’s message to him,” Pahlaj
gave the details. “He called her up and cried like a baby. For the first time, I
saw him cry; he was very emotionally involved with her. That was the one
time I spoke up and told him, ‘Let go, let her get married.’
“To Promi’s credit, she knew all that was happening,” remarked Pahlaj.
“But during the entire shooting of Hathkadi, never once did she try to find
out anything or ask questions about what they were up to. We shot for one
month in Goa but she never gave him any grief over it. She always knew,
‘Ghoda jayega toh bhi wapas ghar hi aayega (Even if he strays, he will
return to the fold).’”
Pahlaj who understood his friend well, added cannily, “Sonu was also
acutely aware of his reputation and was careful not to besmirch it.”
Reena Roy helped SS make up his mind which way to head and stay put
when she found herself a husband in cricketer Mohsin Khan and flew out of
her co-star’s reach. She had waited long enough for her man to enter into a
Dharmendra-Hema Malini kind of arrangement with her. SS instinctively
recoiled from it. But what made it even tougher for him was that his own
brother Dr Ram Sinha did a surprise turn one day by asking him to take
Reena Roy as his second wife.
 4

Politics In The Family

The family – that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape,
nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.

Dodie Smith

It was dramatic.
SS had an eight-month pregnant wife at home when he was summarily
summoned and forced to a stand.
“I wasn’t the only one who had changed. My success had changed my own
family,” SS remarked as he turned to a chilling chapter that outsiders knew
nothing about.
“After my marriage, my eldest brother Dr Ram Sinha called me over one
evening to Reena’s house in Bombay. When I reached there, he asked me
point-blank to marry her, right there, right then. Behaving like a thakur
(feudal lord) of yore, he said he had given his word to Reena that I would
marry her. I was flabbergasted. When I asked him what he was up to, he told
me imperiously, ‘You will do what I ask you to do.’ His tone turned
threatening when he went on to add, ‘If you don’t, I will expose you.’”
Reena’s family and Dr Ram were prepared for any kind of arrangement –
they were ready to send for a priest and pin SS down right there to go through
a midnight ceremony. Back home, Promi was in full bloom with twin babies
(Luv and Kussh) ready for delivery. It was a poignant decision to make and a
nightmare situation to face. Secretary Pawan Kumar remembered how
disturbed he was when Ram bhaiya had compounded it by writing and
circulating to all close family members, a long letter in which he had detailed
SS’ personal life, ending it with the line, ‘And so he must marry Reena’.
Pawan Kumar was aghast when he received a copy of it. Determined to avert
a crisis in SS’ marriage to Promi, Pawan Kumar rushed to Ooty with
common friend and lawyer Venky (who is no more). SS was shooting there
for a film paradoxically called Dil-e-Nadan (which roughly translated into,
‘The heart is innocent’) with Rajesh Khanna and Jayaprada. Pawan got
Venky to convince SS how disastrous it would be for him to go in for a
second marriage. If SS was vacillating, perhaps this timely intervention
helped him make up his mind against marriage to Reena. One isn’t sure if
Promi knew about Pawan Kumar’s hand in saving her marriage because the
secretary said that he did what he thought was his duty to the family and
never spoke to her about it.
The incident transformed SS in many ways.
“Until then, I had idolised Ram bhaiya,” he frowned. “But I saw that he
had changed with my success. How could such a highly educated man behave
in such a manner?”
Changes had begun to creep into the Sinha family much earlier and SS felt
that his meteoric stardom had much to do with it. One of the initial signs was
the absence of Dr Ram Sinha at his youngest brother’s marriage to Promi
although the invitation cards had been printed in his name, on his insistence.
“He couldn’t, or he wouldn’t, come to my wedding,” said SS briefly.
He had perceived familial changes even before his marriage. “I began to
hear comments like, ‘How did the anpad (illiterate one) of the family become
its most successful member?’” SS cheerlessly recalled. “It seemed to rankle
all of them that despite not being as academically accomplished as them, I
had become the success story of the family. It changed people so much that
when I looked after my parents till the very end, there were remarks like, ‘Let
him do it, he’s made so much money. Anyway he’s spending so much on
aiyashi (pursuit of pleasure), chamchas (sycophants) and liquor, let him look
after our parents.’” He began to feel that his own family wasn’t toasting his
success.
His parents preferred their lifestyle in Patna to moving in with their
celebrity son. BP Sinha had his club membership and his well-scheduled
routine in Patna which he was loathe to disturb. Amma, comfortable with
Bhojpuri and the familiarity of her own group of friends, felt like a fish out of
water in Bombay. SS visited them at the slightest opportunity. “I always kept
in touch with Patna and I looked after my parents’ house.” In fact, even long
after his parents were gone, SS said that on the nights that he stayed over at
his Kadam Kuan bungalow, he still slept like a baby.
He felt that his siblings resented everything he did. The growing distance
between him and Ram bhaiya didn’t diminish even when their father passed
away.
SS grimly divulged, “Shockingly, Ram bhaiya didn’t come down when my
father and then my mother passed away. Nor did he attend my twenty-fifth
anniversary party, although we had duly invited him.
“It’s not like Ram bhaiya and I were not on talking terms,” he pointed out.
“We have always accorded him a lot of respect. But I admit that somewhere
within me, those days of looking up to him as a role model were over.”
For all his bratty ways, SS revelled in the role of reliable anchor for his
parents in their last days. It was a role he played proficiently, displaying a
sense of commitment and imparting strength to people in their most fragile
moments. It happened when Poonam’s sister, Aruna, lost her husband
suddenly, leaving behind a young widow and twin daughters (the twin genes
come from Poonam’s side of the family). SS assured Poonam that henceforth,
they would consider themselves the parents of five children. Aruna’s two
daughters, Sneha and Neha, would be theirs too. “My husband is God’s good
man,” remarked Poonam. His presence in Aruna’s and her daughters’ lives
gave them the strength and confidence they so badly needed at that hour. On
every such occasion, the emotional dimension to SS showed up.
 Annapurna was another family member who was bailed out time and again
by her kid brother’s thoughtfulness. SS saw his sister go through a low spell
with her well-placed in-laws and sprang a surprise on her twenty-fifth
wedding anniversary.
“On June 1, 1975, Sonu bought a new Fiat and sent it to us,” Annapurna
beamed with nostalgia. “My husband and I later had other cars of our own
but our first one was the Fiat gifted to us by Sonu. We were very touched by
his thoughtfulness.”
While SS dealt with the passing away of his parents and the growing
distance with his brothers, he also discovered the bliss of being the head of
his nuclear family.
“Fortunately, despite all the distractions, it was a divine blessing that I
ultimately got somebody who is the rarest of rare,” he eulogised his wife.
“There is nobody to beat Promi in terms of loyalty, commitment, nurturing,
caring and upbringing. Her beauty and sense of duty are top grade while her
dignity, grace and intelligence have towered above everybody else. In every
one of these spheres, I have never had any reason to regret our marriage. She
has also given me such beautiful children, twin sons and a charming
daughter.”
The birth of Sonakshi was unplanned. Left to SS, he would not have gone
in for a third child, content as he was with his sons, Luv and Kussh. He was
forthright as he admitted, “It is true that initially I didn’t want a third child. I
was coming into politics and I had the ‘Hum do, hamare do (family planning
mantra exhorting couples to have no more than two children)’ policy on my
mind.” But when Poonam got pregnant again, she was so keen to have a third
baby that they went ahead with it. A routine sonography (which was allowed
those days) showed a nice, strong baby, probably another male child. Perhaps
ironically, when SS became the Health Minister years later, he banned sex
determination tests.
While the Sinhas awaited the birth of a third son, Sonakshi turned up a
week before the expected delivery date. Amusingly, her arrival reduced the
new mother to tears. SS narrated the story.
“I was shooting for the Bengali film, Antarjali Jatra (Maha Yatra in
Hindi). Sonakshi was in a hurry and came along earlier than the due date. I
was in Sagar Deep which was a one-and-a-half hour boat ride from Calcutta.
We took a rickshaw, walked a long distance through mud and somehow
reached Calcutta where I was informed that Promi was in hospital. We were
having dinner with Brigadier Sharma and his wife Chitra who was assisting
Goutam on the film, when we got the news that Promi had delivered a baby
girl at night. To be in character for the role of a chandal in Antarjali Jatra, I
had grown a beard. When we got the news of the delivery, I caught an early
morning flight and went straight from the airport to Nanavati hospital in
Bombay to see the baby. As soon as Promi saw me, she started crying. I had
travel fatigue and was sun-tanned with a beard on my tired face. She
misunderstood that look for unhappiness over the birth of a baby girl! I
scolded her and asked her from which regressive Hindi film she had picked
up this scene. I hugged Promi and assured her that quite to the contrary, I was
thrilled to have a girl. The family was now complete.”
While she set aside her ambitions and dreams to see this marriage through,
Poonam also suppressed her own personality, preferring a submissive role in
this partnership. It lasted until the children grew up and Poonam began to
flower again as an individual with a mind of her own. She handled the purse-
strings of the family, deftly managing all their financial affairs and business
interests. She even stepped out to act as Hrithik Roshan’s mother in Jodha
Akbar (2008), besides turning film producer.
An astonished SS looked on at the gradual but remarkable transformation
and noted, “Today when Promi answers me back, though it’s something that
must be happening in most families, I am dumbstruck. Initially, she was so
much in love and was so full of awe that until I had eaten and my plate was
taken away like it is in a traditional Bengali or Bihari household, she could
never bring herself to eat. If she was eating and I returned home suddenly,
before even my dog could react to my car horn, she would hear it and stop
eating. She was completely tuned into me, her vibrations were so strong.
Whatever the time, even if I returned home after 2 and 3 am, she wouldn’t eat
until I had eaten. It took me years to convince her that this kind of thinking
was outdated; that zamana (era) was over. I would tell her that she had to
look after her health, she was pregnant, she had to eat on time. I used to cite
the example of the safety instructions on an aircraft where they’d say, ‘Put
the oxygen mask on your face before you help children and others around
you.’ Similarly, I told her, she had to first take good care of her own health to
be able to look after the rest of the family.
“Of course, times have changed now and she’s no longer like that,” he
added curtly.
The metamorphosis he spoke about included changing the spelling of her
name from ‘Poonam’ to ‘Punam’. A few years ago, an astrologer had advised
Poonam to do it, assuring her that it would give her independence and help
her find a new identity. “But he hates it,” laughed Poonam. “Every time I
write my name with a ‘u’ instead of ‘oo’, Soni will ask me to change it. But I
love spelling my name as Punam and have been doing it for the last few
years. It has definitely brought a change in my personality. I’m not as
subservient as I once was.”
SS had another surprise awaiting him. Poonam revealed with a wide grin
that she was keen to pen her own autobiography and call it, The Man I Never
Knew.
From a lopsided relationship where only he mattered and she chose not to
have a say, the SS-Poonam partnership steered into calmer, even waters. The
erstwhile ladies’ man began behaving like a family man, a supportive
husband and fond father. He aspired to project a spanking clean image of
himself and he pulled it off.
The only wrinkle in his life was his deteriorating relationship with Ram,
Lakhan and Bharat. If the changing equation with Dr Ram Sinha was
inexplicable, the exit of second brother Dr Lakhan Sinha’s from SS’ inner
circle was completely political.
Keenly interested in the movie industry, Lakhan was the only member of
the academically well-qualified family who had actively encouraged his star-
struck brother’s filmi aspirations. It explained why, despite a stint as an
Assistant Professor at the Engineering Institute in Jamshedpur, followed by a
PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Texas and a brilliant job as a senior
research scientist with Pratt and Whitney (manufacturers of engines for
Boeing), Lakhan threw it all up. He even brushed aside a call to collect his
green card and opted to settle down in his brother’s shadow in Bombay.
While Dr Ram Sinha stayed on in the US and Dr Bharat Sinha had a
flourishing medical practice in the UK, Dr Lakhan Sinha came back home
after eighteen years.
Initially, Lakhan tried to establish his own identity by producing two Hindi
movies, Rahi (in 1987, starring Sanjeev Kumar, Smita Patil and Shatrughan
Sinha) and Billoo Badshah (in 1989, starring Shatrughan Sinha, Govinda,
Anita Raaj). But he could do that only with SS’ unstinted support. Lakhan
also had a hand in making Prem Geet (1981), a joint production with SS’
secretary, Pawan Kumar. “I got a tax-exemption for Prem Geet in Bihar and
J&K, and was also responsible for bringing the Late Jagjit Singh into the film
industry as a music director,” Lakhan pointed out.
The eighties were cosy between the brothers but in the nineties, the first
signs of familial unease were visible. Lakhan severed official ties with SS’
home banner, Ramayan Chitra. He explained, “Ramayan Chitra became too
crowded, so I got my own office in 1995 and made Jahan Jayiyega Wahan
Payiyega with Govinda.”
Whatever the lure that brought him back to India, one redoubtable fact was
that Dr Lakhan Sinha gave up his lucrative independent identity as an
engineer in the US. He continued to do, “Some consultation work from here”
but the Hindi film industry knew him better as Shatrughan Sinha’s brother.
Unfortunately, being the only family member who opted to share in SS’
stardom, Lakhan was also the worst hit when cracks developed within the
family.
Trouble reared its head when SS became a Cabinet Minister.
The straight-talking SS proved to be different from his colleagues – he did
not sweep domestic issues under the carpet. “I was very close to Lakhan
bhaiya who had signed my FTII form. But we fell apart,” SS laid it bare.
He analysed, “Just as I had no contribution in my brothers becoming
doctors and engineers, they too had no hand in my joining politics or
becoming a Cabinet Minister. And they couldn’t understand that.”
According to SS, Lakhan wanted to function as the de facto Minister and
expected his kid brother to meekly act as his rubber stamp. But the kid
brother was a full-grown man with achievements of his own and had no
intentions of being a pushover.
“As a Cabinet Minister, if I wanted to, I could consult Dr Lakhan Sinha as
my senior and my guardian,” SS set out the details. “But there is a thin line
between advice and domination. It progressively grew to be the latter. My
secretary was told what to do and reports were sought from the staff by
Lakhan bhaiya. It reached a point where I had to one day tell him that if he
had anything to ask or say to my staff, perhaps it should be routed through
me. There was also a certain familiarity being exhibited which I found
unacceptable. Once, in front of some foreigners, his friend familiarly
addressed me as ‘Sonu’. His friend also instructed me before some people,
‘Tell them that Lakhan bhaiya runs the Ministry, they want to hear it from
you that he runs this Ministry.’”
By this time, the thrill of being endearingly called ‘Sonu’ had been
replaced with discomfort. “People began to display familiarity by calling me
‘Sonu’ or ‘Sonuji’ to show how close they were to me. I began to find the
name a burden,” he explained, often cringing when thus addressed in public.
Whether Sonu or Shatrughan, “I was not going to be a mute Cabinet
Minister,” he ruled.
“I had to tell Lakhan bhaiya that I was through with all of them taking me
for granted. All decisions would be mine alone in consultation with my team.
I believe Lakhan bhaiya later told my wife, ‘Sonu has become very arrogant’.
Thereafter, it grew uglier. But I was not one to take my ministerial
responsibilities lightly. I had earned my place in the Cabinet with difficulty
and I was not going to compromise it for anybody.”
The distance grew to such an extent that although Lakhan continued to stay
in an apartment in Bombay owned by his younger brother, he didn’t attend
the Sinha couple’s silver wedding anniversary.
Things got worse and when Lakhan’s only daughter Preeta got married to
boyfriend Neil (in December 2008), the star-brother retaliated by staying out
of it.
“The only reason I did not go to Sonu and Promi’s twenty-fifth wedding
anniversary was because l was not invited,” said Lakhan flatly. Apparently,
on Annapurna’s intervention, Poonam had sent Lakhan a card but only a day
before the event. “Guests had been invited a month earlier. This eleventh-
hour invitation was as good as not being invited,” he explained.
From Lakhan’s perspective, the strained relationship got really knotted up
when SS did not attend his niece, Preeta’s wedding.
 Preeta had personally invited ‘Shatru Chacha’ but SS and Poonam were
conspicuously absent at the nuptials. “Sonakshi showed her loyalty to her
parents and didn’t come to any of the functions. But Luvie and Kushi (Luv
and Kussh) attended the wedding,” said Lakhan. The bride was hurt and
wondered what she had done for her uncle to boycott her big day.
Apart from family functions, certain other matters too had deepened the rift
between the brothers.
“I have two flats in the US,” said Lakhan. “I had given the power of
attorney to Sonu’s lawyer friend, Qazi Moid. Sonu can’t ever have good
friends,” he put in as an aside. “Moid soon claimed that our flat was actually
his. Since I was in India for twenty years, we couldn’t do much from here.
But we filed a case and after three years the federal court ruled in our favour
and passed very critical remarks on Moid.” Moid, a lawyer, lost his license to
practise in the US.
There came a time when SS too, ran into a problem with Moid and had to
file a case against him in Patna. “Moid had taken a flat in Luv-Kussh Towers
(a construction project Poonam had supervised in Patna),” Lakhan disclosed.
Around this time, Harris Lyll, a common friend of the two Sinha brothers,
began to call up Lakhan asking for a copy of the judgement against Moid.
When Lakhan questioned his reasons for wanting it, Harris blurted out that it
was SS who wanted it to aid his own case against Moid.
Lakhan was cryptic about the way his brother had gone about the whole
case. “Promi or Sonu should have asked me for it upfront, I’d have gladly
given it. Why fool me by asking other people to get a copy of it from me?” he
wondered.
SS’ counter was straightforward: “I did not ask Lakhan bhaiya for the
document because we were not on talking terms.”
There were two sides to every issue.
The star’s oft-mentioned comment that his brothers resented the celebrity
status of the ‘illiterate’ one in the family, was not entirely without merit. With
a marked Bihari accent, Lakhan did describe SS as the only one in the family
who was, “Not on par with the rest in education.”
However, Bharat downplayed his differences with SS.
 “My not attending his twenty-fifth anniversary party had nothing to do
with differences but with my own commitments. An ordinary worker could
be busier than a multi-billionaire, you know,” he added dryly.
“I am not a flamboyant man, so we have personality and lifestyle
differences, which is not the same as having differences between us. In fact, I
appreciate the fact that irrespective of his celebrity standing, whenever I have
anything to say, he always hears me out.”
But Bharat admitted that a stand-off with SS had happened during their
mother’s last moments.
“My mother was on the ventilator and was slipping away,” he recalled. “I
was totally against the way her misery was being prolonged by our doctors in
Patna. One could see from her condition that she was not going to return. She
was eighty-four years old and when she’s been on the ventilator for ten days,
there comes a stage when one has to say, enough is enough.
“But Shatrughan never agreed to remove the ventilator. From his point of
view, perhaps he felt that by removing it, she would die today instead of a
few days later. And there were enough admirers around him to egg him on.
“It was a classic layman vs doctor situation, something that many families
go through,” remarked Dr Bharat Sinha. “In such a situation, normally the
opinion of the doctor in the family prevails. Just as Shatrughan sometimes
says, ‘I’m a politician and I know what I’m doing,’ so am I a doctor and this
decision should have been left to me. So yes, we did have a difference of
opinion in this matter.”
Lakhan laconically observed, “And I was caught between them.”
For the rest of his life, SS nursed the doubt that when his mother did pass
away, perhaps Bharat had pulled the plug. SS was shaving and the razor had
touched the scar on the left corner of his lip when he got a call that his mother
was no more. “To this day, every time I shave and reach that spot near my
lip, I remember my mother,” he said. And the doubt would rush in again.
If he, as the youngest, was wracked with emotions that coloured a practical
decision, Shyama Devi too had only his interests in her dying thoughts.
Lakhan was the last person she spoke to from her hospital bed and the last
sentence she uttered to him was, ‘Shatrughanji ke liye mutton banake khila
dena (Feed Shatrughan his favourite mutton).’ “Though she was half-dead
and incoherent, that was her last thought,” Lakhan recalled. SS doesn’t touch
mutton anymore but the implication was to take care of the youngest.
An important point Bharat raised was about SS nursing the feeling that his
brothers had ganged up against the least academically qualified one amongst
them.
“This is the first time I’m hearing this and if Shatrughan nurses such an
idea, he must get it out of his head,” the doctor advised. “On the contrary,
from the time I can remember, I have always been a major admirer of
achievers in sports, films, politics and other fields who may have had little
education but have conquered the world. Kamaraj was an angootha chhaap
(illiterate). But who wouldn’t admire such people? It is a matter of pride for
our family that our youngest brother is so successful.”
While Dr Bharat Sinha was placatory, the older two, Dr Ram Sinha and Dr
Lakhan Sinha had their grievances against SS. Years later, blood did prove
thicker than water when all four brothers came together for Kussh’s wedding
in 2015. But even at the wedding, Ram refused to participate in Shatrughan’s
biography.
“Whatever Lakhan bhaiya says about Shatrughan is an echo of my own
feelings,” maintained Ram. “I don’t wish to speak; Lakhan bhaiya can speak
for me.”
Lakhan willingly got it all off his chest, some of it personal and some on
behalf of brother Ram too.
He hit back at SS’ grouse that Lakhan had tried to take undue advantage of
SS’ position as Cabinet Minister. “When you want to justify something, you
can make any charge,” Lakhan countered. “Once, my wife Geeta had gone
with two or three friends to stay at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT). Sonu
complained to somebody, ‘Look, mera naam misuse kiya (He’s misused my
name).’ But even today I make my friends stay at the guest house in JNPT.
Sonu’s relations with people may be over but my equation with all of them
remains good.”
SS interposed pithily, “Through whom did Lakhan bhaiya get to know and
establish relations with these people in the first place?”
One could dismiss all of this as kitchen politics, the kind of domestic
squabbles that could upset equations for a short while within a family, and be
amicably sorted out when tempers cooled.
But before bonhomie returned, the relations touched a nadir during the Lok
Sabha elections of 2009 when SS and fellow-Bihari actor Shekhar Suman
fought as opponents for the Patna Sahib seat.
SS recalled the electoral battle and said, “People with a myopic vision
brought in Shekhar Suman, also a Kayasth by caste. I did not get provoked by
his candidature as I felt everybody had the right to contest the elections. I’d
decided that after the elections I’d go over and meet his parents and say, ‘It
wasn’t personal, it was a political battle, my regard for you remains
unchanged.’ But ultimately I didn’t do that because I thought it would have
been misinterpreted as rubbing salt into their wounds because Shekhar lost
his deposit and was declared a poor third. In politics, you often can’t freely
do what you like – that’s a price you have to pay,” he sighed.
“I didn’t nurse a grudge against Shekhar. He made mistakes, he paid his
price. I was sad that he’d got into this slush. He had famously declared, ‘If
Shatru bhaiya says I should not fight, I won’t.’ My retort was, ‘When he
decided to fight this election opposite me, did he ask for my opinion?’”
Politics is often divisive and the Shatrughan-Shekhar face-off was no
different.
SS disclosed, “On the last day, out of desperation, what happened came as
a big shock to me. I still won’t blame Shekhar for it as much as other people,
although it was in very bad taste. The Opposition got a letter from Lakhan
published in the local papers, asking voters to vote for an educated, able man
like Shekhar Suman. It went on to talk about me as someone who didn’t
attend his niece’s wedding and that I had saddened my mother’s heart with
what I had done to the family.”
Fortunately for SS, he was too strong a candidate in Patna for one
wayward letter to make an impact. “My image was such that many big papers
refused to even carry it as an ad,” SS stated with pride. “But it got printed in
some papers like Sahara Urdu. Jagran published half of it as an ad. They
distributed these copies all over Patna.”
There was no real damage done to SS’ reputation but it did expose a rift in
the family.
“A local man had tried to put pressure on me to help Shekhar Suman
during the elections,” Lakhan accepted. “The Congress offered me any
lollypop I wanted to campaign for Shekhar. I kept saying, ‘The question does
not arise.’ But every second day, they’d call me and say, ‘Come for just a
day, we’ll call a press conference.’ Finally, a very major Congress leader
(name withheld) met me. I said to him, ‘Do you know how troubled my
parents’ atma (soul) would be if I worked against their son in this very
town?’ The Congress leader understood my sentiments, Shekhar also
understood how I felt. But some Urdu paper wrote against Sonu and
mentioned that he hadn’t attended my daughter’s wedding. One or two others
also wrote something like that. I started getting calls from people like Pahlaj
about it. I explained to him that if I had to work against Sonu, I would have
come to Patna. He accepted that. Everybody accepted it. But there must be
some doubt still lingering in Sonu’s mind.”
If SS continued to believe that his brother had stooped to bringing family
squabbles into the electoral fray, Lakhan snorted, “Then he is kaan ka
kachcha (wet behind the ears, naïve). If I had to take him on, dushmani karna
hota, toh jamm ke karte (If I had to fight him, I’d have taken him full on).
They (the Congress) were ready to have all the TV channels cover it.”
Amidst all this acrimony, family pride surfaced as Lakhan proudly said in
an aside, “Even if I had done it (worked against Shatru), it would have made
no difference to the results. Only he could have won that election.
“If only he had come to the wedding,” Lakhan reverted to a former plaint,
the “news of a rift in the family would have never gone out.”
The bitter aftertaste made SS decide not to attempt a patch-up with his
older sibling. “I wanted peace and amity to prevail in the family. But I know
this happens in many families,” he added wistfully. “The one who does the
most for the family inexplicably becomes the villain of the show. The biggest
factor that has troubled many of them is, how did he achieve all that he did
without piggy-backing on anybody, without anybody’s help? There is a sense
of rejection in them.
“But why?” he debated aloud. “I have never had the arrogance of wealth. I
used to even call myself the temporary minister. Whenever I went to
America, I always took an appointment and then went to meet Ram bhaiya.
Whenever I have given Ram bhaiya any money, I have never asked for it to
be returned. So why do they harbour such resentment against me?”
King Lear-like, he went into a soliloquy and announced, “Ramayan, the
bungalow was made because of four brothers – Ram, Lakhan, Bharat and
Shatrughan. But that was demolished. Now that Ramayan has been rebuilt, it
will be the story of only Shatrughan Sinha, his wife and his children. It will
be their story alone.”
But blood was thicker than water. As days passed by, the intensity of the
family war lessened. “Ghamand hai (He is an egoist),” remarked Lakhan
about his brother even as there were indications of a thaw in the cold war.
Poonam invited Lakhan and Geeta to the premiere of Sonakshi’s debut film
Dabangg (2010).
For the first time, the warring brothers came face-to-face, and that too,
within the confined space of a lift. “What a coincidence it was,” Lakhan
smiled. “When we came out of the trial show and got into the lift, Sonu got
into it too. It was too late for him to back out. So he joined hands in my
direction (did a namaste) and I did the same.”
There were far too many occasions, joyous and sad, to avoid each other.
When Aruna succumbed to cancer, Lakhan rushed to condole with her
grieving sister, Poonam.
“Promi was in charge of everything,” Lakhan said. “Sonu came late there
also; we had reached earlier. Pahlaj and other friends always said, ‘Chalo,
come on and start talking to each other.’ But whatever the occasion, there
was no conversation between us. Once, by sheer chance, we were at Delhi
airport at the same time and one of his people shouted, ‘Lakhan bhaiya,
Lakhan bhaiya’. In public, once we were face-to-face, nothing could be done
about it, so Sonu did a proper namaste to me and I also reciprocated.”
But the indications were strong that they would one day share more than
just a namaste. “In my entire life I have never stopped talking to anyone
except Shatrughan Sinha,” Lakhan averred. “But Sonu has a problem with the
other brothers also, though it is more with me. When he goes to Washington,
he will call Ram bhaiya and say, ‘I’m coming over for dinner’. And there too,
he’ll take somebody with him and go. To Ram bhaiya’s son’s wedding also,
he took someone along,” he commented, pointing to Shatrughan’s filmic trait
of always wanting his coterie around him when he stepped out. “He has a
problem with all his siblings.”
SS heard that one out and wondered aloud, “Do I have problems with all
my brothers or is it the other way around? I feel, why have all of them ganged
up against me? Also, when I’m abroad, how do you expect me to move
around on my own? I obviously need to have someone take me to Ram
bhaiya’s place or anywhere else.”
Despite the acerbic remarks against each other, on December 9, 2011,
Lakhan and Geeta turned up for a dinner hosted for Shatrughan’s birthday,
even if they did not talk to the birthday boy!
“Sonu will have to take the first step,” Lakhan was firm about it. “Promi
took it, I reciprocated. It also means that we were never on her hate list,” he
chuckled.
Poonam herself kept it short and remarked, “Someone has to maintain the
balance. I think life is too short to have misunderstandings forever.”
But before the family got together again, it was the cold war with Shekhar
Suman that ended first. It was a war which should never have happened
because SS had fashioned himself into a godfather of every Bihari who
stepped into Bombay, especially in the glamour world. It was an image well
described by Shekhar as he tracked his idol-admirer equation with the senior
Patna-ite.
“The stand-off was created by vested interests,” Shekhar emphasised,
echoing more or less a similar observation made by Lakhan.
But both sides did shake hands eventually.
Shekhar stated, “What’s more important is that we’re back together.
Misunderstandings may worsen because of lack of communication but
beyond a point, in a moment of self-assessment and analysis, you wonder
why a friendship that has withstood time and adverse situations over two
decades, should run into rough weather.
“So, I was always hopeful. From my side, I’ve had so much of respect for
this man called Mr Shatrughan Sinha that I’ve looked upon him as an older
brother, almost a father figure. He is like this big don. Even as kids, the only
person I wanted to see was Mr Shatrughan Sinha because he was from Patna,
my town. All of us were so proud of him. I remember posters of his films
would say, ‘Starring SS’, with ‘Patna’ in brackets. Often we’d stand outside
his house in Kadam Kuan, hoping to get a glimpse of him.”
Shekhar was still in school when he first met SS. He remembered, “My
sister was in Bombay, I’d come here to meet her and Shatru was shooting at
Hotel Horizon in Juhu for a film called Parmatma with Rekha. He was
dressed up as Dev Anand and Rekha was dressed like Zeenat Aman. Little
did I know then that Rekha would one day be my first heroine (in Utsav). I
was watching the shooting with the crowd when I was introduced to him. But
we were school kids and I was completely in awe of this person who had the
most fantastic bass voice. He was famous for his voice and his scars, and it
was a huge excitement for me to see him in flesh and blood. I loved the
Bihari tone he would speak in. He was very hospitable and said that if there
was anything we needed, any shoot we wanted to go to, he’d take care of it. I
remembered him from that first meeting as someone very amiable and
warm.”
As an adult, Shekhar got his first glimpse of SS once again at a hotel in
Juhu. “I saw him at Centaur hotel when he was in full bloom, with his shirt
buttons open and a big locket that he would always wear. He had walked in
with Reena Roy. All of us got terribly excited because they were a talked-
about pair and we jumped with joy in the foyer. He walked in and looked
around like a huge big star. He always had the aura of a star. When he stood
tall and tossed his hair, you felt, now he’ll turn around and say, ‘Khamosh’.”
Soon, Shekhar stepped into the same industry. “When I came here in the
mid-eighties, he was the first person I went to for advice, despite the fact that
I’d already got my first film Utsav. In Bihar there’s a saying that two
Kayasths will always find a connection somewhere. He knew about my
family, about my father because he was a well-respected doctor. And he’d
heard about me before I met him.
“He also has this incredible memory where he’ll remember your name and
all other details after just one meeting. He actually remembered the Hotel
Horizon meeting with the schoolboy and asked about my father. He’s very
particular about these things. He always takes the name of your father,
uncles, so there’s a very strong bond that he forges, it’s not superficial.
“When I came to Bombay in the eighties to make my career, I went to meet
him at Mehboob Studios. We got around to talking about being Biharis. At
that time, I felt I also owed a little allegiance to Delhi because I’d studied
there but he didn’t like that. He was always very, very proud to be a Bihari. A
huge amount of credit has to go to Shatrughan Sinha for making Biharis so
respectable. I had a more cosmopolitan bent of mind but he said, ‘No, if
you’re a Bihari, you’re a Bihari’. So I said, ‘Okay, sorry,’” dimpled Shekhar
with a twinkle in his eyes.
They established what seemed like an unbreakable bond between two
Biharis finding fame and fortune in the entertainment industry. Shekhar who
never calls him ‘Shatru’ or by the more familiar ‘Sonu’, but always attaches a
‘Bhaiya’ or ‘Sir’ to the name, became a regular at Ramayan, the one-point
meeting place for all Biharis. Even in this unequal friendship where Shekhar
was still a novice and SS was the celebrity, certain sterling Sinha qualities
impressed the newcomer.
“He always returns a call, whatever the time. He’s a 3 am friend, a 3 am
brother, not just for me but for anyone in this industry. He’s a child at heart
but it’s a heart of gold. He’s forever willing to help people.”
Shekhar accurately sketched SS as he observed, “He may appear to be the
big star outside and when he’s rubbed the wrong way, he may seem arrogant.
But he’s just an ordinary Bihari simpleton who believes in strong, warm
relationships and in being there for you.”
It was a sentiment that many friends in Patna vouched for, as bonds forged
in childhood have lasted over six decades.
Hiraji, his buddy from Kadam Kuan, said, “He became a big celebrity but
kept all his childhood friends tied close to him. Even at the biggest of
functions, he would watch out for his friends to ensure that they were not
inconvenienced in any manner. We also realised that we had to respect the
person he had become. In front of others, I never called him ‘Shatrughan’, I
call him ‘Shatruji’. That sent out a message to other people too, on how to
behave in front of him. When he stood for elections from Patna Sahib, it was
as if a family member was in the fray. All of us worked for him as if we
ourselves were standing for elections.”
SS relished playing godfather in return for all the loyalty.
The Sumans had first-hand experience of SS’ penchant to play saviour in
times of crises, when their first son Aayush was diagnosed with a serious
heart condition (he later succumbed to it).
“Bhaiya had called up doctors here and in America,” Shekhar revealed.
“He made me speak to them and coordinated with them so that when they
came down to India, they could come and check Aayush. He would always
call my wife Alka or me and check if there was anything else he could do.”
There were other occasions too, when SS stepped in like the big brother
you could turn to in a crisis.
Shekhar talked of the time he’d run into a spot of trouble with the police.
“They had noted down the wrong car number at some incident and had got
my car number by mistake. I told them that I wasn’t there at the incident but
they insisted on calling me to the police station. I was scared because I hadn’t
done anything and coming from the background that I did, I didn’t want to be
seen around a police station. I called Sonu bhaiya from the police station.
Promi bhabhi was at home and she passed on the message to him. Within
seconds, the cops were all out there saluting me. That’s his influence and
that’s how quickly he moves without any procrastination.”
The warmth turned icy when the Indian Television Academy (headed by
SS’ FTII junior Shashi Ranjan and wife Anu) celebrated its second
anniversary and Shekhar Suman as compère made a wisecrack that didn’t go
down well with Poonam. Or with SS. It was a reaction that left Shekhar
completely bewildered.
“The first premise that I must establish is that Bhaiya can normally take a
joke at his expense,” Shekhar maintained, long after his joke had backfired
on him. “I have often nudged him in public and he has laughed the loudest.
Most times he’d come back with a repartee too. We had such friendly banters
between us that I wondered many a time, what was the trigger point that day
that set off the cold war between us?”
Shekhar replayed the ITA incident. “I had made a funny, completely
innocuous comment about his play Pati Patni Aur Main. Just to play safe, I
had confided in him that this was what I was going to say. He had laughed
and said, go ahead. Pati Patni Aur Main was immensely successful and many
top politicians had seen it. So I had wisecracked, ‘Mr Sinha likes it so much
that he’s seen it six times himself!’
“I don’t know what exactly went wrong after that but I could only assume
that he had taken umbrage to that remark,” Shekhar said. “By the time I came
off stage, things had gotten so out of hand that I was shocked. I’d said
nothing humiliating or disrespectful; it was only something said in jest. If I’d
known that it would have a repercussion of that scale, I would probably not
have said it.”
The ITA trigger point created an uneasy, icy atmosphere every time SS and
Suman breathed the same air.
“It was very awkward,” agreed Shekhar. “On a number of occasions, I
made a lot of effort to go up and greet him but I felt he was not being
responsive which made me uncomfortable. After a while I decided it was
better not to cross his path.”
It got more hostile when Shekhar waved a red flag by standing as the
Congress candidate opposite SS for the Patna Sahib seat in 2009.
Shekhar had much in common with the star of Bihar. Both Sagittarians
(Sinha’s birthday: December 9, Suman’s: December 7), not only were they
from Patna but they even hailed from the same area – Kadam Kuan. The two
famous Kayasths also belonged to well-respected families. While
Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha was a renowned academician, Shekhar’s father,
well-respected surgeon Dr Phani Bhushan Prasad, was Head of Department,
Nalanda Medical College Hospital before retiring as Director General of
Health Services. Shekhar and SS were both essentially Patna boys who had
made their way to Bombay, seeking fame and fortune in the world of
entertainment. Great mimics, they shared similar traits like forthright views
and an irreverent sense of humour.
They were such close buddies that Stardust had once done a combined
interview with them where SS had inadvertently passed a remark on the
Marwari community. He and the magazine were sued by the community and
SS had to apologise for the unintentional hurt caused by his remark.
The two Bihari men had so much in common that they could easily have
been blood brothers.
Perhaps these similarities made the Congress pit Shekhar against SS in the
2009 elections. Wiser after the battle, Shekhar believed that he should never
have agreed to an electoral scuffle with a man he looked up to.
He rued his decision to take their cold war to the hustings. “In hindsight, I
feel that considering the respect I have always had for him, I should not have
stood for that election. But I had reasoned that in an earlier election, Shatruji
had stood opposite Rajesh Khanna and it was not as if he was against him
personally. With that in mind, I thought that morally it was not wrong to
stand opposite him. The Congress was pushing me to stand for elections, I
had already said ‘No’ to them on prior occasions.”
He converted it into a ‘Yes’ because, “I was sitting in my den at home
when Mr Ahmed Patel called up and said, ‘You have to fight the elections’. I
said, ‘Look, I’m not keen’. He countered me and said, ‘No, no, you should, it
is a great opportunity’. I wondered, ‘How long can I keep saying “No”? I
hope they don’t feel slighted or think I’m riding a high horse.’ I was in a spot,
I was getting pushed into a corner and that’s when I said, ‘Yes’. I remember
the Chief Minister of Bihar, Mr Nitish Kumar, had called and told me, ‘If you
had come into my party, you’d have won hands down’. The Congress had no
cadre, no base, no foundation in Bihar, no party strength. They had joined
hands with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD, Lalu Prasad Yadav) and lost their
credibility.
“But that’s not important. What’s important is that I was not keen to fight
the election. I was not cut out for politics. Also, the kind of shows (especially
on TV) I did were those where I could say anything about anybody from any
party. By going into politics, I would lose that power too. If I could turn the
clock back, I wouldn’t have fought that election.”
But politicians had sniffed out that two friends, now estranged, made for a
clever election strategy.
“Yes, I think they capitalised on it,” admitted Shekhar. “That’s what
politics is about, so I don’t blame them. If anybody, I blame myself. They’re
always looking for such opponents and opportunities.”
Early in life, Shekhar’s father had dropped his surname to keep caste out of
the picture but politics was such dirty business that the debate point became
Kayasth vs Kayasth when he was chosen to oppose SS.
Shekhar protested, “I was blissfully unaware of what was going on. But the
Kayasth card was probably used during elections to cut into his votes. It’s
what’s called vote katua in Bihar, cutting into the other person’s votes.”
Shekhar confirmed that the Congress had tried to pitch Lakhan Sinha
against SS.
“They did,” nodded Shekhar. “They’re a bunch of dirty politicians who’ll
probably stoop to any level to get there. They’re the ones who told me that
we should make use of Mr Sinha’s strained relationship with his brother. And
I completely freaked. I remember going to a newspaper office and saying, ‘If
you’re going to be writing anything about this, I’ll speak against the
Congress, against the party, I’m not going to be a part of this.’ I fired
everyone around me.”
Shekhar’s account didn’t exactly exonerate Lakhan from the charge of
trying to demean younger brother Shatrughan during the elections.
“I don’t know if Lakhan bhaiya was willing,” shrugged Shekhar. “I didn’t
even go there. But yes, he would call me up and give me his blessings. But he
never said anything against Mr Sinha to me.”
On April 30, 2011, on Dr Phani Prasad’s birth anniversary, it took only a
few minutes together, all by themselves without any third person to inhibit
them, for the estranged friends to rediscover the warmth they had once
shared. It happened in an unlikely place – on a Mumbai-Patna flight when
Shekhar was on his way home for a prayer meeting for his father.
The mood in which the rapprochement happened was surprisingly light as
Shekhar smiled widely, “It was very funny because when I boarded the plane,
the airhostess told me, ‘There is some other gentleman on your seat.’ So I
said, ‘Get him out.’ And she said, ‘It is Mr Shatrughan Sinha.’ When I heard
his name, I told her quickly, ‘Okay, then I’ll go to Patna standing.’ Bhaiya
saw me and asked me, ‘Can I sit here?’ and I said, ‘Of course, Sir, you can sit
on your seat and on mine.’” Shekhar’s dimples flashed again.
There had been no communication between them for eight years but it
didn’t take even 8 minutes for the many misunderstandings to melt away
without apology or explanation.
“We got talking on that flight,” continued Shekhar, “when I mentioned my
father’s barsi (death anniversary) and said, ‘We have a small function in his
memory, would you like to come?’ he said, ‘Even if you had not invited me, I
would have been there.’ He cancelled all his other appointments and came to
my father’s barsi.”
In true SS style, he made up for the eight years of silence by talking
volumes to the press in Patna about his presence at his opponent’s family
function.
“He told the media, ‘I know you’ll ask me how I’m here but if Shekhar
hadn’t stood opposite me, it would have been someone else. It’s nothing
personal. There are lawyers who fight against each other in court but are
friends once they come out.’” He spoke in that vein which was very sweet of
him.
“When your relationship is honest, you don’t have to clarify or justify
anything. Nothing was ever said; it got cleared on its own, like a self-
evolving, self-healing process. That was really beautiful,” said a much-
relieved Shekhar. “From both sides we just took off from where we’d left and
the friendship became stronger and warmer.”
Shekhar resigned from the Congress in 2012.
The Shekhar Suman chapter was an accurate demonstration of the real
Shatrughan Sinha – a man who hurt easily, jumped the gun hastily but also
extended the olive branch companionably like a true people’s person.
It was the same with his brothers. When SS had a bypass surgery at
Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in July 2012, resentments of the past
were buried.
“As soon as I heard that Shatrughan was on the ventilator, I flew down to
be with him. Would I have done that if there had been any animosity between
us?” queried Dr Bharat Sinha. “I was not even informed about his illness by
anybody in the family. But when my son called me from Bengaluru to say
he’d heard that Shatruji was on the ventilator, hamra kaan khada hua (my
ears perked up; I realised the seriousness of the situation) and flew down
immediately.”
Exactly a year later, Lakhan too had the same surgery performed on him in
July 2013 at the same hospital, in the same month, on the same floor and by
the same surgeon. “Dr Anvay Mulay who operated on us commented that
when he opened me up, he found the configuration of both our hearts exactly
the same,” Lakhan smiled softly.
SS too accepted that perhaps he had been at fault during his niece’s
wedding. “When I think about it, I feel I should have gone to her marriage,”
he said regretfully.
 Soon it was time for a hearty laugh as the two brothers swept the past aside
and went over to each other’s place for dinner.
Sinha’s Ramayan had it all. Family feuds and souring friendships, political
alliances and allegiances on test, topped with a happy ending.
 5

Rocky And Rock-steady Friendships

Friends are people who know you really well and like you anyway.

Greg Tamblyn

When Ramayan became his address, there was an attempt made to keep it
pious – alcohol was not served on the premise. The rule wasn’t bent for
anybody, not even for Black Label tippler, Raj Kapoor.
In 1976, when SS’ secretary produced Khan Dost which co-starred him
with his idol, Raj Kapoor had gone over to Ramayan for a narration where
Subhash Ghai and Pawan Kumar were also present. Elsewhere in the
bungalow was Shyama Devi who had come to visit her star son.
“Rajji was here till about 4 am,” narrated SS. “He must have wondered
what we were up to when we kept talking, discussing but served no alcohol. I
explained to him that we didn’t serve liquor at Ramayan. He was so
impressed, he said, ‘Oh, this is Ammaji’s sanskar, I must touch her feet.’
Amma was woken up at 3 am, he touched her feet and said several nice
things about me which made me feel taller than my 6’2”. After a while I felt I
had to do something about it, so we organised a van outside the house. At 4
am, in the van on the road, we served Raj Kapoor a drink. He graciously
declined the offer but we wanted to extend at least this much hospitality to
him.”
The embargo was lifted much later when Subhash Ghai brought Poonam
around into accepting that it would be wise to let her husband stay home and
have a drink indoors.
“When I say it was Subhash Ghai’s idea to have liquor served inside
Ramayan, I’m not blaming him,” said SS. “I’ve always been fond of him and
we have been very close. We may have had our professional differences,
maybe to some brief extent I was also to blame for it,” he accepted. “But at
different stages of our friendship, many people would point out to me that he
had backstabbed me.”
Ghai was SS’ senior at FTII but he hit it off so well with the tall, lanky
acting student from Patna that in the late sixties and early seventies, their
friendship blossomed into a very successful professional partnership. By this
time, SS’ ascent had truly begun and it was his turn to do what he could for
the rest of his gang.
“I always thought he was a very good actor,” stated SS. “So when life
started looking up for me, I would recommend him for a part whenever
possible.” Do Yaar, a two-hero action film that did well in its time, was a
classic example. Its maker, Late Kewal Mishra was close to SS. So when the
rising star recommended Subhash Ghai’s name for the other hero’s role,
Mishra willingly went along with the idea.
But Ghai who should have grabbed it at any cost, upped his fee and asked
for close to Rs 75,000 which was astronomical for a newcomer those days.
An irate Kewal Mishra opted instead for Vinod Khanna who came on board
for almost the same price. Vinod had already become popular and the
repetition of the hunky Mere Apne team helped turn the film into a huge hit.
Kalicharan, the big break that put actor Subhash Ghai in the director’s
saddle and simultaneously took SS to the top slot as hero, was also
contentious territory. In many of his interviews, Ghai had spoken about the
time he had narrated Kalicharan to his FTII friend only to find SS fast asleep
midway through it.
“But that is a half-truth,” SS retaliated. “The complete truth is that he had
come back from many quarters dejected and rejected. Many people had said
‘No’ to him, including Sunil Dutt and Feroz Khan. I’m not sure but maybe
Sanjeev Kumar too, had turned down Kalicharan. Nobody was willing to
work with him. Who would when he hadn’t assisted anybody for even a day?
The story was Subhash’s and BB Bhalla’s (who was also an actor). When he
came to narrate the story to me, feeling really dispirited, it was 3.30 am. The
point is, if somebody started a narration at 3.30, was it a big deal or a bad
deal if I slept halfway through it?”
But SS also sportingly acknowledged that he had erred in not grasping a
vital turning point in the film. He acceded, “The climax of the film, NO 17
which is turned around to read as LION, flummoxed me. I wondered if the
public would be foolish enough to accept this. Where was the dot between
No and 17? But there was something called cinematic license which Subhash
Ghai used and the public went for it, making Kalicharan a major hit. I would
put my questioning the efficacy of NO 17 and LION in the realm of human
error and judgement.”
However, SS’ loyalty test did not hinge on his sleeping through its story
narration or his grasp of the climactic No 17. It was tested when the story
went to big-time producer NN (Nari) Sippy and he discussed it with SS. It
was then that the friend in him surfaced and he lavished praise on it.
“NN Sippy, a major producer those days, asked me point-blank, ‘If you
think it’s such a good subject, will you work in it?’” recalled SS. “I made it
conditional that I would do it only if Subhash Ghai was directing it.”
It was a dream debut but not a cakewalk for Ghai. “For the first ten reels,
the producer kept a watch on how the film was shaping up,” SS revealed.
“We started shooting on a small scale, with me on a hospital bed all alone,
having illusions and hallucinations about NO 17. We had not even decided on
its heroine at that stage. For some reason, I was not fond of Reena Roy at that
juncture though later, I became far too fond of her!”
That was vintage SS, self-deprecating, tongue-in-cheek and forthright even
when he was the target.
He rewound, “Reena and I had worked together (in a commercial dud
called Milaap in 1972) and we’d had the usual fights that youngsters have.
But it had put me off her. It was only because NN Sippy, Subhash Ghai,
Reena, her mother, her sister Barkha, all of them met me in my flat at
Bandstand to persuade me that I relented and she became my heroine in
Kalicharan.”
The relief of having the right heroine in place almost vanished when NN
Sippy threatened to call off the project even after shooting for it. “I have to
give credit to Subhash Ghai for somehow completing the film which would
have been scrapped after the first schedule itself,” SS smiled at the
recollection. “During the first schedule, I being a late lateef, turned up by
11.30 am for a 9 am shift while Premnath who had gone to a premiere the
night before and had probably spent a wild night, turned up with his sadhu
mandali (group of saints) around six in the evening. NN Sippy was so livid
that he announced pack-up and decided to scrap the entire film. But Subhash
Ghai saved the day. Along with ace cinematographer KK Mahajan, he had
managed to can quite a few shots with other artistes and had not wasted the
day.”
The gratifying team effort coupled with box-office triumph led to a
partnership – Vishwanath was announced with Subhash Ghai, Pawan Kumar
and Shatrughan Sinha as partners. “I soon withdrew from the partnership,”
said SS, indicating that trouble had reared its head. “Misunderstandings
arose, not just creative altercations but also budgetary ones, with the film
going beyond the allotted figure. With Vishwanath, Subhash Ghai had also
started becoming a celebrity and I began to see some changes in him.”
With both volatile men on the upward march, Subhash was no longer
willing to meekly concede ground to SS. The actor charged, “While Subhash
had been able to stomach my nature all this while, he found that he couldn’t
accept it anymore. Subhash Ghai was always short-tempered, especially with
technicians, and quick with his ma-bahen gaalis (expletives). I often had to
intervene and save the staff from his abuses. Subhash started resenting my
pulling him up. He never used this language with me, nobody would dare to.
But I witnessed his temper tantrums, the abuses, the throwing of things and I
would react to it. By the time we did Gautam Govinda, our third film
together, I had also grown very close to Reena and an element of jealousy
cropped up. He was feeling left out. Subhash couldn’t take it out on me or on
a senior actor like Pran who was also in the film, so he started venting his
anger on Reena and other artistes. Of course, anybody who knew Reena
would know that she was spirited enough to give it right back to him. She
wasn’t the kind of girl who would put up with bad behaviour from anybody.”
The ego, the woman in between, the growing success, everything
combined to pull SS and Subhash apart. SS observed, “We had thought that
irrespective of the heroine, every year he and I would make at least one film
together. But I think he began to see that I was beyond his control and he
developed a complex of his own. If I could do eleven films with Manmohan
Desai and nine with Harmesh Malhotra, where was the problem in doing
more films with Subhash Ghai who was such a close friend?” he questioned.
“Even today I enjoy Subhash Ghai’s company though it is a fact that for at
least ten to eleven years, I have stepped into his house only a couple of times.
He has come over, my wife has been to his house and I once got stuck at one
of his functions in Pune during Kisna (2005).”
It was a function where politicians like Praful Patel were given centrestage
which drove the egoistic actor further away from Ghai. This was illustrated in
a comment made by SS: “Praful Patel playfully said in his speech, ‘Ab
Shatrughan Sinhaji, Subhash Ghai won’t make a film with you.’ I later told
him, ‘Ye choice jo hai, Subhash Ghai ki nahin hai (it is not Subhash Ghai
who has the choice). It is Shatrughan Sinha who won’t make a film with
Subhash Ghai.’
“Ups and downs are a part of politics, so I would quietly laugh at
Subhash’s shenanigans,” smirked SS. “He would call Sharad Yadav or Praful
Patel to his functions. He would purposely invite big-time politicians and ask
me to come along too, to flaunt his connections,” he added.
The fallout was inevitable, given their fiery personalities but they would
also come together when it really mattered because they shared an emotional
bond that made it impossible to completely break away from each other.
Through it all, Poonam continued with her tradition of tying a rakhi (thread
tied by a sister on her brother’s wrist) to the filmmaker. The brother-sister
relationship they shared had gone public when, after the rocky SS-Poonam
romance culminated in marriage on July 9, 1980, Subhash Ghai had thrown a
party at erstwhile SeaRock Hotel for his ‘sister’.
 “I have never stopped Promi from tying a rakhi to him,” SS mulled aloud.
“In fact, Subhash and I too, have never had a showdown as such. Just once, at
an outdoor shooting in Nashik, he’d come over to my room, had a few drinks,
cried a lot, and had tried to raise a hand on me. I had also retaliated.”
SS narrated a few trespasses by his friend that had hurt him a lot. One of
which was Gulshan Rai’s big canvas film, Vidhaata with Shammi Kapoor,
Sanjay Dutt and Sanjeev Kumar which Subhash Ghai, then a big-ticket
director, was helming. “Talks were on for me to do the film and there were a
couple of meetings,” disclosed SS. “Gulshan Rai was keen to have me in the
film when Subhash Ghai said to him, ‘Take him at your risk’, which was
another way of saying that he as the director was not keen to have me in the
film. A friend would’ve said, ‘If there is a problem, I’ll handle him’. But
Subhash did just the opposite.”
Given their tumultuous relationship, it would seem that friendship did not
always mean standing by each other.
The Vidhaata incident pinched but didn’t end the friendship. What did dent
it was a very personal incident that happened when SS was in a delicate,
financial situation. His voice turned uncharacteristically low as he provided
details of a temporary financial crisis which turned out to be an unexpectedly
unpleasant experience.
When SS was trying to raise the amount he needed for an unnamed but
pressing expenditure, he first turned to Poonam to sell off a flat that they
owned. She had her reasons for not complying.
“I am very self-respecting and don’t like to beg anybody for anything,”
explained the actor. “But Subhash Ghai advised Promi, ‘You’re my sister,
don’t sell your property or your jewellery, ask him to talk to me.’ It was a
sum of less than Rs 10 lakh but sometimes even Rs 1 lakh can be tough to
raise while at other times, Rs 1 crore would be easy. So, much against my
wish, I asked Subhash for the money and I got my first shock when he said,
‘You’ll have to pay me interest on it.’ I was taken aback because as friends,
we have all given money to one another at some stage or the other. Since
when did friends charge interest from each other? But I agreed and he said,
‘Okay, I’ll talk to someone for it.’ I later realised that it was Subhash Ghai’s
petty act of revenge.
 “He kept me dangling for a long time before ultimately telling me that the
other person whom he had approached for the money, had said, ‘If you want
the money, take it but I can’t lend it to Shatrughan Sinha.’ It was his way of
trying to humiliate me when I needed the money. He knew jolly well that he
could have simply taken it in his name and given it to me like friends do for
one another. But he chose to do this after making me run around him for
days.”
In sharp contrast was the reaction of another friend called Sanjeev Kumar,
the actor with whom SS had shared many a merry evening drinking and
dining.
“My friend, philosopher and guide called Sanjeev Kumar who is no more,
saw me looking pensive and anxious and asked me what the matter was.”
SS’ voice rose again as he recalled, “When I told him about my problem,
he merely asked me when I would be able to return it. I told him upfront, ‘I
don’t know, whenever I’m in a position to do so.’ Lo and behold, his
secretary Jamnadasji soon turned up, unannounced, at my place. My staff
downstairs had no clue that he was coming, nor did I. Jamnadasji came with
something wrapped in a newspaper and said, ‘Bhai (Sir) has sent you a video
cassette.’ There was no video cassette inside but I found wrapped in it the
amount I needed. Sanjeev Kumar had simply sent it across without even
telling me about it. When I asked him what interest he wanted, he had the
same philosophy that I had which was, ‘Where’s the question of interest
between friends?’
“I had told Sanjeev, it will be payable when able. Whenever he needed
some money, he’d ask me for a portion of it but I have to frankly admit that
even today, even as I talk about it, I don’t know if I have returned the entire
amount to Sanjeev Kumar. Some amount is still pending. But once he passed
away, to whom could I have given the money? His estate had been torn
apart.”
If Poonam watched on and didn’t volunteer to sell the flat to raise the
money, SS understood her dilemma. “I could not blame Promi at that time
because she was very insecure about me. She was hearing too many stories
about me from Subhash and some relatives too. If truth be told, I had also
gone astray at that time. I have been honest that with stardom and youth, I
was seeing glamour and craze which I’d never seen before. Also, I had
wanted the money for something that Promi did not want me to spend on. But
Subhash Ghai humiliated me in a roundabout way by stopping her from
selling off anything. People who knew about this incident felt that this was
one occasion when he truly betrayed me.”
But the Ghai-Sinha bond was far too rooted in time and strength to
completely break, even at this point. They sniped at each other, they stopped
working with each other, there was one-upmanship at play but they still loved
each other’s company.
“He’s got a tremendous sense of humour,” applauded SS. “But I’d put him
in the category of my brothers. For them to see their definition of an anpad,
the so-called underdog, go places without any contribution from them and
where they had no control over me, was difficult to stomach. It was the same
with Subhash Ghai. He had no contribution to make in any of my major
achievements though the world knows that I had a hand in helping Subhash
Ghai’s career. And still, when it came to Vidhaata, instead of taking me at his
risk or giving me money by taking it on his name, his behaviour left a bitter
taste in my mouth.”
When it came to Ghai, SS’ senses were always on the alert. “Once at Olive
(a restaurant), I saw my sons Luv and Kussh touch his feet while he looked
away indifferently, perhaps inadvertently. After this, I told my sons,
‘Respecting a senior is fine, pranam keejiye (greet him) but you don’t have to
touch his feet. He might feel you’re doing it for a role in his film or
something like that.’”
SS soon moved to Amitabh Bachchan, another friend from the sixties with
whom there were evenings of fun, humour, and a few helpings of rancour.
“People say that Amitabh and I made a dynamic pair on screen but if he
did not wish to work with me, if he felt that in Naseeb, Shaan, Dostana or
Kaala Patthar Shatrughan Sinha bhari pad gaya (having Sinha around
worked against him), it didn’t affect me,” he said nonchalantly. “There were
so many films that I dropped out of and returned the signing amount. There
was a film called Patthar Ke Log – one of Prakash Mehra’s – written by
Salim-Javed...so many films that I gave up without a backward glance
because of Amitabh Bachchan. But that doesn’t mean I don’t respect his
personality. I’ve seen him as a friend, we’ve worked together as colleagues,
we’ve sailed together in good times and bad, I have good memories also. For
that reason, though people say she is short-tempered, you’d never hear me
say a word against Jaya Bachchan. I think of her as a family friend. Besides,
my clashes with Amitabh have always been issue-based. If I like a
performance, I will praise him. But I don’t indulge in empty flattery; I’m not
in awe of him. For instance, I wouldn’t praise his acting in Paa. I would
praise him for his courage in doing a role like Paa, for sitting for hours to get
his make-up done, for carrying off such a role. But it didn’t require a great
actor; it required a great personality which he could impart to the role. On the
other hand I thought he was superb in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black.”
Only a few people know that Amitabh Bachchan (along with Mehmood’s
brother Anwar Ali with whom he used to stay), Anil Dhawan, Asrani,
Subhash Ghai and Shatrughan were all great buddies at one time, and spent
several evenings together in Devdoot, the Bandstand apartment. They had so
much in common – love for cinema, their struggle and a terrific sense of
humour – that late nights would turn into early mornings as they’d all chat
animatedly.
“It is true that I also recommended Amitabh for films. I had recommended
him to Late Sultan Ahmed,” SS said. At the height of his popularity as a
villain, SS had done Heera and Sultan Ahmed had been grateful that despite
his escalating stardom, when the film got delayed, he was the only star who
didn’t hike his price. “The other actors tend to follow the maxim, ‘Different
times, different rates’. For me, once my fee was decided, I’d squirm to revise
it,” he revealed.
During Heera, Sultan Ahmed would ask SS, “Where are you roaming
around with this camel?” referring to his buddy, Amitabh. But when the
camel morphed into a saleable box-office draw, Sultan Ahmed brazenly
signed Amitabh Bachchan to topline Ganga Ki Saugandh – a film he had
promised SS.
SS had much to say about his equation with the Bachchans. “I don’t talk
about his family members. I think Abhishek and Aishwarya make a very
beautiful couple, God bless them. I also had great respect for Amitabh’s
parents, Teji Bachchanji and celebrated poet Harivanshraiji,” he said, before
narrating an incident that brought out Amitabh’s spontaneous wit. “When
Amitabh had come back from hospital after a near-fatal accident, Promi and I
had gone to visit him. We were chatting for a long time with Amitabh resting
on his bed when his mother came in and started praising Promi saying, ‘Look
at her, what a nice girl. She kept so many fasts, observed karva chauth,
turned vegetarian for so many years and look, God listened to her prayers.’
Amitabh heard his mother and said poker-faced, ‘Poor thing, after all those
fasts, look at what she ultimately got!’ He really has a great sense of
humour.”
Unfortunately, things did go amiss between Amitabh Bachchan and SS.
“During Shaan, I had my first experience of dealing with the death of
someone close to me when my father passed away. I was in Delhi and that
particular day I was really keen to go to Patna to see him, he had been ailing.
But my secretary, Pawanji said, ‘The set of Shaan is ready and waiting.’ It
was a scene with Raakhee, where there’s firing on a bridge. So I came back
to Bombay and was having lunch when Jarnail Singh, my late friend who
used to rehabilitate drug addicts, came to tell me that my father was no more.
I had never seen a dead body from close quarters before this. When my
favourite singer Mukesh had passed away, I had gone to his funeral but
couldn’t muster up enough courage to see his body. It was the same when
Meena Kumari had died. My neighbour and filmmaker, Devendra Goel who
was God’s good soul, lived next door to Ramayan. He had made very
successful films like Ek Phool Do Mali and Aadmi Sadak Ka. I had starred in
the latter. When Devendra Goel died, I had gone next door, very scared, and
seen a body for the first time. I had forced myself to go and see Devendraji,
not in a close-up but in a mid-shot. I had quickly paid my respects and come
away. I had to face it full-on a little later in my life when Baba passed away.
“Baba passed away on April 10, 1979. It still seems like yesterday. I went
home to Patna, I cried a lot but because of my presence, there was lathi-
charging at the crematorium, there were crowds and much yelling. Somebody
commented, ‘What big eyes he has’; someone else wanted to hear a dialogue.
It was beyond control. Amma had broken down. She said something that I
wrote in my diary: ‘Kitna tumhe kandhe pe ghumate thay. Aaj tum unhe
kandhe pe le gaye na? (He used to take you around on his shoulders and
today you had to lend your shoulder to his body).’
“I don’t think I’ve cried as much as I did at my father’s funeral. Even when
my mother died on April 22, 2002, I didn’t cry as much as I did that day.
Perhaps I’d become a little mature by then and I’d already seen death from
close quarters. When Sanjeev Kumar died, I was standing for nine hours by
his gate. My best friend had died but I didn’t shed a tear. I had matured.”
He didn’t question it but even in his grief he had noted that Amitabh had
not paid him a condolence visit when his father had passed on during the
shooting of Shaan.
SS had a simplistic explanation for what went wrong between Amitabh
Bachchan and him when they had so much going between them.
“The problem was the applause I was getting for my performances,” he
said shortly. “Amitabh could see the response I was getting. That’s why he
didn’t want me in some of his films.”
With a little probing, another angle cropped up – women of course.
“People say that Zeenat Aman or Rekha also contributed a little to the rift,”
SS dropped their names slowly. “Maybe they didn’t like something about me
and they said something to Amitabh Bachchan, or maybe they said things
about me because I knew a lot about them. To strengthen their position, they
would be by Amitabh’s side. During Kaala Patthar, a heroine who was
known to be very friendly with him, would visit him. She would come during
Dostana also but not once would he bring her out and introduce her to any of
us. In showbiz, everybody knew who was visiting whom. The media would
immediately know if Reena was in my make-up room. Such things can never
be hidden in our world.”
By the time Kaala Patthar happened, there was barely any semblance of
the friendship that once was. “On the sets of Kaala Patthar, the chair next to
Amitabh would not be offered to me, nor would his umbrella be ever trained
to cover any of us. We’d be heading from the location towards the same hotel
but he’d sit in his car and never say, ‘Let’s go together’. I found it all very
strange and wondered why this was happening because I never had any
complaints against him.”
The stand-off spilled over to the sets. “There was a fight sequence in Kaala
Patthar which I had been told would be an equal fight,” SS explained. “But
along with fight master Shetty who is no more, it was changed to Amitabh
beating the hell out of me, beating me constantly until Shashi Kapoor
separated us. On this point I had to put my foot down and protest that this
was not what had been narrated to me. What if Shashi hadn’t turned up, that
means I would’ve been beaten to a pulp by Amitabh? How did that qualify as
an equal fight? Apart from being unfair, it wasn’t logical either because, if I
was going to be in a one-sided fight, then after interval how was I again
shown taunting him the same way I did before the fight? I had to argue this
out and shooting was stopped for three to four hours which irked Amitabh.”
According to SS, tweaking a scene was not a new trait in Amitabh. It had
happened even during Dostana. “Once, Amitabh had wanted the scene done
in a particular way and Raj Khosla, the director, didn’t oblige him. Amitabh
had hit out so belligerently, almost abusively, that a senior like Raj Khosla
was reduced to tears. Rajji couldn’t believe that he could be talked to in such
a manner by an actor.”
Subhash Ghai’s sharp assessment of SS – the warmth, the warts and the
wars – presented the other side of the story. “When I met Shatrughan Sinha
for the first time, I was playing the hero in three-four films in Bombay. I
would often go to Poona to meet my beloved Rehana and I used to go to the
Institute to meet the junior students who were very insecure about what
would happen to them in the film industry. Being a senior, I used to give
them tips on how to conduct themselves in the film world,” Ghai mentally
visited the fabulous days on the campus.
“At FTII, there was a staircase near the sound department. One day, I was
standing there when I looked up and saw a guy coming down the stairs, a tall
guy with a very dominating voice talking to the students. My photographs
had been published in magazines, so the students knew me. This guy walked
up to me and said, ‘Subhash Ghaisaab, hum Shatrughan Sinha hain aur hame
khushi hai ki aap hame marg darshan denge film industry mein kaise pravesh
karna hai (I’m Shatrughan Sinha and I’m happy that you are here to guide us
on how to get into the film industry),’” Ghai laughed. “When I heard marg
darshan (guidance), I thought this was definitely the sort of guy who would
ask for a favour with full confidence; it would be more in a dominating voice
than like a request. I liked him instantly for his honesty. He is today exactly
what he was yesterday. I can hardly find any difference in the Shatrughan
Sinha I first met and in the Shatrughan Sinha of today, an MP several times
over.”
 Ghai should know because they were practically born together in the film
industry. As he put it, “We were born together and we marched together.
After one year, he came to Bombay and he happened to meet me in a small
daru ka adda (liquor den) with some colleagues. He said, ‘Subhash Ghaisaab,
kya haal hai, hum to ab Bambai aa gaye hai. Dekhte hain ki kaam milta hai
ki nahin. Chaliye, ek cigarette to pilayiye hame (How are you? Now I am in
Bombay. Let’s see if we get work. Meanwhile, at least give me a cigarette).’ I
had two. I gave him one, lit one for myself and said, ‘Welcome to the board
of strugglers’.”
They became not just strugglers on the same route but firm friends who
were there for each other, at least for a while. “We hit it off rather quickly,”
remembered Ghai. “Both of us lived in different digs in Andheri. He
wouldn’t call anybody up to his room and would say, ‘If anybody wants to
meet me, let them call me and I’ll come down to see them.’ Later on, I came
to know that he stayed in a hall comprising six beds and he had one cot over
there. He didn’t want anybody to see that.”
What all of them did see was a strange confidence that none of them ever
possessed. It was like a man who knew that popularity was his birthright.
He’d shown signs of it at FTII itself. Subhash Ghai recalled, “There was a
diploma film of his in which he hits a guy and checks his watch to see if it
had stopped. He became instantly popular because of that shot. Maybe it was
his unique style of improvisation that fetched him notice. But he also had a
very noticeable face; it was a face that made an impact. He had grown a beard
at that time to look different from all other strugglers. But what was very
strongly seen on his face was his confidence. The rest of us were a bit
insecure and slightly naive. His confidence made us laugh, it made us
suspicious, aur achcha bhi lagta tha (it was appealing too).”
The confidence was illustrated more than once. Ghai spoke of one
occasion. “I remember an incident when producer Bhappi Sonie who was a
big name then, had seen him at Famous Studio, Mahalaxmi, in a red shirt and
beard. He enquired about him, was told he’s from the Institute, so he told his
production man to bring Shatrughan to him the next day. Bhappi wanted him
for a small two-scene role in his film. His production manager made
enquiries and finally reached me and I directed him to Shatru’s lodge. Four
days later, the production manager met me and said, ‘Aapka dost jo hai, woh
kamaal ki cheez hai (Your friend is a unique guy). When I went to meet him,
firstly, he made me wait for an hour downstairs.’ Since the producer wanted
to meet him, the production manager had no other choice but to wait for him.
An hour later, SS came down and asked, ‘Yes, what is it? Where are you
from? Bhappi Sonie productions, haan?’ He spoke of Bhappi Sonie
Productions like he knew all about it. The production manager thought, ‘He’s
only a struggler, I’ll take him by bus,’ but SS told him, ‘Nahin, hum taxi mein
jayenge (We’ll take a taxi)’, and made the production man pay for it. That
was Shatru’s first introduction to the film industry and all of us had a good
laugh over it.
“Later we came to know that he had indeed got the role in Bhappi Sonie’s
film. Pran who was a big star was the main villain but Sonu played his boss
in two scenes, and he played it in a very dominating manner. We went to the
theatre and saw that when he spoke with a roar, people applauded him. That
clap did the trick. You know how this industry functions. His name grew
wilder and faster. We were very happy for him. I was still struggling to
become a hero, working with unknown directors. Sonu began to get work
because he wanted to play character roles; he knew it would be tough for him
to become a hero at that time. He chose to play the villain, all of us also
advised him to do that. But I had told him, ‘You can become a top hero one
day.’”
The struggler who had insisted on taking a taxi even before he had got a
two-scene assignment, zoomed to stardom in a remarkably short period of
time.
“After that one film with Bhappi Sonie, he began to get a lot of films.
Suddenly he had a secretary called Pawan Kumar who is his secretary to this
day. He had friends called Yogi and Bipin who were very attached to him.
Within one-and-a-half years, he’d taken his own flat on rent. One thing about
him was that he was always cordial and a good friend to his colleagues from
the Film Institute. I was also one of them. I was still struggling because some
of my films were not working out and he recommended me to filmmakers
whenever possible. He got seven-eight films, small producers who wanted to
cast him as the main villain. Sonu recommended my name to a producer
called Kewal Mishra. He used to recommend Anil Dhawan also, Anil got
many films because of Shatru. When Kewal Mishra came to me, I quoted a
high price and said, ‘I’ll only work if you pay me this price.’ The producer
went away. When Shatru asked me what happened, I said, ‘Looking at your
confidence, I also got confidence.’ So I was heavily influenced by him. But
finally, I didn’t get that film, and it was Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha
who starred in that film. But he remembered it and would tell me, ‘Saala, you
haven’t made it yet and you’re already acting big.’ And I’d tell him, ‘But I
learnt it from you. You also stayed in a six-bed lodge but made producers
wait for you!’ We became really close pals. I came to know his mother and
his family. When I got married, I didn’t have a car, so he sent me his. And he
came with all his friends to the wedding. So we’ve all spent some very
beautiful moments together.”
By “all”, Subhash Ghai meant the gang of four – Yogi, Bipin, SS and
himself. He may have been Shatrughan Sinha to the rest of the world but to
them, he was always Sonu. “We knew Sonu well, his strengths and
weaknesses, his shortcomings. His strengths were so unique that you could
accept his weaknesses,” Ghai made the curious remark. “Like, he could say
anything with utter confidence, even if it was wrong. So much so that you
wondered what was right and wrong because of the sheer command of his
voice, his knowledge of words, his special style of phrasing his lines. He was
always a master at it. He would say something like, ‘Is prayas mein, prayog
mein, abhyas mein... (In this effort, manner, exercise...)’ using three different
terms to express the same thing. You’ll notice that even today in his
speeches, he’ll use three to four words to emphasise his point. That’s his
unique trait.
“I have learnt a lot of things from him but to be honest,” the outspoken
friend said, “I also unlearnt a few things from him because we had different
approaches to life. I’m the kind who will sit even with my enemies. Shatru
would never do that while I’ve always felt that hate and love are temporary
emotions.”
Ghai drew the picture of a man who would not fraternise with someone
once he went off the person. In this case it was Amitabh Bachchan with
whom all of them had begun their star trek in Mumbai.
“I met Amitabh Bachchan through Shatrughan Sinha at his Devdoot flat,”
Ghai recalled. “Amitabh had seen my Umang and he told me that I’d given a
priceless shot as an actor. I liked Amitabh because he had just paid me a
compliment,” he added, flashing a sense of humour. “So we all became
friends, Amitabh, Anwar, Shatru. But gradually as their careers grew,
Amitabh and Shatru had some differences between them. And you know how
Shatru is. If he’s indifferent to someone, he can say anything about them to
the media, it can hurt a lot. I once told him, ‘Watch Deewaar, Amit has given
a very wonderful performance in it.’ He turned around and told me, ‘Abhi kya
main Amitabh Bachchan se acting seekhoonga (Now you want me to learn
acting from Amitabh)?’ He had and he still has that quality. He would be so
bitter, he would not even look at that person’s performance. He’s a man of
very strong likes and dislikes, and very strong opinions.” As a matter of fact,
SS never did watch Deewaar or Sholay.
If Subhash Ghai and SS continued to have good times together despite all
their career-affecting differences, it was because, “Sonu is like a child. If at
all I have not fought with him in spite of many confrontational moments, it’s
because I have seen that child in him. He has harmed himself because of his
childish nature but he has a childlike soul too. That’s why you see
Shatrughan Sinha helping the whole film industry; he’s always there when
there is a crisis. Whether he is a minister or not, he will always come forward
for the community. He likes to play godfather to people. He enjoys it. If you
go to him for help, he will genuinely help you.”
The child in him also play-acted that he was the boss of the show at all
times and basked in the illusion while close friends could see through it.
Subhash voiced it by chuckling, “Sonu tries to dominate Poonam but actually
he’s very scared of her. The moment Poonam gives him one look, he
trembles.”
While SS outlined the reasons for his friendship with Subhash going
haywire, the filmmaker had quite a different set of reasons for the fallout. He
was around when SS wooed and won Poonam’s heart but he was also a
bystander who watched her go through emotional turmoil until her husband
came home to roost as a family man.
“When he fell in love with Poonam and they began to go around, I began
to consider her my sister,” said Subhash Ghai. “But after a few years, I came
to know that Sonu was in love with Reena Roy,” Subhash analysed the tricky,
personal territory. “Reena Roy was my friend too. She’d been my heroine
much earlier in a film called Gumrah (1976) where I was the hero. Later, she
was the heroine of Kalicharan also. Initially, Sonu and she used to hate each
other but during Vishwanath they fell in love. At first, I shrugged it off,
saying flirtation is fine; maybe it’s the privilege of a hero. But when I realised
that it was getting serious, it was the breaking point between him and me. He
was dead against me because I batted for Poonam. I had my own values and
standards and felt, he cannot do that to Poonam. I stood by her, so I became a
person from a different party. To this day, he calls me, saala (brother-in-law).
So from that day his best friend became his saala. But as I said, he’s a good
human being and at one point he realised what he had to do. He was the first
person to call me one night and say, ‘Subhash, I’m coming back from
London on July 6 and on July 9, I’m getting married, yes, I’m getting married
to Promi.’ He made his decision and I was very happy. I threw a huge party
for them at SeaRock and hosted their wedding reception. I put up a banner on
which I’d written, ‘Eventually they got married’.
“So, we have been very close despite being two very different people.
Every year, I go to their house on rakshabandhan for the rakhi and teeka
(rituals on the day a sister ties a thread on her brother’s wrist). In this
industry, if you’re not working with each other, people forget each other
easily because mutual interest has ended. But to his credit, Sonu has always
invited me to all his functions and parties, small or big. And I’ve always seen
to it that I attend them to remind myself that once upon a time we were good
friends.”
What Subhash was unaware of was that he had one evening unintentionally
pushed SS to contemplating suicide. It was the one and only time SS had
thought of committing suicide. His films hadn’t been faring well and he had
been coaxed into reluctantly attending one of Subhash Ghai’s parties at his
apartment in a multi-storey. SS felt out of place, the music kept getting
louder, reaching a pitch that was annoying him, and he wanted out. But
between Promi and Subhash, they made him stay on. At one point, Subhash
also said to him, “Sit quietly and drink,” a remark he must have made
casually without meaning to hurt his friend. But all the negatives came
together when SS looked out of the window and thought of ending it all.
“Fortunately, Promi came around in the nick of time and said, let’s go
home,” SS relived that tense moment. Subhash was oblivious to how close to
the brink SS had come that evening.
 What he did know was that they had a deep-rooted affection which
allowed Subhash Ghai to make an objective study of SS. One of the many
qualities he admired in him was the remarkable ability to carry his old friends
along, irrespective of their standing in society.
“Even when he had a party after winning as an MP, all his old friends were
there,” Subhash gave ample credit where it was due. “Shatrughan Sinha never
forgets his old friends; it’s a rare quality in a film star. I’ve seen stars call old
friends discreetly, separately, quietly at home. But to call them publicly to
your party, whether they are poor, they are failures, or they are old, is an
outstanding quality. I wish I had that quality but I don’t have the guts to call
all my old friends because I always wonder how my new ones will interact
with them.”
Having studied him closely, Ghai was able to pinpoint precisely why
fluctuations in his career and life couldn’t depose SS from the pedestal on
which he had placed himself.
“Shatrughan Sinha will always remain a unique figure in the film industry
because you can never write him off,” remarked Ghai. “Most stars are easily
demoralised. If their films haven’t run, or they don’t have films on hand, they
wilt, ekdum bujh jaate hai (they fade away). But even today, Shatrughan
Sinha has a very strong voice, he stands with the same pride, same self-
esteem and his dress is as colourful as that of any huge commercial star.
Crisis does not demoralise him which is a very important point to learn.”
Ghai gave a different reason for sundering their winning partnership as
director and actor. “We stopped working together because of our differing
work culture.”
He said, “After working together in three films (Kalicharan, Vishwanath,
Gautam Govinda), I told him, ‘We’re all working for our respective careers.
As a director I have evolved in such a way that I need a lot of discipline, lots
of planned schedules, timings. Otherwise I won’t survive in this industry, my
films will suffer.’ Being an actor, he could get away with not coming on time,
being late, taking certain things lightly. But as a director, I had to be
disciplined. Unfortunately, our work culture was totally different. A point
came when I had to tell him that we’d have to stop working together. When
we broke off, he was a big star with forty films while I had only one. But I
preferred to work with newcomers over whom I had some command. Finally,
it was a question of my survival.”
Ghai was wistful about SS’ indisputable talent. “He could’ve grown and
become a really great actor if he had only given more time to his directors,”
he said. “He evolved in many other spheres but not as an actor whereas some
of his contemporaries who focussed on their work reached great heights and
are still surviving. But Sonu would react sharply to anybody who advised him
to improve himself, to look for something different, to improve his range.
He’d say, ‘Don’t teach me what I have to do.’ We began to feel, he respects
Shatrughan Sinha more than himself.
“There are two personalities inside Shatrughan Sinha,” Ghai analysed.
“One is Sonu, the other is Shatrughan Sinha and Sonu has a lot of respect for
Shatrughan Sinha. Sonu is an ordinary, simple person who laughs at himself
and talks of how he cut his own face. But you cannot touch Shatrughan
Sinha, the image. The moment an actor becomes a star, he becomes two
people. Sonu is also a victim of that. Shatrughan Sinha the image
overwhelmed Sonu the person. Trust me, his potential, the inner actor in him
was great. But he kept repeating himself; he didn’t really try to portray a
different character with a different walk, different voice. So his act became
repetitive instead of innovative.
“But I’m glad he’s still a celebrity in this country, people still listen to him.
He has maintained that celebrity status all these years,” he put in the healing
touch.
SS turning hero made Hema Malini happy because she struck up an easy
and long-lasting friendship with her Juhu neighbour. When Luv Sinha
debuted in Sadiyaan in 2010, Hema worked in it and indulged him
maternally. After all Hema had known SS even when he was a struggler
looking for work and she was the undisputed queen of the box-office.
“I like Shatrughan Sinha a lot,” twinkled Hema. “When I was doing Tum
Haseen Main Jawan (1970), Shatru used to be on the sets. He’d be after my
mother saying, ‘Mummy, get me some work, get me some work.’ Then
mummy gave him a small role which I’d forgotten about but Shatru always
remembered it. It is to his credit that he could work his way up from there to
here. It is all totally due to his own personality, the way he carried himself,
controversies and non-controversies notwithstanding. Basically, he is a very
lovely person and a very fine actor and that is why he has come up from
nowhere. Of course, he could have come up much more; he could have
grown into a bigger star and actor. Somewhere along the way, I don’t know
what happened to him career-wise. But it’s still a great achievement that he
could make such a special name for himself.”
Hema Malini was one actress who stood statuesque among the men of the
day and got along with each of them on her own terms. She remarked,
“Amitabh Bachchan is Amitabh Bachchan and in his time Dharamji was also
right on top. After him, Amitabh came and took over. When you look at all
this, it was a level that Shatru could not reach. I think that was because of the
little controversies here and there that he got into. Also, Shatru has always
been very self-willed and doesn’t easily relent. I may be wrong in saying this
but maybe it was because he had his own conviction about things. At that
time Amitabh was so overpowering. And there was competition too.”
If straight-talking Hema Malini said it the way she saw it, she also smiled
at the way SS would make shooting a breeze for her. “Whenever we worked
together on a film, I’d be very relaxed. If it was a day with Shatru, then I
knew that we could all go home really fast. Kuch bhi karke (Somehow), he
would manipulate the producer/director and have pack-up announced early.
You couldn’t do that with Amitabh, he was always very serious, very
punctual. With Shatru you could also go aramse (at one’s leisure) to the
shoot.”
It may have been in direct contrast to Amitabh Bachchan’s renowned
professionalism but Hema saw it as fun times spent together.
“Once,” she laughed, “we were shooting in the snow in Shimla when both
of us realised that the director (who shall remain unnamed) was very boring.
He was so irritating, he didn’t know anything, kuch nahin aata tha. Shatru
told me to relax and said, ‘I’ll do something about this.’ I wondered what he
could possibly do but he somehow managed to convince the director that
what we were shooting in Shimla could easily be done in Bombay itself. I’ve
no idea how he managed to do that but he told me, ‘Hema, pack-up ho gaya,
chalo abhi vapas (We’re done. Let’s go home).’ I was so happy, I asked him
how he did it and thanked him for getting me released from there.”
 The fact that SS and Dharam got along like siblings added to the comfort
level Hema enjoyed with him. In fact, when Hema’s brother Jagannath
produced a film, he got SS on board. “We worked together in Sharara, my
brother Jaggu’s film. We enjoyed that shooting also,” said Hema. “That’s
around the time I had Esha. Luv and Kussh were born just before her. So
Shatru and I were both new parents to our respective kids.”
It led to some rather amusing times on the sets, especially when the
cameraman or dance director would give instructions by rote. It was
customary for them to explain the shot to the hero and heroine using language
that went, “Ladka aur ladki (the boy and girl) will stand here, the camera will
be there.”
“Shatru had just become a father to twin sons and I had become a mother
and we were being called ladka aur ladki?” Hema was tickled at the very
memory of those days. “Both of us used to laugh over it.”
Such easy camaraderie led to a close association between the two families.
“I was the first one to see Luv and Kussh. I was so thrilled to go and see twin
babies. At that time I was carrying Esha.”
Their bond grew stronger when Hema Malini waltzed into the same
political party as SS. The BJP got Hema to come in as a star campaigner,
went on to make her a Rajya Sabha member and, for some time, a Vice
President of the party, before she won a Lok Sabha seat in 2014 from
Mathura.
How did the producer community view this “fun” co-star? Shatru’s close
friend Pahlaj Nihalani knew him professionally from the time he produced
Hathkadi (1978) with the actor.
SS was at the peak of his popularity, working in big banner productions
like Naseeb and Kranti and was doing double shifts on most days when
Pahlaj signed him for Hathkadi which co-starred Sanjeev Kumar, Rakesh
Roshan and Reena Roy. It was directed by Surendra Mohan, one of the more
saleable names of the seventies. SS was too big a star to discuss mundane
details like dates and timings; his secretary Pawan Kumar took care of the
nitty-gritty.
“We knew that he would turn up only in the afternoon, he was never an
early bird, so we would finish the rest of the work before he arrived,” Pahlaj
explained how he had handled the chronic latecomer. “After he reported,
we’d even make him sit for a while and have lunch with him. He liked ghar
ka khana, home-cooked food, and brought his tiffin carrier with him. Since
we were mentally prepared for his latecoming, we were cool and relaxed, and
we made the film without tension.”
Like most of his producers who enjoyed repeating him in their movies,
Pahlaj made nine films with SS and knew his moves first-hand.
“As an actor, I never saw his decline,” reported Pahlaj. “In 1989, when I
made Aandhiyaan with Mumtaz and Sonu, I remember he would leave
immediately after shooting for campaigning. We were shooting in Kufri and
those days there were no chopper facilities for celebrity campaigners. A car
would come to fetch him and he would rush after pack-up, drive for twelve
hours, go from place to place and hit the campaign trail with sincerity. His
attention got diverted to politics when he was still busy as an actor. In 1987-
88, he did Khudgarz which was a superhit. I was one of the distributors of the
film and I know what a big hit it was. After 1989, he worked half-heartedly
because his attention was on politics and after 1992, he stopped signing films.
After Khudgarz I have myself paid him a fee of Rs 10 lakh which was a huge
huge sum those days. At a time when Dharmendra was charging Rs 15 lakh, I
know that Sonu’s price went up to Rs 30 lakh for Kanoon Kya Karega with
Jayaprada and for another film in the South. So he joined politics when he
was at the peak.”
Pahlaj felt that SS’ preoccupation with politics played spoilsport with his
acting career to some extent. “As long as he was an actor, if he fetched up
hours late, nobody gave it a second thought. But after he went into politics,
producers began to fear him, wondering whether he would turn up at all.”
The fear was unfounded. There was an incident during the shooting of
Aandhi Toofan (1985) which convinced Pahlaj about his friend’s sense of
commitment.
“Sonu had checked and double-checked with me that I would not need him
for shooting before leaving for New York to bring in the New Year there,”
Pahlaj recounted the incident. “But suddenly we found that we had just two
or three days’ shooting left with Danny who was not going to be available for
the next three months after that. And we needed Sonu in those shots with
Danny.”
In the eighties, mobile phones had not even been invented when Pahlaj
managed to get through to SS who was lunching at a restaurant in NY. “I
requested him to please fly down and shoot because I was getting Danny’s
dates all of a sudden. Of course, he said, ‘Nothing doing, I had checked with
you before leaving Bombay.’ I said, ‘Please come. Next year I will take you
to New York myself for New Year celebrations.’ I somehow convinced him
to return. He too realised that my film would get delayed by months if this
shooting was left incomplete. But he warned me that after coming back, if for
some reason I didn’t go ahead with the shooting, he wouldn’t let me hear the
last of it. There was no way I was going to cancel it; I had made sure
everything was in place before even requesting him to come back.
“So he flew back. Danny and he were also working together on another
film called Ramkali, a Ratan Mohan production. On the day of my shooting,
Danny was doing double shifts, reporting for Ramkali first and then mine.
While giving a shot for Ramkali at Chandivali Studio, he had to jump. Danny
jumped and landed on a huge rusty nail which went through his foot. There
was no way Danny could shoot for anybody after that accident. He was laid
up in bed for weeks.
“I sat before Sonu, completely bereft of words. What could I possibly tell
him when he had flown back from NY only for this shoot? He saw my
condition and burst out laughing. He laughed and laughed at my predicament,
and said, ‘It’s okay. We’ll go back to New York next year!’ There was no
tension, no anger, no irritation in him. He took the whole incident in his
stride. Of course, we went to New York several times after that. In 1998, we
went twice in three months to the US.”
There were many such stories that endeared the man to his producers and
colleagues, incidents that offset his latecoming or his stubbornness.
Pahlaj had much to say about SS’ renowned warmth with the comman
man. “Whether at an airport or a hotel, he will always be a people’s person,
making time for everyone, ready to pose for a photograph or give his
autograph,” said Pahlaj who had traversed the globe with his friend. “He
remembers each and every person’s name, however long back he may have
met him. He knows every security person, he knows IAS officers, their batch
and cadre. He is quite an amazing man.”
Years ago, after shooting for a film somewhere in Rajasthan with Rishi
Kapoor, SS and a few others, bad man Gulshan Grover had returned and
talked about several important bureaucrats and socially well-placed people
who had visited the shoot. But while the other actors had interacted with the
guests with surface politeness and gone away unimpressed, Gulshan noticed
that SS had taken the trouble to befriend each of them, had exchanged phone
numbers and accorded them the respect that each of them deserved. Among
Hindi film stars who are notoriously insular and honestly believe that the
world outside films is manned by an inferior race of people not worth
cultivating, SS’ interest in and respect for officials of all hues was indeed a
rarity. Contrary to his screen branding, Gulshan himself was an educated,
well-spoken and socially-aware man who noticed SS’ networking outside the
realm of films and appreciated its importance.
BJP stalwart LK Advani’s daughter and TV show host Pratibha, chipped in
with her observations as well. She knew him closely enough to call him
Sonu.
SS was the man behind the one and only time that Pratibha Advani faced
the camera as an actor. She did a few episodes of a TV serial called Devata in
which she played a journalist. “So I was myself in it,” she explained. “It was
during the initial stages of my career on TV (as show host) and I did it for
kicks. Sonu was the central character and I was a sidey in it but we did shoot
a few scenes together. I used to start laughing when he’d maro (deliver) a
dialogue for a shot, and we’d have to re-do it. But it was a nice experience.”
It was when Pratibha had SS opposite her as a celebrity-interviewee on her
show that he showed he was more than just a film star. Like most TV anchors
around the world, Pratibha used to keep before her a paper with helpful little
notes when doing an interview. “I never really looked at it but it was always
there for comfort, as a backup,” she remembered. “The biggest of anchors all
over use a paper because you need facts and figures before you. But one day
Sonu asked me, ‘Why do you have that paper in front of you? You don’t need
it.’ That day onwards, I have never placed a paper before me on any of my
shows/interviews and believe you me, it works beautifully.
“I once interviewed Mr Amitabh Bachchan for an hour-and-a-half, I knew
a lot about him, I’d read three books on his life. I had a wonderful
conversation with him without any prompting from a paper. I’d credit Sonu
for that improvement in my career. He just said, ‘Mat rakho paper (Don’t
keep any paper)’ and that really helped me.”
Like Pahlaj and wife Kantu who had a fraction of an edge over the others
in their friendship with the Sinhas because they were Sindhis like Poonam,
the Advanis too warmed up to the star’s family. Pratibha made a passing
reference to it when she said, “Sometimes I would tell Poonam, ‘I haven’t
had Bihar ka machchi (fish) for a long time,’ and she’d have it made and sent
across to me. The fact that she was a Sindhi made us all that much closer.
“Sonu is comfortable with the entire family. He feels comfortable enough
to ask, ‘Arbi banao, mirchi khaoonga (Make colocasia, give me green
chillies)’ or a particular clear veg soup that my mother would make. He had
his set menu whenever he’d come over. I must mention that lately we haven’t
met as often as we used to,” she added.
Pratibha had her personal reasons for welcoming SS into her political
family. “He has always been complimentary about Dada (her father, LK
Advani), and it warms my heart when he talks about my father with so much
affection. There are times when somebody says something negative about
Dada and then Sonu will come up with something nice about him which
makes us feel good.
“Sonu is one of the few actors who have been consistent in politics. He
also wakes up early now which politicians need to do,” she smiled. “For the
longest time, I never knew Sonu to do that. So I think he has fit into the slot
better than ever. He has also become punctual which is very important. Also,
the fact that he has stuck it out in politics speaks well for him.”
Like her famous dad, Pratibha didn’t relish focusing on the negative but
she did point out one trait that she hoped SS would look into and correct.
“Sometimes I feel he’s a little gullible, he believes anybody and
everybody,” she said. “He won’t dissect what has been said, he’ll just accept
it. It’s actually not such a bad quality to trust people who you think are your
friends and well-wishers. But in a public sphere, perceptions are different,”
she put it mildly.
Pahlaj Nihalani swung the spotlight back to his redeeming qualities: “Sonu
is a thinker, a good listener and a very good reader. However late he may
wake up, the first thing he does in the morning is to read the papers, watch all
the news channels, collect all the information on what’s happening in the
world. His TV set is always switched on to catch the latest news bulletins.”
He also noticed that for a man who liked the sound of his own voice, SS
made a patient listener. “He likes to collect everybody’s opinion before he
forms his own,” Pahlaj noted, contradicting Pratibha’s comment on him. “On
stage too, he doesn’t follow a script, doesn’t do homework. Instead, he’ll
listen keenly to every speaker before him, gauge the audience mood and
deliver a speech appropriate for the occasion, incorporating all the points that
must be addressed. That’s one of the reasons he makes a wonderful orator.”
Pahlaj laughed that in spite of all the changes swirling around his life, SS’
one big priority in life was food. Where to have his lunch and dinner, and
with whom, were vital details he liked to plan in advance. “Whichever part of
the world he may be in, he only likes meeting people at someone’s home, at a
restaurant or in his hotel.”
Most times when he partied, he’d have a drink or two with a few hors
d’oeuvres and, if the main meal was interesting, he’d have it packed to eat it
at home or in his hotel room, wearing his shorts and watching television – a
sight nobody but his close family was privy to.
Over the years, the foodie’s portions shrank and SS became a small eater.
But one food habit known to every chef in every hotel that he patronised, and
every host whose house he went to, was the mandatory side plate of fresh
green chillies. SS could never relish a meal without crunching into a green
chilli in between his food.
It prompted Poonam to remark, “If he were to ever fight an election
independently, his symbol could be a green chilli.”
Whenever SS travelled, he rarely stayed with anybody, preferring hotel
suites to even his brothers’ houses in the US or the UK.
“He doesn’t like staying with people unless they know his habits,” Pahlaj
explained, “because he likes staying on his own terms. He doesn’t go alone
anywhere in the world, he likes taking his own people everywhere. It’s his
weakness. So until and unless his host has room for two or three of his guests
also, he won’t go and stay with anyone.”
 His constant host in Chicago, Dr Upendra Sinha explained, “The house in
which I live is big. He’s welcome to come and stay with his friends. If he
didn’t stay with me I’d feel something was slipping away, chhoot raha hai,
from my life.”
The surgeon pointed out that SS collected and kept friends forever. When
he gave a speech at the UN, he invited Dr Upendra Sinha to join him. SS’
friends reciprocated his affection by going the extra mile for him even if they
came off as chamchas.
“People will call it chamchagiri (sycophancy). But they don’t realise the
depth of our friendship. He’s my No 1 best friend,” put forward the surgeon.
Bharat believed that SS was a yaaron ka yaar, friend of friends. But he
also believed that SS would have achieved much more in life, “If he had
channelised all his energies on himself, instead of on the people around him.”
Dr Upendra Sinha agreed as he observed, “He is a very rich man but he
could’ve made much more. He’s always been too dependent on people
around him. Shatrughan’s biggest drawback has been that he has never made
out a cheque in his life. His accounts would have been totally mismanaged if
it hadn’t been for Promi who is the financial brain in his family.”
Disagreeing with brother Bharat’s observation, SS guffawed, “I follow my
dashing and dynamic Prime Minister’s credo of ‘Sabka saath, sabka vikas
(Progress by taking everybody along with you)’.”
Pahlaj talked of SS’ quiet achievements, and particularly about the film
world’s long fight for recognition as an industry which was finally won
because of the actor-politician’s efforts.
“When the BJP was newly elected in Maharashtra, Sonu had pushed
through the film industry’s demand for industry status. Through Yashwant
Sinha and Sushma Swaraj, he got us recognition as an industry.”
The multiplex culture that overtook traditional cinema houses was also
traced to SS.
“In 1998, on our two trips to the US, I got the idea of starting multiplexes
in India,” claimed Pahlaj. “We also drew up a proposal for a five-year tax
holiday for new multiplexes. At that time, people were coming up with all
kinds of roadblocks like, where would we get the land for malls and
multiplexes? The multiplexes that one sees all over the country came up
because of Sonu and me. For the first time, in the annual budget, the film
industry was gifted at least a piece of the financial cake by Yashwant Sinha
through the efforts of Mr Shatrughan Sinha. I was President of AMPTPP
(Association of Motion Picture & Television Programme Producers) at that
time. I would gather the industry’s concerns and take them to Sonu who
would do his best to have them addressed by the concerned Ministry.”
Although he worked for the film industry, Pahlaj was saddened that SS
was often misunderstood by both the worlds that he inhabited. “Politicians
feel he’s an actor while the film industry thinks he’s a politician and he’s
sandwiched between the two,” commented Pahlaj.
A senior film industry colleague who could talk with authority was writer
Salim Khan, father of Salman Khan and the first half of the estranged but
once formidable writer-team known as Salim-Javed. The success of Dabangg
may have spotlighted Sonakshi’s friendship with Salman Khan’s family but
the Bandstand Khans and the Sinhas of Juhu were known to each other long
before that. Salim Khan and SS shared a rare and close friendship for over
four decades.
“As an actor, in his era, Shatrughan Sinha was the only original actor we
had,” Salim Khan astutely observed. “Most actors were influenced by Raj
Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand. Even the biggest of them, Amitabh
Bachchan, Anil Kapoor and Naseeruddin Shah were influenced by Dilip
Kumar. Rajendra Kumar used to obviously copy Dilip Kumar. Some others
have followed Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor also.
“All over the world, actors influence one another. Raj Kapoor was greatly
influenced by Charlie Chaplin in his style of talking, walking, acting, even in
the kind of characters he played. Dev Anand was highly influenced by
Gregory Peck. Initially, their mannerisms were very similar. When
Shatrughan Sinha came, he could easily have followed one of the stalwarts.
For an actor to imitate any style or mannerism is child’s play. Shatrughan
Sinha probably came around the same time as Amitabh Bachchan and other
actors. But he came with his own original style of dialogue delivery. The
confidence he had even when he was a nobody, was tremendous, it was
unbelievable.
“There is a line from Marlon Brando’s book (Anatomy Of An Actor) where
he says, ‘Acting is the easiest job in the world if you are a success’. But
Shatrughan Sinha had that confidence even without tasting success. He
exuded it even when he was doing a small cameo role. I have always admired
Shatrughan Sinha for it, for evolving a style of his own.”
Salim Khan had done his research and analysis well as he compared
Shatrughan Sinha’s originality (which spawned a dozen me-toos, especially
in South India) with that of his own superstar son.
“This quality of being an original is something that Salman also has,”
remarked the proud father. “Salman has never followed Dilip Kumar or Raj
Kapoor or Dev Anand or Amitabh Bachchan. Similarly, Shatrughan Sinha
had his own style whether you liked it or you didn’t like it.”
Salim further noted, “Shatrughan Sinha had a very strange way of
delivering his dialogues. Normally, there is a certain meter that is followed in
dialogue delivery where emphasis is to be on certain words only. But
Shatrughan Sinha would emphasise some other word and pull it off with
aplomb. The breaks in his dialogue were different from what was
conventionally accepted.”
Warming up to the topic, Salim Khan analysed SS’ personal traits.
“Another quality I like in Shatrughan Sinha is that he never forgets to be
grateful. He remembers a good turn and appreciates it.”
Drawing a contrast between SS and Amitabh Bachchan, Salim Khan
described an incident which dated back to the days of the Salim-Javed written
film Kaala Patthar.
“When we were writing Kaala Patthar, we had the main characters already
in our minds. Of course Amitabh Bachchan was always before us for the
main role, Shashi Kapoor was there for the pleasant, romantic role of an
engineer. And Shatrughan Sinha was clearly in our mind when we wrote the
character of an escaped convict who could open any lock in the world and
was hiding in the coal mines,” the writer revealed how they’d visualised their
script. “For every character we had given some very distinctive dialogues.
Shatrughan Sinha’s role was pretty interesting; it had been written keeping in
mind his image. Dialogues like, ‘Teesra badshah kahan hai (Where’s the
third king in your trio of cards)?’ ‘Abbe, teesra badshah hum hai (Hey, the
third king is me),’ were written with Shatrughan Sinha in mind.
 “Amitabh Bachchan had spent his initial period in the industry with
Shatrughan Sinha. Shatru used to recommend Amitabh to people and they
even shared the same secretary, Pawan Kumar. It was ‘Sonu, Sonu’ and
‘Amit, Amit’ between them. I don’t know what differences cropped up
between them or whether there were any differences. But I do know that
somewhere Amitabh owed Shatrughan,” commented Salim. “However, if
anybody really opposed Shatrughan’s inclusion in Kaala Patthar, it was
Amitabh Bachchan and he recommended many other names in his place,” he
disclosed, as he went on to describe the machinations that went on during the
making of Kaala Patthar.
“In those days, who could afford to offend Amitabh Bachchan? Whether it
was Yash Chopra or anyone else, they needed Amitabh Bachchan for their
films; he had become a larger-than-life star. But I put my foot down and said,
‘For this film, it will be only Shatrughan Sinha in that role.’ So they started
devising ways and means of ensuring that Shatrughan himself rejected the
role. They offered him a humiliatingly low price. They were told that he
always comes late, so they told him that they wanted him on the sets at a
really early time. They started dictating such terms that Shatrughan would be
provoked to say, ‘Bhaad mein jao, mujhe nahin karna (To hell with you, I
don’t want to do your film).’
“I realised what they were all up to, so I quietly told Shatrughan, ‘This role
was written for you, it will benefit you. Out of the four-five important roles
of your life, this will be one of them. Whatever they say, accept their terms.
Don’t think of it as a compromise, think of it as a strategy. If they call you at
5 am, say, ‘OK’. Even if they offer you no money, say, ‘I’ll do it because
Salimsaab has asked me to do this role.’ Put all the blame on me but do this
role.’ So, all their schemes to get him out of the film failed. I am a living
witness to all this manipulation. It means even the biggest actor had certain
fears from Shatrughan Sinha as far as performance was concerned. They
knew he was a scene stealer. At some stage every actor has feared sharing
screen space with Shatrughan Sinha. I was an eyewitness to this and by the
grace of God I have to this day a very good memory. Let anybody deny it,
they all have convenient memories,” he gave a short laugh.
“So, there was a lot of opposition to Shatrughan and attempts were made to
block his entry into the film. He was aware that I had taken a clear stand on
this. I felt, this was written for him, if any actor had a chhattees ka akhaada
(problem) with him, it was fine, they didn’t have to forge a relationship with
him for life.”
However, Salim and SS forged one of their own. In an industry which
drove its inmates into barbed wire camps, after the Salim-Javed split, Javed
Akhtar was seen as aligned with Amitabh Bachchan. Salim stayed steadfastly
out of it.
SS had already referred to the uneasy shooting of Kaala Patthar which
was often tempestuous as he had strode into territory where an ‘Unwelcome’
mat had been clearly laid out for him. To his credit, he not only stayed on to
finish his job but also didn’t let the tension affect his performance as he did
fetch the expected applause for a role that had been written for him.
“Shatrughan ne thoda sa khoon ka ghoont peeke kaam kiya, lekin kaam
bahut achcha bhi kiya (Shatrughan had to swallow his pride a bit but he
delivered a stellar performance),” Salim Khan acknowledged the actor’s inner
struggle. This was one time SS, guided by a well-meaning Salim Khan, put
aside his natural tendency to let his self-respect and ego override pragmatic
requirements. It was a small skirmish lost to win a bigger battle.
“Shatrughan remembers all this to this day,” Salim Khan said
appreciatively. “I have the faith that if I were to ever call him over at night, or
even send a message to him, he will be there for me. I will never misuse the
respect and affection he has for me but I have the confidence that whether he
is in Patna or America or England, if I tell him I have some work with him
and I need him, he will never turn me down. He is not an ingrate, ehsaan
faramosh aadmi nahin hai. It doesn’t mean that I did him any favours.
Ehsaan na maanna ghatiya hai aur ehsaan jatana bhi ghatiya hai (To forget
a favour is lowdown, to make a person feel obliged is also condemnable). But
I felt very strongly about Kaala Patthar and I was morally convinced that no
actor had the right to do the casting or decide that this actor should not work
in my film. It is the prerogative of the writer who has conceived it and that of
the director. Ironically, it was precisely on this issue that Amitabh Bachchan
had come into Deewaar. The producers had originally signed Rajesh Khanna
for the role but as the writers, we had said that this film is for Amitabh
Bachchan, we have written it for him. It suited Amitabh Bachchan at that
time, our stand was considered correct then. But when it didn’t suit people,
they found our stand inconvenient, we became the villains,” snorted Salim
Khan.
With all his unique qualities, if SS didn’t clamber up the stardom ladder as
high as Amitabh Bachchan, Salim Khan, an inveterate cricket addict, made
his analysis with an analogy from his favourite game.
“I personally feel that talent and discipline make an awesome
combination,” said Salim Khan. “People are either very disciplined but very
mediocre, or they are very talented but laidback. Salim Durrani was a very
talented cricketer but the amount of discipline that Tendulkar brought with
him was unbelievable. Salim Durrani had much more talent than Sachin. He
was a world-class bowler; he was a world-class batsman. Shatrughan Sinha is
like that. Highly talented but less disciplined. Amitabh Bachchan is far more
disciplined. Like Pransaab was very disciplined, always on time. Madhubala
had both qualities – she was very disciplined and a good actress too. Those
who have reached the peak have been immensely talented and have been very
hard-working and disciplined, like Amitabh Bachchan,” he said objectively.
“Normally, a talented person feels, why should I work so hard, why slog,
why do homework, I can handle it in a trice. During dubbing, Shatrughan
Sinha would take a one-page dialogue and finish it in minutes. His memory
for remembering faces and people and incidents, was always phenomenal.
And his friends have been with him for years.”
He changed tacks at this juncture and moved on to further dissect
Shatrughan’s personality.
Said Salim Khan, “Someone once asked Mahesh Kaul, the filmmaker,
‘What’s the pehchan (mark) of a good man?’ His answer was, ‘Lots of things
but one simple way to recognise a good man is to check if his friends are
purana (old) and his servants are purane.’” With that Salim Khan
underscored his opinion on SS as a very good human being.
“He has respect for his roots. His loudness hides a rather endearing man,”
Salim went on. “He is not the sort who will say one thing to your face and
another behind your back. If he likes you, he’ll praise you behind your back
too. Aur khulke burayi bhi karega (He’ll openly criticise you too). A man
who is diplomatic, has no opinion to offer, and is noncommittal, is the most
dangerous species. As a person, Shatrughan Sinha is far better than most of
the people I have known and he makes a very reliable friend.”
While Salim Khan provided the wise voice of experience, informative
notes came from the deep, rich voice of FTII junior, Raza Murad, an
inveterate SS-watcher.
“When Shatrusaab was a student, none of his classmates saw him as star
material,” Raza noted. “He was wiry thin, did not have conventional good
looks and he was a dark horse. He was clearly the underdog. Actor Rakesh
Pandey who was his senior, told me that initially Shatrusaab had quite a
pronounced Bihari accent. There was a movement class at FTII where you
had to move to the mood of the music played and express yourself through
your body. One day Shatrusaab told Rakesh Pandey to come and see his class
and he said, ‘Hum aapko hamare movement dakhlayenge (I’ll show you my
moves).’ He said, ‘dakhlayenge’ instead of ‘dikhlayenge’. It is to his credit
that one of the areas where he really worked on himself was his
pronunciation and dialogue delivery which went on to become the hallmarks
of his stardom.
“At FTII, the Direction students had to make a diploma film each and most
of the cast used to be taken from the acting class. As is done in Mumbai
where you try to keep your directors in good humour, at FTII also, it was a
somewhat similar scenario. But Shatrusaab, even then, never really cultivated
any of the Direction students, he never went out of his way to please
anybody. So he was one Acting student who did not get any notable roles in
any of the diploma films. He did a small role in a diploma film called The
Train. His classmate, the Late Vipin Kumar Bhandula (father of Omung
Kumar, director of National Award-winning film Mary Kom) who was tipped
to become a future star, and Rehana Sultan who was a year senior to him, had
the lead parts in The Train. Shatrusaab had the role of someone in a waiting
room who was sitting and smoking, blowing rings in the air. He had just that
one shot in the film.
“Because he didn’t have a notable role, a special diploma film was made
for him. The director of the film was Firoze Chinoy (who later made the
feature films, Shaitaan and Do Raha with Shatrughan Sinha), the cameraman
was Manjul Prabhat and it was called And Unto The Void. He played the role
of a condemned convict and, for someone whose deep voice became a
trademark, he had no dialogues in the entire film. He was so impressive in it
that when Raj Kapoor who had been called by FTII as examiner, saw his
film, he gave him 100 out of 100 which was a record.
“I have And Unto The Void to this day with me in my collection of films. I
have all these facts on Shatrusaab because I have been a huge fan of his. I
have watched him closely and noted every detail about him right from the
beginning.
“In 1967, he came to Bombay. In the evenings, he would go with his
friends and sit at Gaylords, a restaurant in Churchgate, where music director
Jaikishan, filmmaker Bhappi Sonie and actor Kishen Dhawan would have
their sessions. Shatrusaab had such an impressive walk and confidence that
when he entered a place, people would turn around and look at him. He had
that quality right from the beginning, his attitude always attracted attention.
“There was a serial killer and psychopath called Raman Raghav who was
on the loose those days and the whole city of Bombay was in the grip of fear.
Shatrughan Sinha had grown a beard and one day when he was strolling
down Linking Road, some people mistook him for Raman Raghav. He had to
run for his life as the public ran after him. Fortunately, he got into a friend’s
car and escaped.
“There are three films that claim to have introduced Shatrughan Sinha. One
of them was Ek Nanhi Munni Ladki Thi.
“The second film that ‘introduced’ him was Mohan Saigal’s Saajan,
starring Manoj Kumar and Asha Parekh, with Raj Mehra playing the chief
cop. Shatrusaab played his assistant, Inspector Tiwari. He had a small part in
it and he got the credit title, ‘Introducing SP Sinha’. On the sets he got upset
with Asha Parekh and he went into the make-up room and cried like a child.
Something on the sets had hurt him a lot.
“The third film was Dev Anand’s Prem Pujari. It was the cameo
performance of a Pakistani colonel and he was brilliant in it. Shatrusaab was
so impressive in it, it was as if a Muslim was speaking Urdu. From
‘dakhlayenge’ he had travelled to becoming completely authentic in his
portrayal of an Urdu-speaking Pakistani colonel.
“Devsaab was so impressed with him that he worked with him again in
Amarjeet’s Gambler. There was a confrontation scene between them and
while filming it, Shatrusaab, with all the enthusiasm of a newcomer, caught
hold of Devsaab’s collar and said something to him which had not been
written. Amarjeet called ‘cut’ and scolded Shatrusaab for doing what he did
to Devsaab. In turn, Devsaab scolded Amarjeet and said to him, ‘He’s in the
character, let him continue. Why did you cut the shot?’ Devsaab realised that
he was not being disrespectful to him but to his character and the scene
demanded what he did. This must’ve been during the time he was mistaken
for Raman Raghav because he had grown a big beard for the film.”
Apart from illustrating Dev Anand’s sporting side, the incident also
underlined just why SS was making his unique presence felt wherever he
went.
“There were other minor roles he did in small films. One was called
Mehmil, another was Raaton Ka Raja with Dheeraj Kumar as the hero. There
was one more film called Paanch Dushman.
“The turning point in his life was the film Khilona. He had a close
friendship with Mumtaz who also liked him a lot. He used to call her ‘Rani’.
Villain Manmohan was approached for a role in Khilona and he had
demanded something like Rs 50,000 which was not acceptable to the
producer. On Mumtaz’s recommendation, Shatrughan Sinha was signed for
that role and that brought him into the limelight. He began to get substantial
roles in good films like Paras, Ganga Tera Pani Amrit, Chetna, Dost, Babul
Ki Galiyan, Banphool, Raaste Ka Patthar, Bhai Ho To Aisa, Shart, Raampur
Ka Lakshman, Do Raha, Mere Apne, Do Yaar and many more.
“Shatrusaab had a soft corner for FTII students and always promoted them.
When Ram Dayal made Do Raha, he did it free of cost for him because
Firoze Chinoy was directing it, Radha Saluja and Anil Dhawan who acted in
the lead were FTII actors, the cameraman, the whole crew was from FTII. By
that time, he had become a major star and he promoted Anil Dhawan in a
very big way. He did many films with him like Chetna, Samjhautha, Ghulam
Begum Badshah and BR Ishara’s Man Tera Tan Mera. He did a film called
Ek Nari Do Roop because both its heroines, Rashmi (who became Mrs Anil
Dhawan) and Asha Sachdev were from the Film Institute. Then he promoted
Zarina Wahab by doing a film called Anokha with her. He worked with Asha
Sachdev again in Kashmakash. He did Dhokebaaz for director Jarnail Singh
who was his friend from the FTII days.”
 Raza also highlighted the impact SS had on the screen by pointing out that
in Jaya Bhaduri’s debut film, Guddi, “When they showed the various films
that Guddi goes to see, there were shots of Amitabh Bachchan from
Parwana, Navin Nischol from Nadaan, Dilip Kumar from Phir Kab Milogi
and Shatrughan Sinha from Mere Apne. They showed Shatrusaab’s scene on
a motorbike where he asks, ‘Kyun beta, is sham akele akele aish kar raha
hai? Naam pata kya hai, ata pata bata ladki ka (Hey, young man, having a
good time on your own? Come on, give me the name and address of the
girl).’ When that shot was flashed in Guddi, the applause from the audience
was deafening. He truly was the only villain in film history the audience
found endearing enough to cheer for him. He did a small guest role in the
Navin Nischol-Amitabh Bachchan starrer Parwana, as the public prosecutor
in a court scene. It was a surprise for the audience because his name had not
been announced in the film. The moment he appeared on the screen, there
was thunderous applause. He was the first and so far the last villain to have
that kind of thrilling impact on his audience, an aura of his own.
“Shatrughan Sinha is an ‘actortainer’ who entertains you through his
acting. In later years I would count Govinda in that category. Shatrusaab did
films with Manmohan Desai like Bhai Ho To Aisa where he had an
outstanding entry. He was given a mass appeal entry in Raampur Ka
Lakshman also and he had a dramatic entry in Aa Gale Lag Ja in which he
played a doctor. Manmohan Desai was a very intelligent director; he knew
what the masses wanted. He knew how to harness Shatrughan Sinha’s
popularity and cashed in on it.
“Shatrughan Sinha became a compulsive show stealer,” commented Raza
Murad as he traced the reasons the ace villain moved towards lead roles. His
analysis balanced Pawan Kumar’s criticism over SS turning hero. “Those
days there was a lot of one-upmanship and a common expression used by
film people was, is actor ne us actor ko kha liya (one actor has upstaged the
other). About Shatrusaab, it was invariably said that he had demolished his
co-actors, kha gaya. To survive in this industry, he had to become a lead
player and be able to carry a film on his own shoulders. Otherwise, his
contemporaries would have never allowed him to progress. They didn’t want
him to be around in a prominent role, they detested being dominated by him.
Because he had been accepted wholeheartedly as a villain, people felt it was a
mistake for him to have turned hero. But it was a very wise step. And
although he was no singing, dancing hero, he had his loyal audience. Badla,
Shaitaan, Jaggu, with good saleable heroines of the day like Moushumi
Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Leena Chandavarkar and Do Thug with Hema
Malini established him in the hero’s slot. He also did Ravee Nagaich’s Thief
Of Baghdad, a costume drama. Sabak was with Poonam Sinha and Milaap in
which he was an ichchadhari naag (shape-shifting serpent) was with Reena
Roy. There was Kashmakash in which he even sang a song with Asha
Bhosle.
“In Safed Haathi, he played a maharaja, he looked very impressive and
imposing in a jodhpuri and long boots. Tapan Sinha had directed it. He did
Kotwal Saab with Hrishikesh Mukherjee where both of us played police
officers. Hrishida used to hate long hair. So before a schedule, both of us
would go and cut our hair to look like authentic police officers. This was one
film where Shatrughan Sinha would always come on time. Aparna Sen was
the heroine. But Kotwal Saab faced a lot of upheavals. The Emergency was
clamped, censorship became strict, the script, the subject had to change
according to the changing demands of the censors. The film suffered as a
result and did not make the desired impact.
“Shatrusaab had a very good rapport with Sanjeev Kumar. Both of them
had one thing in common – they loved good food. When they were doing
Bereham with Mala Sinha and Reena Roy, the lunch served was always high
on the agenda.
“He worked with a cross-section of actors. He did four films with Raaj
Kumar: Chambal Ki Kasam, Sharara, Betaaj Badshah and Mahaveera but
they never struck up a close friendship. Raaj Kumar was aloof and eccentric
and Shatrusaab was not the kind to suck up to anybody. I did Mahaveera with
them and, although they were pitted against each other, director Ramesh
Saigal managed to make the film without taking even one single combined
shot of the two of them. Each had a different timing for turning up for
shooting.
“Shatrusaab has also worked with Dilip Kumar in Kranti,” Raza continued
to chronicle SS’ life and times. “He had the very strong role of Karim Khan,
a bearded Muslim character and he had a popular song, ‘Chana Jor Garam’
picturised on him. He did another film with Manoj Kumar, Santosh which
took twelve years to reach the theatres. Every year, the producer, Balbir
Kumar would issue a full page ad in Screen. This was one film where
Shatrusaab put his foot down. What had been narrated to him was not what
was being shot, his character was taking a villainish turn and that was not
what he had signed the film for. So he stood his ground and refused to shoot
until they changed their script and shot the film as it had been narrated to
him.”
SS’ notorious indifference to punctuality had its amusing side too. Raza
recalled, “When we were shooting for Rajkumar Kohli’s Jeene Nahin
Doonga in which I played his brother, Shatrusaab would turn up late for
shooting as usual. Rajkumar Kohli had the habit of chewing his fingernails
when he was tense. One day when he was running really late, Shatrusaab told
his driver, ‘Move fast before he reaches his toe nails,’” chuckled the co-star.
Raza the admirer turned into a critic over Shatrughan’s politics. “When he
joined the BJP, Muslim fans got a big jolt. Shatrusaab has never uttered a
word against Muslims or ever been anti-minority. So they felt let down when
he joined a party that was perceived as communal.”
What SS actually practised was an ideology of his own because he often
turned on his own party members in public. He may have stuck with the BJP
for a long time but he never really toed the party line if he didn’t agree with it
on a principle. Raza had noted that as well.
“When George Fernandes had to resign after a sting operation on him by
Tehelka, he had said that he would come back to the Cabinet only after his
name was cleared. However, he returned as Minister much earlier,” recalled
Raza Murad. “At that time, the BJP was in power but Shatrughan Sinha was
the sole voice who had raised the issue and commented, ‘The heavens would
not have fallen if George Fernandes had been re-inducted after he had been
cleared.’ He was immediately asked by a journalist how he could make such
a statement about their own allies and what would be Mr Atal Bihari
Vajpayee’s reaction to this? Shatrusaab had replied, ‘Atalji is a very great
man, I respect him immensely. But Atalji is not God.’ It needed extraordinary
guts to make such a statement about your own party boss. Shatrusaab always
had the tendency to swim against the tide and get away with it.”
In his hot-blooded young days, romantic enounters and boyish brawls
figured in equal measure in SS’ life.
Raza remembered, “Decades ago, Prem Chopra and Sanjay Khan had got
into an argument at a party and Shatrusaab had tried to pacify Sanjay. Reena
Roy was also at the party. Sanjay Khan was uncontrollable and soon a heated
argument ensued between Sanjay and Shatrusaab. It was an ugly fracas and
when Shatrusaab left the party, he met filmmaker Prakash Mehra who had an
old score to settle with Sanjay Khan. Prakash Mehra was also a hot-headed
man in his heyday. Both of them went to actor Ranjeet’s bungalow in Juhu
and started challenging Sanjay Khan next door. They began firing in the air
with their licensed pistols. Zarine begged Sanjay not to go out and retaliate
and there was a big controversy. A complaint was filed with the police and
finally a senior like Dilip Kumar had to intervene to settle the matter between
Sanjay and Shatrusaab.”
SS made a big mistake once when he modelled for an alcoholic drink
through surrogate advertising. “But like a gentleman, he apologised and
admitted that he had made a mistake,” commented Raza.
“Another quality I like about him,” said Raza, “is that I have never heard a
single inauspicious word slip from his lips. There is a lot of positivity in
him.”
Raza’s musings wound up on a musical note as he remarked, “I’ve got
news for you. Although Shatrusaab was not known as a dancing-singing star,
many of his songs became chartbusters.” Raza was ready with a list:

The haunting “Kayin Sadiyon Se Kayin Janamon Se, Tere Pyar Ko Tarse
Mera Man” in Milaap, sung soulfully by Mukesh;
“Dil Ka Soona Saaz Tarana Dhoondega” by Mohammed Rafi from Ek Nari
Do Roop;
“Shor Mach Gaya Shor Dekho Aaya Maakhan Chor” from Badla;
“Zindagi Imtihan Leti Hai” from Naseeb which was picturised on Amitabh
Bachchan, Reena Roy and Shatrughan Sinha;
“Sainath Tere Hazaaron Haath” from Shirdi Ke Sai Baba where he played
a fakir;
“Bane Chahe Dushman Zamana Hamara Salamat Rahe Dostana Hamara”
with Amitabh Bachchan in Dostana;
 “Dhoom Mache Dhoom Aaj Ki Raina” in Kaala Patthar. (Strangely there
was no song for Amitabh Bachchan in the film);
“Samjhautha Gamon Se Kar Lo” in Samjhautha where he voiced the words
“Achche bachche?” (Good children) which were interspersed between the
antaras (stanzas);
“Pukaro, Mujhe Phir Pukaro” from Buniyaad;
“Sharbati Teri Aankhon Ki” in Blackmail;
“Kaise Jeete Hain Bhala Humse Seekho Ye Ada” in Dost;
“Aaj Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai” from Aadmi Sadak Ka, a Shatrughan
Sinha number that has lived on for over three decades and is played without
fail by every wedding band.

The admiration for SS’ accomplishments was unanimous in the film

fraternity. But from his colleagues’ observations, SS also emerged as an
endearing, though exasperating family member, at times prone to
contradictions.
Once, in a swanky hotel suite where Shashi Tharoor (accompanied by
Sunanda Pushkar, a couple of weeks before she died) was also present, one
winced when SS, in mid-conversation and without looking down,
nonchalantly stuck his foot out for Man Friday Nathu to remove his footwear
and put on a fresh pair. The habit which combined feudal Bihar with film star
entitlement may have made an incongruous fit in that upper crust ambience.
But that was SS, take him or leave him.
His staff chose the former. One saw the same set of domestic and office
staff hover around SS for decades, which spoke volumes on a caring
employer few wanted to leave. As Salim Khan stated, that was the mark of a
good man.
Similarly, despite the recurring charge of indiscipline levied against him,
he understood and respected deadlines. He ran a Q & A for the much-
respected film publication Filmfare for years, combining humour with
current affairs in his replies to readers’ questions. “He’s a stickler for
deadlines,” said Jitesh Pillai, Editor of Filmfare. “In all these years, we’ve
never had to go without his column because he missed a deadline.”
The contradictions persisted in many avatars.
 To many it would seem that SS’ statements betrayed an impetuous, brash
man who was a bit of a loose cannon. Yet there were evenings when someone
around him would have a drink too many, and lose his verbal inhibitions,
while SS would watch him silently, even defusing any tension with maturity
if the conversation tended to raise hackles.
The entire portrait of SS got its finishing touches from superstar Amitabh
Bachchan, a friend who knew him from 1969. Amitabh looked at SS with the
gracious wisdom of an older sibling who accepted the whole package with
affection and amusement.
“Shatru and I and all his other close friends would spend a great amount of
time at his apartment in Bandstand – a luxury I did not have,” said the
renowned baritone of Hindi cinema, as he talked of early times spent together
in Bombay. “I was hopping around from benches on Marine Drive to close
friends’ homes, with no permanency,” he added, exhibiting characteristic
humility, “while Shatru was an established star at the time – he was working
in important and large-profile banners with elite stars as colleagues.
“His apartment was always filled with his friends. He has always had many
people around him, and his has been a very welcoming grace to all, a trait one
observes, he has maintained to this day.”
As two outsiders who looked for acceptance from Bombay, Amitabh and
SS shared more than just a struggle. The seventy-three-year-old legendary
actor recalled how the companionship helped withstand the initial blows.
“He (SS) was an established star at that early stage, notwithstanding his
very commendable credentials from the FTII,” Amitabh said. “We never
went out job-hunting together. He did not need to; I did. On several
occasions, he would ask us to come along with him where he was shooting
and would generously introduce me to directors and other star colleagues
with great compliment. Struggles were discussed with humorous
interjections. We all had that odd story to narrate to each other. But being in
collective company was an asset. Sharing your issues together would, at
times, reduce the pain of struggle or disappointment. Shatru always had a
streak of humour, no matter what the circumstance, attached to his
experiences good or bad. And he still does.”
Amitabh’s reminiscences explained why SS had some of his well-known
irksome traits. The truth was, he always had them and stardom had little to do
with it. Amitabh’s narration of amusing times revealed that SS’ tendency
towards nawabi (royal) tantrums was inborn and not necessarily cultivated.
“At times we went out together to catch a film,” Amitabh recalled. “But
that was an event! He (SS) even went late for the films we went to see. He
had a second-hand car, another luxury at a time when most of us were at the
mercy of local trains, and all of us used to pile in for this rambling ride into
town, now more popularly known as South Bombay or SoBo. At halfway
point, the car would invariably break down, and we would all get down to
push it into some motion. All? I may be wrong here because I think Shatru
always remained in the car. His demeanour was always regal, as you may
have observed! But it was all in good spirit and a lot of fun. Travelling with
him at airports in later years, was another tense experience altogether. He was
late for his flights too. Even after the gates were about to shut and airline staff
would urge him to hurry, despite being at the airport, his response would
always be ‘Aate hain, aate hain (We’re coming, we’re coming)’ and take his
own time to reach the aircraft!”
There was a lot of common ground that they shared at that point of time.
“The fact that we shared Pawanji as our manager, and later, when I was
courting Jaya, both him (SS) and her being exemplary graduates from the
FTII, were commonalities in our association. Indeed it was Shatru who had
spoken very highly of Jaya’s talents when she and I started work together in
our first film, Guddi.”
Amitabh had enough fondness for his friend to recall even SS’ attempts to
upstage a co-star with a smile.
“We worked in several films together, some unreleased to date as well.
That he is a most accomplished artiste is a given, and, therefore, working on
set was always a delight. When you have brilliant co-stars beside you, your
own competence improves, or at least attempts are made to improve them.
Shatru demanded attention, and his acts of performance always dictated that.
As a most popular villain his entries were accompanied by huge applause and
cheers – a rare phenomenon. He always had the ability to draw attention to
himself in a scene, even when it was not required to. He could be placed
somewhere in the background in a sequence, and you could rest assured that
he would still be able to get the audience to notice him, rather than the lead
players who were in front of the camera lens.
“In the film Bombay To Goa where both of us worked together, during a
scene by the swimming pool where Aruna Iraniji and I were doing our stuff,
he (SS) was asked to stand somewhere at the back because he was not an
integral part of the moment. The action started and we were in the middle of
our lines when suddenly a smoke ring came sailing past my nose! Yes... that
was Shatru smoking his cigarette, blowing smoke rings and drawing attention
to himself, standing way back in the frame! We still laugh over that
moment!”
Notwithstanding the Kaala Patthar incident described by Salim Khan,
Amitabh declared, “There has never been a distance between us (SS and AB),
at least never from my side.
“To me, Shatru has been a wonderful example of achievement. He started
off as a villain, succeeded immensely, switched to playing the lead,
succeeded there as well and then took on politics and succeeded there as
well! This is no mean achievement in any individual’s life. How many such
examples are there in our industry? A Vinod Khanna perhaps, but none other.
At least, for the time being.”
As is his wont, SS’ statements and deeds may have sometimes hurt or
irked his friends (like returning the mithai that the Bachchans had sent him
for Abhishek’s marriage to Aishwarya). But Amitabh’s sharp take on SS’
brash, impulsive streak was pithy, and summed up just why the actor-
politician’s friendships survived several hiccups.
“So what’s wrong with being brash and impulsive?” Amitabh Bachchan
posed a counter question before adding, “That is a character and nature study.
Fine. So long as the basics are in place, nothing else matters. And I have
always felt that our basics are intact.
“When he has invited me, I have attended, and vice versa. There are times
when there was no invite and still there was attendance. When my father was
breathing his last, I shall never forget his (SS’) visit to Prateeksha, late at
night, to offer not just his concern but also as Minister for Health to give
assurance to me that if the Ministry could do anything, then not to hesitate to
ask. This I shall value above all else, ever. When he had his heart surgery we
went to visit him in hospital. No one called me to come to see him.
Basics...they are important. The basics, and culture and upbringing. His
children have always shown basic respect whenever they have met Jaya and
me. They have traditionally always bent down to touch our feet, a practice
that I am most uncomfortable with, whenever we have met – in private or in
public.”
Amitabh’s final word on SS was moving: “Let him be who he is. Do not
attempt to change him. He shall lose his individuality if he did. Of the 1.25
crore people of India, he stands out as a unique example. He is who he is
because of his qualities.”
The distinctiveness was witnessed when clones of the Hindi film actor
were born in the most unlikely part of India – in the South of the Vindhyas.
 6

Southern Comfort
Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself.
When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.

Jack Welch

An incredulous aspect of Shatrughan Sinha’s stardom was that the actor-

politician from the staunch Hindi belt found resonance in the most unlikely
part of India – in South India where men in white dhotis spoke a different
language and where the BJP could never make much headway. It is
interesting that some of the biggest stars of South India unabashedly drew
inspiration from SS and also forged a personal bond with him.
“He looks like one of us,” chuckled Chiranjeevi, the actor-politician from
Andhra Pradesh.
Indeed, at a function organised by Congress politician T Subbarami Reddy
in Hyderabad, an array of top South Indian film stars standing shoulder-to-
shoulder with Shatrughan looked like an assembly line – tall, tanned,
confident men, all of them sporting a moustache.
One of them was Chiranjeevi, a much-revered name in Telugu cinema with
a fan following that could at times go out of control (at one of his jam-packed
political rallies, thirty-two people died in a stampede). Sitting in his Jubilee
Hills mansion that looked down on the city of Hyderabad, he accepted
without hesitation, “I became an actor because of Shatrughan Sinha.”
The inspiration began as admiration from a fan. “Whenever a new
Shatrughan Sinha film was released, irrespective of the character he played in
it, I’d watch it with complete admiration,” said Chiranjeevi. “I went to see a
Hindi film only for Shatrughan; he was the main attraction for me. For
example, I didn’t know whether Randhir Kapoor or anybody else was the
hero of Raampur Ka Lakshman. It was enough for me that Shatruji was in it.
“When a film of his called Sabak was released, my friends told me it was a
disaster. I was such a big fan that I still went to see it. And if I came back
feeling let down, it was not because of the subject or because he played a
sober role in it. I was disappointed because Shatruji had changed his hairstyle
in the film!
“I used to like the way his hair would fall over his forehead. But in Sabak
he had backcombed his hair and that completely changed the image which I
admired. Fortunately, he later switched back to his normal style.
“In 1975, I was still a college student doing my second year BCom when
Sholay was released. Much after it was released, I came to know that Shatruji
was to have done Dharmendra’s or some other role in it. Those days news did
not spread as fast as it does today. When I heard it, I was oh so disappointed.
Arre, how I wish he had been in Sholay!
“People would tell me that my eyes and facial features looked like his. I
think it was that constant comment which triggered the idea that I too could
become an actor. Till then we had very handsome heroes like NT Rama Rao,
A Nageshwara Rao, Shobhan Babu, Krishna, Krishnam Raju, in Telugu
cinema. I could not imagine myself amongst them; I looked so common, so
normal. So when people told me that I looked like Shatruji, it became the
trigger for me to become an actor.
“I used to enjoy mouthing some of Shatruji’s dialogues like, ‘Bandook
haath mein lekar geedadh bhi sher ban jayega, Heera (Heera, with a gun in
hand, even a jackal can turn into a lion)!’ The way he delivered his dialogues
was unmatched. I was never a mimic but I used to get a kick imitating his
voice. It was mesmerising to watch his command over the language, his
confidence, the dominating body language, the don’t-care attitude, the
expression in his eyes, the power. I used to love his mass appeal, his
mannerisms. I think he was a big influence on many of us, not only on me.
You could easily see how much Shatrughan Sinha influenced Rajinikanth –
the throwing of the cigarette, the sharp turning of his head, the expression on
the face. Rajini copied his gimmicks and mannerisms and made them his
own,” laughed Chiranjeevi. “Now even if Shatruji does it, people will say
he’s imitating Rajinikanth!”
For Chiranjeevi, the admiration for the man on the screen spilled over and
became personal when he finally met SS in flesh and blood. “It was such a
joy,” he continued the exclamations. “So young at heart, so full of jubilation,
you enjoyed his presence. Though we looked at him as a man we admired so
much, he met us like a chilled-out friend.”
In his own career as an actor, Chiranjeevi didn’t do a take-off on SS; in
fact, he didn’t even do any of his remakes. “I only took inspiration from him
to come into films, not to copy him as an actor,” remarked the Telugu film
star. But he acknowledged, “My body language and my dialogue delivery
were inspired by Shatruji. I am also known for my mannerism-dialogues.
Like his famous ‘Khamosh’, I too am known for certain stylised dialogues.”
In fact, SS continued to be an inspiration long after Chiranjeevi became a
name to reckon with in Telugu cinema. The actor from Andhra Pradesh
disclosed disarmingly, “Sometimes, when I wasn’t sure how to portray a
character in a particular situation, I would ask myself, ‘How would Shatruji
have interpreted it?’ My body language and chemistry would automatically
change; the confidence level would increase. It definitely worked for me.”
The influence didn’t stop with cinema. Chiranjeevi also made a shift from
films to politics like the senior actor from Patna, though he followed a
different ideology. (After floating his own party, Chiranjeevi later aligned
with the Congress.)
“I didn’t discuss my decision to enter politics with him but after I made up
my mind, he came to my house and told me, ‘Chiranjeevi, I admire you for
entering politics. It’s a daring step; it’s not easy to stay on in politics. But
you’ve had enough of a life in films. Now it’s time to go forward. It’s a
natural progression.’ So he came over and inspired me. He also told me,
‘This is what I was expecting from Rajinikanth but he’s not daring enough.’
He said, ‘This is what I wish my friend Rajini would also do.’”
Chiranjeevi’s entry into politics was no surprise because traditionally, film
stars in the South have used that route to extend their public lives. However,
while many of them glittered, none of them could go beyond regional
boundaries and play a part at the Centre. That honour was bagged first by the
Bihari actor.
“It was a great achievement,” remarked Chiranjeevi, “because all the stars
who were MPs were mainly ornamental. Shatrughan Sinha broke that image
by becoming the first film star to be given a Cabinet post, and put in a
position where he could genuinely serve the public. He made our fraternity
really proud.”
A success story similar to Chiranjeevi’s had already happened in the
bordering State of Tamil Nadu with the phenomenal rise of a bus conductor
who became superstar Rajinikanth.
Thunderous hits like Shivaji and Robot had turned him into one of the
biggest brands of India. But sitting in his sprawling Poes Garden bungalow in
Chennai, Rajinikanth was humility personified when he unstintingly called
himself, “A great Shatrughan Sinha fan right from films like Do Yaar in the
seventies.”
Much may have changed in his own fame and fortune in the intervening
four decades but the star from Chennai ungrudgingly credited his growth in
commercial cinema to SS.
“When I started out as an actor, I concentrated on being a stylised villain,”
Rajinikanth elaborated. “The only stylised villain those days was Shatrughan
Sinha and I drew inspiration from his performances. I learnt from him how to
flick a cigarette with swagger and panache.
“When I started watching Shatrughan Sinha’s films, Do Yaar, Raampur Ka
Lakshman, I was fascinated with his mannerisms, the way he’d hit someone
and nonchalantly look at his watch. Incidentally, a little later, I did that same
character in Mangudi Minor (Raampur Ka Lakshman in Tamil) and from that
day onwards Shatrughan Sinha was my inspiration. When I played the villain,
the mannerisms were strongly influenced by him. I completely followed his
style of acting those days. There used to be write-ups in the seventies calling
me the Shatrughan Sinha of the South.”
It wasn’t long before SS began to hear about the fast-rising star in Tamil
Nadu who was gaining popularity by following his act, quite literally. When
they eventually met, Rajinikanth was like a thrilled fan.
“I’d already done the remake of Raampur Ka Lakshman,” recalled Rajini.
“We met at an airport where I went up and met him. Oh yes, he had heard by
then that somebody in Chennai was following his style of acting.”
When Rajinikanth began to do a few Hindi films, he started meeting SS in
Bombay. They even did a couple of films together. One was aptly titled Asli
Naqli; it brought the two stars from the same mould together in the same
frame. The other, also well-named, was Takrao where they clashed on
celluloid.
Rajinikanth’s rise was meteoric. He laughed, “Shatrughan Sinha began to
say, ‘Now you have become my guru.’ We became very good friends; the
two families also became close. Poonam used to tie a rakhi to me.”
Rajinikanth was also delighted to find they had much in common that went
beyond the obvious physical attributes of tall, dark and manly. “Framewise,
we’re both the same, we have a small frame, small eyes, small mouth,
mouche,” he enumerated.
Both SS and Rajinikanth were so possessive about the hair on the upper lip
that each shaved it off only once in his career – Rajinikanth went without his
moustache in a film on his guru, Raghavendra Swamy while SS did it for
Ram Gopal Varma in Rakhta Charitra.
One similarity that was not so obvious to the public outside was that
irrespective of their aggressive exterior, SS and Rajinikanth were completely
dependent on their respective wives. “I am 100% dependent on Latha,”
Rajinikanth chortled.
SS was known to never forget his old friends irrespective of their social
status. Likewise, when Rajinikanth was a bus conductor called Shivajirao
Gaekwad in Bangalore (now Bengaluru), he’d struck up a close friendship
with Raj Bahadur, a bus driver who had backed his dreams of becoming an
actor. To this day, they remain firm friends.
Like SS did in 1975, Rajinikanth too, came out and took a political stand in
1995 against Jayalalithaa’s Government. So, although he did not venture
deeply into it, he did have a toehold and say in Tamil Nadu politics. “I did
that only once,” pointed out Rajinikanth. “The political situation in 1995 was
very different, so I had come out and made a statement. It was a hot situation,
election time, so everybody grabbed the statement and made it big. I am not
interested in politics. Right now, today, no. But I don’t know about
tomorrow.” He continued to remain verbally non-committal except for
endorsing Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate in 2014.
Rajinikanth left the door open to walk in when he was ready. Meanwhile,
he watched SS’ moves closely as he commented, “Before taking a decision,
before he joined the BJP, he was in a dilemma over whether to join the
Congress or the BJP. Finally he chose the BJP. He thought it over several
times and debated whether to enter politics or not. Shatrughan Sinha is a very
shrewd man; he thinks a lot. People don’t know the other side of Shatruji.
Don’t get taken in by that loud talk. That’s only 25%. 75% is deep. He
calculates, he thinks.”
One would think that given his legendary hold over fans and followers in
India and abroad, Rajinikanth would experience moments when he felt that
he had overtaken his guru. But the Southern star summed up their equation
with the emphatic statement, “Have you read Shatruji’s Q&A in Filmfare?
He has been writing it for more than ten years. Can anybody else do it like
him? What one-liners he comes up with; what a sharp brain he has. There has
been and there will be only one Shatrughan Sinha.”
In the North-Western State adjoining Tamil Nadu, a story similar to
Rajinikanth’s had unfolded in Karnataka too.
Colourful superstar Ambareesh who once famously swayed into the Taj in
Bengaluru with a bottle of Black Label on his head, defying anybody to stop
him from bringing his own favourite brand into the hotel, had succeeded in
politics too. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, had served as Minister of State
in the I&B Ministry in Delhi and was Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s Minister
for Housing in the Karnataka Government.
After winding up a meeting with a bunch of builders in his Bengaluru
bungalow, Ambareesh sat back and proudly underlined, “Whatever I am in
life today is because of Shatrughan Sinha. My whole career has moved on the
same lines as his. More than being his fan, ours is an Eklavya and
Dronacharya story. He is my guru.”
The man from Bihar connected with a college boy in Karnataka when
Ambareesh watched Khilona and Mere Apne.
“People used to call me Shatrughan Sinha; I bore a slight resemblance to
him,” stated Ambareesh. In the early seventies, when filmmaker Puttana
Kanagal was looking for new faces for his film Naagarahavu, Ambareesh
replicated SS’ stylised mannerisms for a make-up test (audition).
“I threw the cigarette and walked with the same stylish swagger as
Shatruji,” he recalled. Puttana Kanagal was impressed, Nagarahavu was a
blockbuster, and another SS clone was born in another part of India. In fact,
SS, Ambareesh, Rajinikanth and Chiranjeevi became close, like a family of
immensely successful look-alikes.
Political affiliations didn’t come in the way.
“I am a Congressman, he is a BJP man,” pointed out Ambareesh. “But
when he steps into Bengaluru, he doesn’t think of me as a Congressman. He
comes to my house as an older brother. Even when he was a Cabinet Minister
in the BJP Government, his first visit would be to my house.”
Extremely popular all over Karnataka and just as outspoken as SS,
Ambareesh the actor-politician reiterated, “All that’s happened in my life is
because of Shatruji. If I didn’t look like him, nobody would have recognised
me. He was the first villain to get an unprecedented ovation. I also went
through the same trajectory. I was also a villain, then a supporting hero and
finally the leading man.”
Like SS, Ambareesh also married a very attractive actress. But, unlike
Poonam Sinha who gave up her career for her man and marriage,
Ambareesh’s wife Sumalatha continued to work in films.
Another similarity was Ambareesh’s stubborn independent streak. Despite
SS’ best efforts, Ambareesh rasped with a smoker’s cough but wouldn’t give
up his cigarettes.
“Shatruji is after the whole world to give up smoking,” he shrugged
nonchalantly. But this Eklavya marched to his own beat – much like his
Dronacharya did all his life.
Back in Hyderabad, there was another popular Telugu star who took the
villain-to-hero trek like SS and became a part of the Ambareesh-Rajinikanth-
Chiranjeevi-SS clique.
“I met Shatruji about thirty-two years ago and all of us became very good
friends,” revealed flamboyant, straight-talking actor Mohan Babu.
“I got very influenced by Shatruji in my performances, especially in my
dialogue delivery. I liked the way he would bring modulation and expression
to his dialogues, the way his voice would go up and down. I liked that and I
followed it in my performances.
“I was the villain in a film titled Dongala Dopidi and I followed Shatruji’s
style of dialogue delivery in it. There were lots of films where I followed
him. Sivaranjini ran for fifty weeks. I did different types of modulations in it.
In all these performances, I was influenced by Shatruji.”
Like most leading film stars of the South, Mohan Babu too had his stint in
public life. He pointed out, “Like Shatruji, I started as a villain and then
became a hero. Like him I also went to the Rajya Sabha. But,” he said, “I did
not remain in active politics, I hate politics.”
With dramatic oratory skills, Mohan Babu tended to thunder all his
observations. He filibustered, “I would sum up Shatruji with these words:
good human being. Not like other Hindi artistes from North India.”
Padma Shri Mohan Babu wasn’t done yet. “I don’t know why the
government has never recognised Shatrughan Sinha. He should get the
Padma Bhushan or Padma Vibhushan. Was he denied the honour all these
years because he was with the BJP?” he asked aloud.
That’s what politics is all about and SS had a four-decade-long association
with it.
 7

The Rough And Tumble Of

A Life In Politics
Politics is more difficult than Physics.

Albert Einstein

Suddenly, he became relevant again.

A few days after he cast his vote in the Bihar Assembly elections of 2015,
when SS boarded a Jet Airways flight to London on November 2, 2015, for a
personal meeting, it was as if many forces had combined to send him to
Coventry.
His party had pointedly sidelined him.
Despite a thumping victory in the Lok Sabha elections (2014) from Patna
Sahib in Bihar, he couldn’t be jubilant for long. As SS witnessed the gradual
scaling down of his importance within his party, one saw him flash the
navras (the gamut of nine main emotions) at various points.
 There was buoyancy over a victory hard won. But there was bafflement as
he watched a parade of Johnnies-come-lately take their oath in the Cabinet
while seniors were kept firmly behind the cordon.
“Not only Johnnies-come-lately but also some who had lost the Lok Sabha
elections, perhaps humiliatingly, were rewarded with not one but two and
three ministerial posts, marginalising those who’d won with a record
margin,” he said, without mincing words.
By the time the Bihar Assembly elections rolled along, the disregard for SS
had snowballed. The new frontline of the party blocked him to the point
where his open dissidence was ignored like he just didn’t matter. There was
hurt and humiliation.
“Just as you find messages like ‘Prabhu, ab tera hi sahara (Lord, now
you’re my only support)’ behind lorries and trucks, I was left with no other
sahara but to use Twitter as my platform,” he said. He used Twitter to air his
comments, “unabashedly and effectively”.
His tweets, which he considered more advisory than accusatory, cautioned
his party not to underestimate Nitish Kumar. He openly said, “Don’t count on
the anti-incumbency factor because there is no anti-incumbency evident
anywhere in Bihar”, and tweeted on the need to name a chief ministerial
candidate from the party.
“I also cautioned my party that mehengayi, rising prices, will be an issue.
We’d already shed tears and lost an election over onion prices in the past. So
I cautioned them to control the prices of essentials like dal and vegetables or
pay the price. And we did end up paying the price for it,” he added.
The ethics in his politics depended on which side of the fence one stood.
From his perspective, these were points he wanted to raise within his party
to energise and strategise their campaign. He wanted robust positivity, more
credible, acceptable faces on hoardings, more democracy in the campaign,
and less personal rhetoric against the Opposition. But his suggestions were
met with stony silence, making him seem a disgruntled voice of dissidence
that did not deserve either a hearing, or a platform as a star campaigner in his
home State.
There was disbelief and disappointment in SS as Hema Malini and Ajay
Devgn were brought in to campaign for the BJP in Bihar. It was like a
personal affront to SS’ celebrity worth. Both actors were people he respected
– Devgn was his daughter’s co-star; Hema was a family friend. But what was
their grassroots connect with Bihar?
“The party was hijacked by some people in Bihar who conveniently played
deaf-mute. They were not ready to listen to (me) or to speak (to me). That’s
how they created an impression which the Opposition seized as an
opportunity and the ‘Bihari versus Bahari’ (Outsider) slogan was coined.
People from Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, were
brought in hordes and packed into Bihar, bhar diya gaya, as if the party
hadn’t learnt a lesson from the Delhi debacle at the hands of Kejriwal.
Certain local forces also joined hands with the baharis to settle scores with
me once and for all. But thanks to my strategy, my tweets and the media, it
boomeranged on them. Like our friend Lalu Prasad bounced back from the
Opposition, which was an eye-opener to the country, I also bounced back
because I was on the side of truth. I was doing things honestly and with
transparency.”
There were moments when SS exhibited the human trait of heartache,
when he despaired that political life was so complicated that had he known
how tough it would be to play the game, perhaps he’d never have enrolled
himself for the part.
Unlike party seniors LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi who too had
been asked to sit it out and play mute onlookers, SS was not one to exercise
RSS-style discipline or restraint. He was at his combative best. The more he
was overlooked, the more frequently he supped with the Opposition, and the
more defiant his tweets turned. He was anything but khamosh.
The party had chosen a tactic that hurt more than retaliation – they ignored
him. “Why should we make a martyr of him by expelling him?” a
spokesperson said, off-the-record.
It was as if neither SS nor his statements made a whit’s difference to any of
them or to the party. “Whether we win Bihar or lose it, it won’t have anything
to do with SS. He won’t make a difference either way,” they believed.
“They made themselves so helpless,” SS shot back. “One heard that they’d
be taking action against Shatrughan Sinha after the Bihar elections. I said, I
didn’t know my people were so helpless that they had to wait for an election
to take action. That too against a man who had won with a vote share
percentage of more than 55% which even our Prime Minister and Kejriwal
didn’t reach; a man who could also stand as an independent and had the
support of many, right from Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad to Rahul Gandhi.
That’s why I had made the statement, ‘Those who want to take action against
me must remember Newton’s third law: Every action has an equal and
opposite reaction’.
“Amit Shah, our Party President, had predicted with great confidence that
we would win with ⅔rd majority. Perhaps it had become a habit with him
because he had said the same thing in Delhi also. But ultimately we got only
two or three seats there instead of ⅔rd,” SS smirked. “Right from State
President Mangal Panday to Sushil Kumar Modi to Rajiv Pratap Rudy to
Shahnawaz Hussain, anybody and everybody, repeated his words like parrots
with full zeal, enthusiasm and over confidence.”
In the media too, no anchor, pollster or journalist had counted on the
possibility that the Shatrughan Sinha/Bihari Babu effect (i.e. the voice of
dissidence) could also be a contributory factor in the Bihar elections.
When SS took off from London on his return journey to India on
November 7, he was still the man who didn’t count.
But by the time he landed at T3 on November 8 at 10.30 am, there was a
sea-change in perspectives. It was as if en route, up in the air, the man had
changed.
Within minutes, the routing of the BJP at the Bihar hustings turned SS
from inconsequential to substantial, from redundant to important, from
pathetic to prophetic. From the moment he landed, every TV channel sought
his wisdom on Bihar.
Anil Agarwal, the Founder-Chairman of Vedanta Group of Industries was
chuffed at something SS said. “He gave a statement that only two Biharis
have made it outstandingly big outside the State – Shatrughan Sinha and Anil
Agarwal,” chuckled the self-made billionaire.
Agarwal knew SS right from his Patna days, before stardom took him to
another State. Without getting drawn into making a political comment,
Agarwal remarked, “What I can say with confidence about Shatrughan is that
he is a man who needs to be convinced. He cannot be bought with any
amount of money, he can only be convinced.”
SS was convinced that there was nothing wrong in saying it like he saw it.
He foresaw what few did – the victory of the Grand Alliance with Lalu
making a comeback and Nitish back in the Chief Minister’s chair.
The results of the Bihar elections suddenly turned the spotlight on the SS
effect. When more seniors like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Arun
Shourie and Shanta Kumar turned the ‘miffidence’ into a chorus, SS the
politician seemed to have scored a point.
But the twists and turns were characteristic of his political life. This wasn’t
the first time he had courted expulsion – the many flashpoints with his party
surfaced in an incisive retelling of his career as a politician.
Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha and his sons were well-read and politically
aware, as most Biharis are wont to be. In fact, renowned people’s leader
Jayaprakash Narayan got the moniker ‘Lok Nayak’ from the Sinha
household. At a procession during the JP Movement in 1974, when Nitish
Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav were still political non-entities, it was Dr
Bharat Sinha who had spontaneously shouted, “Lok Nayak zindabad,
zindabad (Long live the Lok Nayak).”
The name stuck. Decades later, when Nitish Kumar rose impressively in
his State, he had said to a Patna daily, “Laluji claims he called JP ‘Lok
Nayak’ but I was there and I know that the name was given to him by
Shatrughan Sinha’s brother.”
However, SS was the only member of his family who went from being
politically-aware to becoming a full-bodied politician, catapulting himself
into the arena completely on his own steam with no known political surname
or family to ease his entry. After gaining stardom in an industry where he was
the dark horse with no filmland connections, he did the improbable again in
the fickle world of politics.
He soon became more politician than film star. His day would begin with
devouring every newspaper that went to his room. Any time you wandered
into his drawing room or hotel suite, a prominent news channel in Hindi or
English would be his only watch. He was one of the few Mumbaikars who
became more at home in the capital of power than in the city of glamour.
He also always emitted contradictory signals. He was so comfortable
across the border that Late General Zia ul Haq’s daughter Zain tied a rakhi to
him. Different regimes in Pakistan extended him the hospitality that a State
guest would merit. He was an actor who enjoyed social evenings with food,
drink and company. Therefore, many of his friends from the Muslim
community tended to sum up his loyalty to the BJP as the right man in the
wrong party.
But his loyalty to his party itself was under scrutiny. He was a BJP
member who lavished praise on the party’s bête noire Arvind Kejriwal. He
was a sitting MP when he went public against his own party President Nitin
Gadkari’s statements. His party announced Kiran Bedi as their chief
ministerial candidate for Delhi – SS went on record that Dr Harsh Vardhan
would have been the “better and perhaps the only choice” for that post. His
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at
a public rally. Within hours, SS called on Nitish Kumar, posed for pictures
and captioned it ‘A courtesy call’.
“I have friends everywhere,” he maintained. “Devi Lal was extremely fond
of me and the feeling was mutual. I had great respect for Jyoti Basu and
considered him a very tall statesman. I am very fond of Mamata Banerjee too.
But does that mean I’ll join their party or they’ll join me? No way. I’ve
always said, BJP is my first and perhaps, my last party. Once a friend, always
a friend. Ladte jhagadte hain (we fight) but we remain family,” he asserted,
even after the tempestuous Bihar elections of 2015.
He entered politics in 1991 by saying he wouldn’t use the backdoor to
enter Parliament but would contest a Lok Sabha seat. But after losing to
fellow film star Rajesh Khanna in a by-election, he opened the Rajya Sabha
door and walked in. Once in, he wanted to stay put for a third continuous
term when his party directed him to stand for elections and enter the Lok
Sabha. He did it grudgingly. But after a taste of electoral victory, he wouldn’t
dream of going back to the Upper House. Did the BJP look at him as another
drama-driven film star who had to be appeased to avoid negative headlines?
Or, did SS have it in him to play a more serious role at the national level?
A careful look at his four stints in Parliament (two terms in the Rajya
Sabha and two in the Lok Sabha), invaluable inputs by political stalwarts
around him and forthright admissions by the man himself, were the best ways
to profile SS the politician.
 2014, Patna. He was standing for a Lok Sabha seat for the second time
from Patna Sahib. Between 2009 and 2014, much had changed. Shekhar
Suman, the Congress candidate who had opposed SS in 2009, was back to
being his ally.
Miffed brother Lakhan Sinha who had reportedly given his blessings to
SS’ rival five years ago, had not only come around by 2014 but was also
spotted at rallies huge and humble that his star-brother addressed all over the
Patna Sahib constituency.
In 2009, Sonakshi, who was still to make a mark as an actor, had gone to
Patna to support her father. In 2014, she was a celebrity in her own right,
requiring tight, vigilant security around her. This time around, Sonakshi
stayed out of his electoral path.
“Or, she was kept out of it,” SS smartly differentiated between the two. He
outlined the new approach to his campaign in 2014.
“In 2014, it was once again a party with a difference. The entire campaign
centred around the projection of a dashing, dynamic Narendra Modi as the
potential Prime Minister. The aggressive marketing with the Vidyarthi
Parishad, the Bharitya Yuva Sena, the party workers, everybody pitching in,
plus the anti-incumbency factor which went against the previous government,
and with Modi’s own oratory skills and dramatic style, the chorus of ‘Modi,
Modi’ was heard everywhere. Though we did lose some seats, like 8 seats in
Bihar including Shahnawaz Hussain’s where Modi had campaigned, the
overall general feeling was that even a lamp post would win in this
tremendous wave.
“With complete confidence, we decided as a family that but for my wife
and sons, we’ll invite nobody, nobody at all, to campaign for me. Not even
the closest and best of friends, be that Advaniji, Rajnathji, Sushmaji or
Yashwantji. Mr Narendra Modi spoke to me on my father’s anniversary. I
still remember the date, it was April 10, 2014, when he spoke to me and
asked me how we were faring in our preparation for the elections, and if I
wanted anything from him. He was coming to Bihar the next day to campaign
for another candidate. I said to Modiji, ‘We’re doing well, we’re good, no
worries. I’ll manage fine on my own.’ I assured him that we’d do him proud.
“So we didn’t invite anyone, including our daughter Sonakshi who had
become a big star, to come and campaign for me. For me, the biggest stars
were the people of Bihar. I said, ‘I don’t depend on anyone else but the
people of Bihar.’”
In 2014, Poonam moved bag and baggage to Patna, and hit the door-to-
door trail. She did all that her husband couldn’t. She went into the interiors
and met families on a one-on-one human level, Luv or Kussh always by her
side.
The other twin went with camera in hand to record his father’s thunderous
– though repetitive – speeches. When a helicopter landed with BJP’s Sushil
Modi and alliance partner Ram Vilas Paswan in the far-flung village of
Fatuha which was part of the Patna Sahib constituency, and SS stepped
forward to receive them, the crowds gave them a rousing reception.
The moment he got off the dais, SS was transferred to an open truck for a
long, road rally. He stood atop for the next five hours and spoke to voters
who had lined the roads to catch a glimpse of their candidate and to garland
him. The rush of adrenaline was high.
At the end of a successful day, SS rested in his suite at the Maurya in Patna
with Man Friday Nathu massaging his tired neck, arms and feet. The electoral
battle he faced with the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and other parties
was one story. But even before he stood as the BJP candidate, he had
encountered another battle within his own party over the Patna Sahib seat.
That was what remained unchanged between 2009 and 2014: during both
elections, within the party ranks there was dissent when he was announced
the BJP candidate, and both times efforts were made to scuttle his chances.
Although he had won handsomely from the constituency in 2009, the
attempt to dislodge SS from Patna Sahib was more marked in 2014. The
party was making sweeping changes as the old order had to make way for the
new. Former cricketer and sitting MP Navjot Singh was asked to vacate
Amritsar to make way for Arun Jaitley. Veteran Murli Manohar Joshi had to
give up Varanasi for Narendra Modi, and move to Kanpur to fight the
elections. Senior statesman Jaswant Singh staged a rebellion and declared
himself an independent candidate. In the midst of this unease, there was a
long and uncomfortable wait for the BJP to name Shatrughan Sinha as its
candidate from Patna Sahib which he obstinately maintained was his
territory.
The delay gave rise to rumblings that a nettled SS was on the verge of
switching loyalties. He was one of the last candidates that the BJP finally
announced – his occasional points of discomfiture with the party were an
inerasable part of his political career.
Maintaining his tell-all tenor, he talked of backroom moves and the
strategy-driven game of politics. With it, he also traced his political career.
“From being called a party with a difference, we began to be called a party
with differences,” he stated, as he dissected the BJP.
But he stuck with it all the same.
“A member’s equation with the party is like the relationship between a
husband and wife,” he explained. “So, while on many occasions the party
must have tolerated me, at several other times I must have also had to put up
with their politics. But in true Indian tradition where we have been brought
up to respect the institution of marriage and to try our utmost to go through
ups and downs together, the party and I have stuck by each other through
thick and thin.”
A divorce was, therefore, averted every time there was a squabble. But it
also meant that while there were occasions to rejoice, there were moments of
regret too.
In fact, his first baby step was one such moment.
“If there is one regret that I have in politics, it is that I was made to fight
Rajesh Khanna from Delhi in 1991,” he stated, tracking his entry into the BJP
and life thereafter. “For this, in his lifetime I had apologised to Rajesh
Khanna both directly and indirectly. Under no circumstances should I have
started my active political career with a by-election. But I couldn’t say ‘No’
to Advaniji who was my guide, guru and ultimate leader.”
LK Advani who had stood for, and won the 1991 elections from
Gandhinagar and Delhi, had opted for his seat in Gujarat. In the by-election
that followed for the Delhi seat, political novice Shatrughan Sinha was
brought in by the BJP to counter Congress-I’s film star candidate Rajesh
Khanna.
“I was unaware that Advaniji had won that seat in Delhi by a very slim
margin,” SS ruminated. “Perhaps he had even almost lost that election
because he was fighting from two constituencies and it was perceived as a
weakness, as a sign that he wasn’t sure of winning and so he had a back-up.
“On this subject,” he digressed to underscore a political point, “I would
credit Arvind Kejriwal with showing rare courage in fighting only one seat
and that too against a heavyweight like Sheila Dikshit (in the Delhi Assembly
elections, December, 2013). People were predicting a maximum of four seats
for AAP at that time while I had maintained that they would get over 25.
They did win 28 in 2013. In 2015 I had again predicted that AAP would bag
more than 63 seats and they got 67 when they repeated their victory. It
showed Kejriwal’s tremendous confidence and self-belief.”
He went back to 1991 and his first step in the electoral fray which he
labelled a misstep. “I lost the election because I had to lose it,” he curtly
analysed. “Rajesh Khanna was still a craze and Advaniji had barely won that
seat. In fact, the rumour was that it was such a slim margin, a re-count had
been called for. But a tipsy Rajesh Khanna had waved away the re-count and
Advaniji had scraped through. At least that’s what was being whispered at
that time. By dismissing a re-count, Rajesh Khanna had been left literally
high and dry,” he wryly added.
“The Election Commission was also not so strong back then and it had
become a prestige issue for the Congress. Narasimha Rao had told his people,
‘Don’t give me a heart attack when I come back.’ They had to win this seat
by hook or by crook. That’s why I say, I had to lose it. If I had won, ek
vaakya banta (it would’ve been just one sentence), haara toh adhyay ban
gaya, when I lost it became an entire chapter. Haara toh it became national
headlines. Kumkum Chaddha, the famous journalist almost broke down when
I said this to her and she said, ‘I can’t write anymore after this.’ Her reaction
was the biggest and most emotional compliment I could have received after
that by-election.
“It was a learning experience and my biggest political regret.
“When I lost that election, it was one of my rare moments of dejection,”
disclosed the man who at all other times looked at the sunny side of life,
whatever the weather. “It was the one time I really cried. I also felt very let
down because Advaniji had not come even for one day to campaign for me. I
understand that important leaders are generally not available for by-election
campaigns but considering I was there for him, I do think he should have
made an exception and shown his support for me.”
He insisted that he had joined the party and fought the by-election, “Only
because of the persuasion of Kalyan Singh, Shanta Kumar, Madanlal
Khurana and other party leaders. I had initially resisted all their overtures but
I was finally taken before Advaniji, and he had said, ‘It’s a question of our
prestige and I don’t want to hear a “No” from you this time.’ Even at that
stage, I had said, ‘Let me talk to my high command, my wife,’ and Advaniji
had spoken to Promi.”
Standing for that by-election was his baptism by fire into politics as the
lessons he learnt were hard and hurtful. But they also prepared him for the
long haul.
“It was a terrible time for me,” he remembered. “Politics showed its ugly
profile in many ways. After I lost that election, a section of our own party
who had not campaigned for me, accused my people of having hardly
worked. I was also so sharply sidelined that I would be made to feel distinctly
unwelcome at our party office on Ashoka Road. People would stop talking
when I entered, or change the topic and make me uncomfortable. One day, a
party official who is still with the BJP, came up and told me, ‘Shatruji, please
sit outside. We’ll call you when we’re ready to talk to you.’ That went
straight to my heart and hurt me so badly, that for years, I never visited the
office.
“Meanwhile, my brother Lakhan bhaiya spoke to Advaniji. My whole
family had become very friendly with the Advanis. I was put on the National
Executive of the party and then sent to the Rajya Sabha for two terms.
Advaniji and others explained to me that it would be good for me to be in the
House of Elders; I could make a positive contribution from there and that our
party needed to have a strong representation there. I never asked for it,” he
underlined. He thus entered Parliament through the same ‘backdoor’ that he
had scoffed at as a Lok Sabha candidate in 1991.
A reality in politics he had to accept was that changing one’s stance was a
constant and sporting a thick skin was a prerequisite.
The ridicule that had followed the 1991 elections when he visited the party
office waned, especially after his ability to draw in the crowds was noted. But
the resentment endured.
“Glamour names are a dime-a-dozen in the political arena today,” SS
observed as he claimed his place as the first film star to set foot on the
campaign circuit. “I was the original star campaigner of the party and would
draw such massive crowds that India Today had reported, only two people
can pull in such crowds – Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Shatrughan Sinha.”
He became the poster boy of the BJP, making a popular troika at the top.
“There would be three aircraft available for campaigning – for Atalji,
Advaniji and me,” he chest-heaved. “Even VP Singh would go by road. It
created so much resentment within the party that there were grouses like, he
takes along too many people, it’s like a picnic for them, he wakes up late, and
so on. The Late Pramod Mahajan was one of them,” he punched on. “We
later became good friends,” he conceded.
The stream of complaints against his starry ways compelled him to write,
“My first letter to Advaniji. I said in it, ‘Yes, I take six people with me when
I should actually be taking twelve. The kind of crowds I draw can match that
of any top leader in the country – if not more.’” That was the BJP’s
introduction to SS’ frank-speak, a characteristic the party was unused to but
had to get accustomed to.
SS explained that his need for company was more a security concern than a
celebrity indulgence. “At that time I was not even given the Z-category
security that I later got. And by the way, I got ‘Z’ security thanks to the
Congress which was in power and not from my own party,” he threw in
dryly.
Poonam’s observation about her husband’s fixation over toilet facilities
surfaced during one of his campaigns. Once, SS was taken from rally to rally
in the biting cold, with no arrangements to freshen up at any stop. Soon his
bladder protested and threatened to burst as he crossed his legs to control
himself. He couldn’t possibly have gone behind a bush with the milling
crowds all around him, and there was no bathroom in sight either. Finally, a
desperate SS had staggered into someone’s house where he could find only a
wash basin. “Because of my height, I could stand there and use the
washbasin,” SS relived the experience with a sigh of relief, “and a sense of
shame.” It was an instance of the woeful lack of basic arrangements for a
campaigner who was a celebrity as well. If his fame drew crowds, it also
threw restrictions on his movements, something that the party organisers
found difficult to accept.
Therefore, in his missive to LK Advani, SS examined the security
arrangements made for him and drew his attention to the unfair practice that
prevailed. “I questioned the fact that while I pulled in the crowds, top-level
security was being given to other leaders of the party,” he detailed, as he
explained that a star campaigner was an unknown phenomenon until then.
“A star campaigner was a novelty and they didn’t know how to treat one.
We stars get mobbed, reaching the dais becomes impossible, people stamp on
our toes, our lives could be at risk. So I had to put my foot down and say, I
will campaign only on my terms.”
He understood where the general resentment stemmed from.
“State leaders of all parties nurse a complex against star campaigners. The
truth is, crores of rupees are spent by political parties to bring truckloads of
people to a rally, they have to distribute food packets, buy them train tickets,
sometimes pay them too, to turn up. None of this has to be done for a star
campaigner because the crowds gather on their own. This star power is
something that most leaders envy because they can never hope to have the
same effect on the masses.
“Nitin Gadkari was one of the first to witness the waves of people that
came to see me when I spoke at a stadium in Nagpur. For the first time, they
had to lock the gates and put up a notice that there was no more room inside.”
Paradoxically, while displeasure was displayed, the delight in having a
magnetic star campaigner was also evident.
“Name any top leader of our party and I can say with confidence that I was
asked to campaign for him,” said SS. He reeled off the candidates for whom
he had pitched in with his star power at one time or the other: Chimanbhai
Patel, Keshubhai Patel, Narendra Modi, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Jaitley, Uma
Bharti, Rajnath Singh, the Late Gopinath Munde, Vasundhara Raje. “Why,
for that matter, I have campaigned even for Atal Bihari Vajpayee, imagine for
the Prime Minister himself,” he said, feeling very good about it. “I addressed
about four meetings with him. On his last day of campaigning, there were
only two speakers on stage – Atalji and Shatrughan Sinha.
“The crowds came to see as well as to hear me. So it was not just star
power but oratory skills too. Yes, I campaigned for the same Uma Bharti who
was expelled from the BJP, against whom action was taken by the party, and
who has now asked that action be taken against Shatrughan Sinha,” snorted
SS. “The same Uma Bharti used to say even to Atalji, ‘I couldn’t have won
this election without Shatru bhaiya.’ I addressed five meetings in a day for
her, I campaigned an entire day for her.” It was an instance of how equations
had changed between then and now.
But the popularity had come at a price even then.
“One instance of ours becoming a party with differences showed up when
my own party workers tried to drive a wedge between Atalji and me,” he said
regretfully.
“At Gandhi Maidan in Patna, I was purposely taken to the venue at the
wrong time when Atalji was still speaking. When I reached, the crowds went
so berserk that Atalji had to stop speaking. It was no fault of mine. I would
never dream of upstaging him. But he was very gracious as he said, ‘Main
jaanta hoon, yeh bheed Bihari Babu ke liye hai (I understand that this crowd
has turned up for the Bihari Babu).’ He added with his great sense of humour,
‘Lekin Bihari Babu jaante hai ki yeh bheed Atal Bihari ke liye hai. Ye Bihari
Babu hai toh main bhi Atal Bihari hoon (But Bihari Babu knows that this
crowd is for Atal Bihari. If he’s Bihari Babu, I’m Atal Bihari).’
“People within the party were so jealous that it was self-defeating.”
By the time his second term in the Rajya Sabha ended in 2008, SS became
so comfortable in the seat that he looked forward to a third term as well. But
another rude shock awaited him.
“It’s possible that some people wanted to get rid of me because the politics
turned unpleasant,” he said reflectively. “Perhaps they were trying my
patience so that I’d react and leave the party in a huff.
“For the first time, I also saw Advaniji in his politician’s avatar,” he said,
his desire to be forthright overriding diplomatic correctness. “He called me
home, gave me tea and biscuits.” SS imitated LK Advani’s trademark
mannerism of rolling his hands like he was washing them, and continued,
“He then asked me, ‘Shatruji, what do you think of going to the Lok Sabha
this time?’ I realised that there was politics being played over giving me a
third term in the Rajya Sabha.”
It wasn’t the first hint.
“Earlier, at a National Meet in Baroda too, he had sounded me out about
taking on the responsibility of becoming President of the party in Bihar
State,” he remembered. SS had replied that he was willing to take on any
responsibility the party wanted to repose in him but wondered if managing
the day-to-day functioning of an office would suit his personality. “Advaniji
also realised that it would dilute my stature as a star campaigner,” he
remarked, as he went back to the party denying him a third term in the Rajya
Sabha.
“When Advaniji brought up the question of contesting a Lok Sabha seat, I
reminded him that when I had been reluctant to go to the Rajya Sabha, it was
he and the party who had convinced me that I would be invaluable in the
Upper House; we needed to strengthen our party there. He then used the logic
of convenience and said that more than two terms was not in keeping with the
party norm.” SS drew attention to several notable exceptions. “Many party
leaders like Arun Jaitley, and my friends Ravi Shankar Prasad and Venkaiah
Naidu were given a third term in the Rajya Sabha.”
SS had his reasons for wanting to stay on in the Rajya Sabha, at least until
election time.
“There was one more year for the 2009 elections. I would have had to give
up my house in Delhi and relocate again,” he stated pragmatically. “I,
therefore, suggested that he could give me a Rajya Sabha seat for a two-year
term to facilitate my stay in Delhi, and after elections, I could give up my seat
and go to the Lok Sabha.” It was a clever suggestion to make because in case
he lost, he would still have the Rajya Sabha seat to fall back on.
It was not an acceptable alternative with his party leader.
SS spoke out, “Why I say that I saw the politician in Advaniji that day was
because he started washing his hands again and then said, ‘It won’t come
across well to be in the Rajya Sabha and contest the Lok Sabha elections. It
won’t do justice to your image.’”
There was no door left to explore but to accept the party decision with
grace. “Besides, Advaniji’s wish was my command. But I was surprised that
just like the time after I’d lost to Rajesh Khanna, I was once again left to my
own devices,” he said, stung by the indifference. “There was no offer to help
me stay somewhere or to even give me a car.”
Fortunately, SS was a successful man in his own right. “So for one year, I
paid the market rent and fended for myself,” he wryly smiled. “It was
Jaswant Singh who’d helped me out at that time when he wrote to the
Housing Committee and said that what was being done to me wasn’t right.”
During the ensuing one year of political wilderness, he saw lopsided
policies being followed unabashedly by his party.
“Meanwhile, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who was then a good friend of mine, was
given the Rajya Sabha seat for two years and allowed to contest the Lok
Sabha elections while he was there. Shouldn’t what’s right for Peter, be right
for Paul too?” he questioned. “But that wasn’t the case anymore and I
realised that it had become a case of, ‘Show me the man and I’ll show you
the rule’. Unfortunately, Rudy lost the elections and retained his Rayja Sabha
seat. I could’ve done that too.”
What seemed to hurt SS even more was that he had been told that his third
term was in the bag which meant that it had slipped out of his hands at the
last moment due to a shadowy play of politics.
He said, “Before the third term was due, I had met Rajnath Singh at
Jaswant Singh’s office. He had requested me to step out with him for a quiet
word and then asked me who would be right for the second Rajya Sabha seat
that would soon be vacant. He suggested CP Thakur. I said, ‘He’s a good
man but what about the first seat?’ He told me unequivocally, ‘The first seat
is yours, no question about it.’ It meant that despite what Advaniji had said to
me, a decision had been taken to give me the seat a third time. So it was big-
time politics which was being played with me. My good friend Sushmaji had
also said on television that Shatrughan Sinha will remain in the Rajya Sabha,
he’s our party asset. I believe even at 11.30 am, she had been assured that the
seat was mine. But by evening, two other people were given those seats. The
party with differences had reared its head again.”
For a while, he was temporarily mollified when, “Advaniji told me that I
would have the right of choice to pick whichever seat I wanted from
anywhere in the country, to fight the Lok Sabha elections.”
 But when tickets were distributed in 2009, there were obstacles in his path.
“As usual,” remarked SS. “I was told that a prominent BJP leader and lawyer
was keen to contest from Patna Sahib. But I had been so badly let down over
the third term in the Rajya Sabha that I didn’t succumb to any pressure this
time.”
SS famously took matters into his own hands and in an unprecedented
move, announced Patna Sahib as his seat. “Before the party could make any
statement, at a place called Sampatchak, I made the popular statement, ‘Patna
Sahib seat is my first choice, Patna Sahib seat is my second choice, and Patna
Sahib seat is my last choice.’”
It caused the expected uproar in all quarters of the party. It was unheard of
for a candidate to choose and announce his seat without consulting or getting
a green signal from his party. “Some of the decision-makers felt
shortchanged that without pampering or sucking up to them, I had declared
my own seat,” he sneered.
Unafraid of the consequences, he described the reactions that had swiftly
come in. “Rajnath Singh had supported me at that time but not openly
because he is a seasoned politician who keeps room for a bit of manoeuvre.
But Sushma Swaraj was unstinting in her support. She had my back when she
said even on TV, ‘Yes, the party had promised him that he could choose any
seat he wanted. And if Shatrughan has chosen Patna Sahib, then Patna Sahib
is his.’”
SS admitted to a special fondness for Sushma Swaraj and her husband.
“When Sushmaji and I are photographed together, we are known as the long
and the short of the BJP,” he laughed.
“But the short is more mature,” he conceded, before taking a serious look
at how he was constantly being undermined. “There were all kinds of
underhand attempts to deny me the Patna Sahib seat but I was adamant.”
In 2009, there was another attempt to offer him the alternate bait of a ticket
from Delhi. “They tried to make me stand from some place where the party
had lost by over two lakh votes. Advaniji also spoke to my wife Promi and
said, ‘He’ll lose if he stands from Patna.’”
The reality was something else.
In 2009, the BJP did get voted out of power but not in Patna Sahib.
 The total no of votes polled in the constituency was 5,52,415.
Shatrughan Sinha romped home with 3,16,549 votes – more than 57% of
the total votes polled.
The RJD candidate came a distant second with 1,49,779 votes.
Shekhar Suman (Congress) polled 61,308.
Shatrughan Sinha won Patna Sahib by a margin of 1,66,770 votes.
“Lo, and behold,” gloated the winner. “I won with the highest-ever margin
in Patna Sahib. Uday Singh, a gentleman-politician from Puniya, also from
the BJP, and I were the only two to win with such a record margin from
Bihar.”
History repeated itself five years later in 2014.
“This time too, the dirty tricks department tried to keep me away from the
electoral fray,” he affirmed, confirming the many rumours that had
surrounded his candidature. “I’m a loyalist, I have never changed my party,”
he stated, before he talked of the machinations of men who shall remain
unnamed. “People within our party who are renowned for changing loyalties
tried to influence me to contest from Delhi once again. They came up with
some really illogical reasons like, ‘You can influence the party from Delhi.’
But Patna is the capital of Bihar. You mean I cannot influence the politics of
my State from here?” he countered incredulously. “My constituency would
have felt let down if I had not fought this election from Patna Sahib.”
In 2014, the politics within his party had almost brought him to breaking
point, almost up for grabs to an Opposition party.
“People from AAP approached me,” he confirmed. “Nitish Kumar always
spoke well of me. He always called me Bihari Babu, the pride of Bihar. I was
fortunate to have friends in all parties. When my mother died, Kingmaker
Lalu Prasad Yadav (whose wife Rabri Devi was the then Chief Minister),
gave her a State funeral though I kept telling him not to. Laluji was one of the
first to come to offer condolences and he stayed till the end. How can I ever
forget that gesture?
“When his daughter got married and the BJP boycotted it, I defied
everybody and attended the function. Responding to Lalu Prasad Yadav and
Rabdi Devi’s warm invitation was a question of personal integrity and
sanskar. We fight on issues, not on a personal level. Similarly, I was the only
BJP member to attend Sonia Gandhi’s iftaar party (an evening event when
Muslims break their day-long fast during the holy month of Ramzan) a few
years ago. I have drawn inspiration from many Congress men like Sunil Dutt.
He had started the anti-tobacco and cancer care campaigns, and was like an
older brother to me. I watched and learnt from him to pursue social
obligations.
“I am friendly with Ram Vilas Paswan and his children. His son Chirag
seems to have a bright future in politics. I get along with everybody and
that’s why none of them have campaigned or talked against me.”
In fact, according to him, there were enough options available to him if he
were to leave the party. In a startling moment of candour, he communicated,
“In 2014, if I had not been given a ticket, I would have stood as an
independent.”
He paused to discuss Sushil Modi’s hand in the tussle for the Patna Sahib
seat. “Sushil Modi contributed much to the growth of the party in Bihar,” he
said in his praise. “And I first heard that he had told the party, ‘Inko chhedna
mat,’ don’t test his patience.
“But later, I learnt about the other side of Sushil Modi. I’m told that till the
end, he strongly opposed me and fought against my getting the ticket from
Patna. My popularity and clean image, and my respectability and
acceptability among the masses, made him very insecure, although I have
always maintained that I am not interested in being Chief Minister of Bihar. I
neither wish nor desire nor expect it. On two occasions, Advaniji wanted to
make me CM, so did Atalji. But given a chance, choice or priority, I have
always maintained that I would rather be a minister at the Centre where I can
serve both Bihar and the country.
“However, Sushil Modi was given to understand that I desired to become
the CM and so he fought tooth and nail to stop my getting the ticket again.”
SS had an alternative – to fight the Lok Sabha elections from Delhi. But he
was adamant that he wouldn’t set foot out of his constituency.
He disclosed, “Dr Harsh Vardhan who is a very close and dear friend was
in charge of Delhi and he called up saying, ‘I’m keeping one seat in Delhi for
you just in case there’s a problem, lag raha hai ki gadbadi ho rahi hai (it
seems like there’s some confusion, trouble brewing) over your seat in Patna.
So I’m keeping one seat in Delhi for you just in case.’ I told him, ‘Patna
Sahib is my first, last and only choice. I will fight only from Patna, Patna,
Patna. I won’t go anywhere else.’ Late evening, when my name was finally
announced from Patna Sahib, Harsh Vardhan released that seat to Bhojpuri
actor Manoj Tiwari.”
Whatever the backroom politics, once SS got the ticket and put his
campaign into full throttle, he became the face of the BJP in his State again.
Putting aside the past, he also took a small break from his own campaign to
go to Delhi and campaign for ‘dear friend’ Dr Harsh Vardhan.
On this journey, he also made the happy discovery that for every
manipulator who schemed, there were also helpful hands that aided his
campaign. “Nand Kishore Yadav, an excellent strategist from the local unit,
was very supportive. He was the Urban Development Minister, an MLA,
leader of the lower house in the State,” he noted with gratitude.
The fleeting thought of bidding farewell to his party was also relegated to
the past. There was honesty when he professed, “People go through
confusion, through depression, and they could toy with the idea of leaving the
party. I did too. Once, when I was in two minds about the party, Sushma
Swaraj had cooled me down and said, ‘Shatrughan, even if they cut me to
pieces or pull out my hair, I will never leave this party.’ Her resolve gave me
the strength to stay on.
“There have always been passing thoughts about it but I never did leave
the party nor did I ever convey such a decision to anybody,” he articulated.
“Besides, I’m sure I’m not alone in this. Perhaps Advaniji may have also
thought about quitting at some point. Maybe the thought struck Narendra
Modi too at some stage when he was being troubled and dropped like a hot
potato. I consider him a very big hero because he stood up to and took so
much with a great deal of maturity. What he achieved in Gujarat was
unbelievable – I’m told about twenty-four hours water and electricity for
everybody. And after he had achieved all that, some party workers still didn’t
talk well of him. He too faced dirty politics and came out on top. So what I
went through and the thoughts that crossed my mind were not unique to me.”
There seemed to be an easy lapse in the elephantine memory because
before 2014, SS himself had not hailed Narendra Modi as prime ministerial
material.
The politician in him, however, claimed otherwise.
“I was the first one to put forward his name as a potential Prime Minister
and Yashwantji had seconded it,” he resolutely asserted. “But,” he explained,
“other people felt that he was controversial. They told me that people take
note of what you say and alliances are breaking. So don’t take Modi’s name
as Prime Minister.”
If the perception persisted that before Modi was officially declared the
BJP’s candidate for the top job, SS had not enthusiastically thrown his lot
behind him, he clarified, “I always said that Advaniji was our marg darshak,
our guide. I said that along with youth power, you also need experience. I
always maintained that our party had many able, suitable, mature and very
committed leaders like Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh. Acknowledging
the proficiency and ability of our leaders did not mean that I did not applaud
Narendra Modi’s strengths and suitability as well. On the contrary, I’d say
that having so many gifted and accomplished leaders was a matter of pride
for our party and gave unique strength to the BJP.
“In fact,” he attested, “‘Namo’ was a title that I gave Narendra Modi in
Patna. I called Sushil Modi ‘Sumo’ and Narendra Modi ‘Namo’. The names
went viral. I also titled him Action Hero because I believed he was and is a
man who believes in action.”
On May 14, 2014, when the election results started pouring in, SS was
upbeat. Poonam, Kussh (with his ubiquitous camera capturing every jubilant
moment) and boxes of cheery laddoos, accompanied the winner to the
District Magistrate’s office to receive the final seal of victory – the Praman
Patra that declared him the winner of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from
Patna Sahib.
The total number of votes polled had shot up dramatically from 2009,
indicating an enthused electorate. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls,
approximately 45.3% of the electorate in Patna Sahib exercised its franchise.
Patna Sahib polled a total of 8,82,262 votes.
Shatrughan Sinha cornered 4,85,905 votes.
Kunal Singh of the Congress was a weak second with 2,20,100 votes. And
this was the total figure of the Congress-RJD combine.
SS had once again sailed through comfortably with a buoyant 2,65,805
margin between him and the second.
As the BJP made a stunning win all over and stormed the Lok Sabha with
300+ seats, it was time to move on. “I am a loyalist and I will do whatever
the party wants me to do,” declared the victor.
But the party with a difference was definitely the party with one difference
– it had a senior member who was as incorrigible as he was valuable, a
loyalist who stood up for seniors like LK Advani even as he disclosed their
partisan politics, and a man the party leaders were often tempted to rap on the
knuckles but cautious about handling.
During the Assembly polls in Delhi in February 2015, the ever-smiling
RSS man and Chief Minister material Dr Harsh Vardhan would drop by at
SS’ Talkatora Road bungalow without a fuss to take him on the campaign
trail. The Cabinet Minister for Science & Technology counted SS as a friend
and for good reason. Theirs was a friendship that went back to the nineties.
In 1993, when the RSS had asked Dr Harsh Vardhan to contest the Delhi
elections, SS was his star campaigner in the Krishna Nagar constituency.
The ENT specialist-turned-politician became Health Minister of Delhi after
that election and immediately worked on making one of his dreams come true
– make India polio-free. “We took almost nine months to organise the first
pulse polio immunisation programme on October 2, 1994, in Delhi,” the
doctor elaborated. “Shatrughan Sinha was the first celebrity I contacted. He
graciously agreed to record the first spot where a celebrity exhorts mothers
and society in general to take their young children for polio immunisation to
one of the 4,000 kendras (centres) we had set up in Delhi. Later, we also
recorded it with Shabana Azmi. They were the first two big names we
contacted and they were both very supportive.
“I had recorded Shatrughan Sinha’s spot in Ashok Hotel. Sonakshi who is
such a big star in her own right today, was sitting in his lap when it was
recorded. That spot is still available and is a part of the huge history of polio
eradication in this country.”
It wasn’t only SS’ star power that sealed the friendship. “I also noticed that
he’s very sharp,” revealed Dr Harsh Vardhan.
 SS, who was an MP, astutely kept track of Dr Harsh Vardhan’s
involvement in tobacco control. Later, when there was a debate in Parliament,
he casually dropped in on his friend at his Chanakyapuri residence.
“I was then the Health Minister (Delhi) and he came to me without any
ego, asking me to tell him everything about the tobacco programme and the
statistics related to it. I spoke to him for over an hour while he listened. I
talked continuously, giving statistics and details. After I’d finished, he
repeated practically everything I’d said, without any difficulty. It was later
reported that he gave a brilliant speech the next day in the Rajya Sabha.”
When SS himself became the Health Minister of India, his interactions
with Dr Harsh Vardhan touched a different level.
“The polio movement had grown from Delhi to the national level and to
other South-East Asian countries and I actively pursued it with Shatruji at the
national level,” stated the doctor. “I was the advisor to WHO for South-East
Asian countries and we had invited Shatruji to our office. There was a lot of
excitement that day because being a star, he had his own following and he
was also the Health Minister. They had organised a big meeting there where
he addressed the gathering as Health Minister. He had a fine grasp of things.
He had briefly discussed a few things with me the previous day and he must
have also read up on it. He gave an excellent speech related to health issues
with a lot of data.”
When Harsh Vardhan became President of Delhi BJP, SS was one of his
regular star campaigners. “During the MCD elections in 2007, which we won
with a very handsome margin, we were the two main campaigners. We
addressed many meetings together. We usually go together,” the doctor
smiled. “Usually popular film stars are not down-to-earth in their human
relationships. But human threads matter to Shatruji. He’ll remember small
things about individuals.
“When my brother’s daughter, who’s also a doctor from Melbourne, was
getting married, she said, ‘I want only one guest at my marriage,’ and she
named Mr Shatrughan Sinha. His reply to that was, ‘Wherever I am, I will
come to the function’, and he did.”
Dr Harsh Vardhan noted with satisfaction that SS joined the BJP, “When it
was a two-seat party. I believe that the BJP is the only party that can serve
national interest. So I believe that he also must have that nationalistic streak
in him for him to have joined the BJP. Over the years, we saw him work
steadfastly for the party whether or not he was given a position.”
They belonged to the same party and they campaigned together as friends.
But they were two strikingly dissimilar personalities. Dr Harsh Vardhan was
self-effacing and he disliked and dispensed with celebrity trappings (like a
red beacon car or a jeepful of security). He was also placatory in his speech
and given to much diplomacy.
He was aware that his friend tended to be completely contrary to all that he
embodied. “Shatruji is outspoken and his feelings are non-political,” he
accepted. “But I feel there is a need for a few people in politics who can
speak the truth with guts. Personally, I cannot be as outspoken as him. People
may call it discipline. But I don’t think it has anything to do with my being an
RSS person or him not being one because I wouldn’t call his outspokenness
indiscipline. After so many years, he cannot change and the party also knows
it. This habit might have harmed him. But he speaks his heart out despite that.
These are inherent traits.”
The plain truth was that SS was an MP in the Lok Sabha but after the 2014
victory, the new dispensation had kept him away from the front line.
For a diplomatic, disciplined RSS man, it was an uneasy area to go into but
Dr Harsh Vardhan thought that perhaps, “His being outspoken could be a
reason though I have no proof of it. I personally feel he could’ve been given
far more important and prestigious responsibilities, considering his
intelligence and his popularity. He probably deserves much more than what
he’s got so far. I think he has been delivering dedicatedly. But I also think
that we should work with dedication without expecting any reward. Leave the
rest to karma, to destiny and to God’s desire. That’s how I personally look at
things.”
Despite SS’ many outpourings of disappointment against his party, Dr
Harsh Vardhan observed, “I personally don’t think he will ever leave the
BJP. He may be outspoken and may say anything anytime. But in his heart, I
feel, he is wedded to the ideology of the party.”
Sixty-one-year-old Dr Harsh Vardhan’s observations about SS were
endorsed by the party’s seniormost leader, eighty-eight-year-old LK Advani.
Advani’s choice of words was as spartan as the tiny portion of poha (snack
made with flattened rice), fruits and milk that he nibbled on for breakfast.
Overlooking his seniority, when the party had pitched Narendra Modi as
the Prime Minister, the octogenarian had told himself, “Kya farak padta hai?
What difference does it make to me? The amount of affection and respect I
have got from the party or from the people would not have increased if I had
become the Prime Minister.”
He used the same clinical approach to SS’ grievances and retaliated in a
dramatically dissimilar manner. In fact, it was no retaliation at all.
Advani had a long and enriching association with the Hindi film industry.
In fact, “I could understand Hindi only because of cinema.”
His fondness for the medium led him to Shatrughan Sinha. “I remember
his movies like Kaala Patthar with Amitabh,” he said.
He had his own way of looking at SS’ claim that he went into politics only
because of Advani.
“In a way that’s correct,” he nodded. “Until Vajpayeeji was the PM, that’s
up to 2004, he and I ran the party together. He was senior to me by three
years but since our Jan Sangh days, we two worked together, right up to the
time he was active. Therefore, all those who came into the party, would like
to attribute it to him or to me.”
He acknowledged SS’ unwavering stance that LK Advani was the ultimate
leader and, brushing aside the grouses, preferred to look at the positives of
denying the actor a third term in the Rajya Sabha.
“He wanted a third term. I said, ‘I’m not in favour of it, you should go to
the Lok Sabha. You are popular, you will win.’ And he heeded my advice.”
He smiled at the contradictions in SS’ politics because, after feeling bitter
about being denied a third term in the Rajya Sabha, the tables had turned. In
2014, as in 2009, he fought for a Lok Sabha ticket and wouldn’t consider
going back to the Upper House. “There were people who wanted him to go to
the Rajya Sabha so that his seat (Patna Sahib) would be available for them,”
observed Advani, “but he said, ‘No, I want to go to the Lok Sabha.’”
SS’ petulance that Advani and the party had indulged in ‘Show me the man
and I’ll show you the rule’ politics, and that he was de-housed when he was
not allowed a third term, did not draw a heated rejoinder.
Very calmly, Advani countered, “I have myself been in the Rajya Sabha
for three terms. It’s not like a person after two terms is told, go to the Lok
Sabha. But I felt that Shatrughan had it in him to go further. Normally a
politician’s life increases if he’s a member of the Lok Sabha. The Rajya
Sabha is a gift from the party. I was complimenting him when I asked him to
stand for elections because I knew he was popular.”
Neither SS’ carping about his party bosses nor his cosying up to the
Opposition had a perceptible effect on the seasoned politician who had his
own perspective on fraternising with people with different political leanings.
“Shatrughan may be friendly with Lalu or anyone but that doesn’t affect
his commitment to the party,” he firmly believed. In fact, he lamented that in
public life, friendships were scrutinised and politicians were constantly
asked, “Uske saat mitrata kyun (Why the friendship with that person)?”
Sipping on ginger tea, he explained why SS’ friendship with all shades of
politicians was not to be categorised as traitorous to his party. “It’s strange,”
observed Advani, “that in social relations, untouchability is a sin. According
to the law and the Constitution also, it is a crime, it is illegal. But in political
relations, if a party does not practise untouchability, it is considered wrong.
“When Atalji’s Government was formed (for the second time) in 1998 and
we were sworn in, in the morning, he named me Home Minister (the Deputy
Prime Ministership came later). In the evening, he phoned me and said,
‘Keral ki khabar suni? EMS (Namboodiripad) ki death ho gayi (Have you
heard the news from Kerala? EMS is dead)’. Then he said, ‘Tomorrow
morning is his funeral. There’s also going to be an all-party meeting, CM AK
Anthony will be there. Do you think we should send someone?’ I said, ‘We
should, and if you feel it’s okay, I can go myself.’ He said, ‘That will be very
good.’ That was the first official function I attended as Home Minister, to
participate in the funeral of EMS and to participate in the all-party meeting.”
In other words, attending the funeral of a CPI leader did not contradict his
political loyalties.
He further complimented SS and observed, “If a person is in the field of
cinema and a political party accepts him even in Parliament and in
Government, then obviously he has some other qualities also, and not merely
dialogues. A person has to be reasonably intelligent, may not be a scholar,
and if he has wit and humour, they are assets for a person in any field. Above
all, he must be honest and that he is.
“The most important thing is commitment and he has it.”
Reluctant to discuss SS’ grey areas, he mildly suggested that SS’ litany of
grouses about being sidelined is probably his biggest flaw.
There was one more point that the elderly statesman put forward with the
wisdom of his vast experience. It was an acknowledgement of SS’ courage.
“You need guts to be in politics, especially in a party which was
consistently and most of the time opposed to the government,” he analysed.
“To be in a party condemned by the government or called a communal party,
needs guts. I always say, if a Muslim comes into our party, he needs more
guts than a Hindu.
“A person who joined the Jan Sangh or the BJP, especially when it was in
the Opposition, had to be gutsy,” he said, recognising and lauding SS for
having stepped in when the party was in the wilderness.
On the face of it, the soft-spoken LK Advani who measured his words as
much as he did his food, and the hearty, sometimes brash SS who loved the
sound of his booming voice and revelled in being a foodie, may not seem to
have much in common. But apart from belonging to and sticking to the same
party which had occupied the Opposition benches for most of its life, and for
weathering all the storms in the BJP, the two unlikely members of the current
dispensation, were surprisingly similar in being fearless about taking a stand.
Their methods varied vastly, their personalities differed drastically but certain
essential character traits were peculiarly similar.
One of Advani’s non-BJP guests on his fiftieth wedding anniversary
celebrations in February 2015 was Amar Singh, considered a political
untouchable by most parties. Brashly uncouth in his speech, there seemed to
be little he could share with the soft-spoken patriarch of the BJP. Or with SS
who wasn’t known to spew abuse in Hindi or English.
But Amar Singh was another politician who counted SS as a close friend.
Sharing common friends like Late Prime Minister Chandrashekar brought
Amar Singh and SS together. Over the years, the former Samajwadi Party
leader discovered that what they had in common was, “We’re not three-
dimensional people.” Three-dimensional people, according to Amar Singh,
were those who nursed one thought in the mind, held a different one in the
heart and spoke out a third one.
But Amar Singh didn’t think SS made a comfortable fit in politics. “He’s
not a diplomat and he’s full of self-esteem. In politics, you have to sometimes
be servile and sycophantic. For someone who’s already a celebrity, whose
name is an adjective, this is not possible,” he explained.
At the same time, he believed that SS the politician could not be ignored
for long. “The Prime Minister went to Mumbai only to attend his son’s
wedding, he did not club it with any other programme,” said an impressed
Amar Singh. “Mr Modi did not go to Salman’s sister’s wedding. Salman’s a
bigger star than Shatrubhai today. But Shatrubhai has a certain dignity and
stature. He doesn’t play second fiddle to anybody. Shatrubhai is not subtle, he
is loud and clear. If only he schemed a bit, went a little out of his way to
placate someone…but he couldn’t be bothered,” Amar Singh shrugged as he
summed up, “For all that, he hasn’t lost much. He has lived without
compromising.”
SS’ penchant for keeping track of bureaucrats made him a very proud man
when fellow Bihari Anil Sinha became the new Director of CBI. They shared
the same surname too, “As many Biharis do,” smiled the man in the CBI
hotseat.
However, unlike the Bihari Babu who flaunted his roots, the upright officer
never looked at himself as a Bihari. “I am from the Bihar cadre,” he
conceded. “But I also studied in JNU, Delhi. So I’d look at myself more as an
Indian than confine myself to a parochial sector.”
As Director, CBI, Anil Sinha felt ‘happy’ that his friend was a rare
politician who had no FIR or Income-Tax investigation or criminal case
against him. “I definitely wish there’d be more people like him.”
One inconvenience that Anil Sinha associated with SS was, “He’s a
security nightmare.”
He particularly remembered a rally in Samastipur after VP Singh had
become the Prime Minister. Anil Sinha was then a Senior Superintendent.
“Arrangements had been made for 30,000 people but lakhs turned up. Every
big leader was there, VP Singh, Mulayam Singh, Devi Lal, Lalu Prasad,” the
CBI Director reeled off the celebrity roster. “But the crowds wanted to hear
only one person. No other leader was allowed to speak until Shatruji took the
mike and said, ‘You have to listen to the national leaders.’ He invited them to
speak and then came down from the stage. But getting him to safety was a
nightmare. I had no alternative but to ask him to get into my car and
personally take him away.”
It is not surprising that friends opposed to the BJP ideology often referred
to him as the right man in the wrong party. SS was never tainted as
communal.
This is a true story that few know about. In 1992/93, at the height of the
Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai, a red Maruti car bearing the number plate
786 went from Juhu to Bandra on a quiet mission. Driver Ashok drove to a
hotel on Linking Road, fetched a guest and took him to Ramayan. It was
Yahya Bukhari, son of the then Shahi Imam of Delhi Jama Masjid, and
brother of the current Imam, who was being whisked away to safety by SS
and kept in his bungalow until he could be put on a flight to Delhi the next
night.
Incidentally, the Maruti car with the 786 number also belonged to SS.
His family’s secular colours were tested very early in his life. School
friend from Kadam Kuan, Mahmood Alam (“Mahmood Miya,” to SS)
recalled, “Just as he and I were close friends, his Amma and my Ammi were
also saheliyan (friends). During a wedding, there would be an exchange of
gifts and clothes like it happens within a family. If there was a wedding in my
family, Amma would send clothes for the new dulhan (bride).”
A staunch Congressman who even contested an election against BJP
heavyweight Sushil Modi from Patna Central, when Mahmood Alam took out
a procession as candidates normally do in India, his first stop was
Bhuvaneshwar Niwas. “The best thing was that Amma came out to meet me.
It never crossed her mind to question that she was Shatrughan’s mother, such
a big BJP leader’s mother. In a thali (platter) with flowers and sweets, she
came out, did an aarti (puja) and duayen di (blessed me). When she was
asked about this, she simply said, ‘Ye bhi mere bete hai (He too is a son to
me).’”
The Congressman went on, “If you ask me whether there has been any
change in Shatrughan or not, I would say that because of his stardom, his
huge success, he is not able to mingle freely with the public. It’s not his
arrogance, it is his majboori (helplessness). But as a representative of the
people, he must make time for them, they must be able to approach him, meet
him easily, have easy access to him,” he advised.
Mahmood Alam who curiously bore a close resemblance to Congress’ bête
noire Narendra Modi, predictably maintained that instead of being a part of
one party only, “Shatruji should be a part of poore (entire) Hindustan.”
SS’ other Patna loyalists had no issues with the party he had aligned with.
Pradeep Gupta became his polling agent. Pravin Kumar Sinha, the one with
film star looks, who took the more sober option of an MSc in Chemistry, took
over the running of his friend’s BJP office in Patna and looked after the MP’s
fund for development.
“Over the years,” contemplated Pravin, “what has changed is that he has
matured far more than the rest of us. When he was Minister for Shipping, I
was a trustee with the Bombay Port Trust. I once went with him to a studio to
record a short speech for New Year. He went over his speech for a minute
and in one take, he rattled off twenty to thirty lines without forgetting a
comma or fullstop. I could never have done that. He told me that it was
because of his training. But I was amazed at his photographic memory.”
Although SS often came across as loud and boastful, sometimes even
conceited, Pravin perceived his friend as someone who never spoke about his
own successes as a politician.
“He has done many things as an MP but because he is not in the habit of
harping on his successes, his good work can even go unnoticed. He is behind
the building of a Rs 7-crore pipa bridge or pontoon bridge which will benefit
four to five lakh people as they will have easier access to their village and cut
their travel by fifty miles. Some may complain that they can’t sit and talk to
him. He has his limitations, like he cannot walk barefoot on the roads with
the people because it will create a law-and-order problem.”
There was affection of a different kind in the voice of BJP stalwart Sushma
Swaraj (currently Minister for External Affairs), when she spoke about the
man she first knew as an actor. “When I was the I&B Minister, I even went to
clap for him as an audience when he played a policeman in Khakee,” she
smiled. “I’d seen his films earlier too and knew him as Bihari Babu.”
Once they met and got to know each other better as party workers, Sushma
Swaraj found that he had broken, “The dhaarna (notion) that actors in
politics are only crowd pullers. When he speaks, the style is his own, like an
actor delivering his dialogue, so that people are satisfied that they are getting
what they have come to hear. But the message he gives is always political,”
she smartly observed.
To the BJP will go the eternal credit of having been the first political party
in India to give a film star a berth in the Union Cabinet. Sushma Swaraj
pointed out, “The decision (to make Shatrughan Sinha a full-fledged Cabinet
Minister) was not mine, it was Atalji’s with Advaniji’s support. But it had
definitely been established by then that Shatruji was not only an actor, he was
also capable of handling a bigger responsibility. A lot of thought was given to
it before he was made a Cabinet Minister. He was not made a minister to
accommodate or to represent the film industry. It was only to give the
country a good administrator, a good minister. And he made a capable Health
Minister, then a good Shipping Minister. I took over the Health portfolio
immediately from him, and he had done some good work as my predecessor.
For instance, he had taken the initiative of looking at spurious drugs; he had
formed the Mashelkar Committee during his tenure. When I took charge, I
simply took it further and brought the spurious drugs bill into effect but the
gathan, the initiative was taken by him. He also took the polio campaign
forward, so he did do some good work in the Health Ministry.”
If his quick-fire statements were an embarrassment for the party, Sushma
Swaraj chose to look at it as a seasoned politician. “There are quite a few here
who are not actors but also talk too much. So why single him out?
“If I had to pick on a flaw, I would give him sanyam ki salaah (advice on
patience),” she said candidly. “In politics, whatever is on your mind doesn’t
always happen immediately. Very often, you have to wait quite a bit for
things to happen your way. It is necessary to be patient, especially in a cadre-
based party like the BJP. If Shatruji can be a little patient, thoda aur sabre
rakkhein, then he would be a better politician,” she advised.
She added, “Thoda sanyam barat jaye toh achcha ho jata (If he could
restrain himself a little, it would be good) because in politics, nothing you say
stays within four people. By the time it travels, arth ka anarth ho jata hai, the
meaning gets twisted disastrously. So you unnecessarily end up making
enemies,” she cautioned her party colleague.
She dismissed the observation that he was the right man in the wrong
party. “They used to say that about Atalji too,” she waved it away. “I think it
is a left-handed compliment to give any person. I don’t even consider it a
compliment. Only those who don’t understand the BJP, talk like this.”
She was also confident that whatever his grouses, SS would never leave
the party.
“He never really talks of leaving the party or of joining another party,” she
pointed out. “He talks bebaki se (fearlessly), it’s his USP. But tikey rehenge
(he’ll stay on),” she said.
That was the firm belief of senior politician Yashwant Sinha too. In his
well-stocked library at home, the former Finance Minister of India chuckled
that because they shared the same surname, SS and he might even be
‘distantly related’.
Sinha believed that Shatrughan had gone beyond playing the glamour boy
the party once used to pull in the crowds. “This kind of general statement
about film stars-turned-politicians does not apply to Shatrughan Sinha; he has
been an exception to the rule,” analysed Yashwant Sinha. “He started taking
an interest in politics when he was at the peak of his career in the film
industry. That’s not the time to look for an alternate career. Secondly, his has
always been the politics of the Opposition which proved that he did not come
into politics for some immediate gain. Anyone who did politics of
convenience would have gone to the ruling party. But, like me, he drew his
inspiration from Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan.
“When the BJP emerged as the ruling party along with its alliance partners
in 2004, it was almost unexpected. By then, Shatrughan Sinha had put long
years in the service of the party,” Sinha went on. “Though belatedly (a small
chuckle), he was amply rewarded with a ministerial berth. He was clear in his
mind that he would not accept anything less than a Cabinet berth. Anyone
else in his position might’ve been very happy being a Minister of State but he
waited for his turn until he was offered a Cabinet berth.
“With his long years in politics, he has matured into a political leader,”
Yashwant Sinha remarked. “So, today I would say that he combines the best
that there is in an actor and in a politician. I have been with him at many
public meetings and people have gone back impressed with what he had to
say, with the message he was trying to convey and that is very important.
“There has been a lot of growth in him. For one, he has mellowed greatly.
When he first came in, he was not an easy person to deal with.”
Yashwant Sinha backed that remark with an incident that he was witness
to. “I was handling the election campaign of the Janata Dal in 1989 and
Shatrughan Sinha was highly in demand as a star campaigner, perhaps more
in demand than anybody else at that time. He went to UP and there was
perhaps something lacking in the administrative and police bandobast
(arrangements), with the result that the crowds got a bit unruly and he came
back very unhappy. He sent word to me that if proper arrangements were not
made, he’d have to cancel all his future programmes. That would’ve been a
disaster of the first order. I remember I left all my work and went to see him
at a hotel where he was staying and we talked and I persuaded him that it
might’ve been the failure of the local administration, we’d make sure that
such failures didn’t happen in the future. ‘But don’t cancel your programmes
for God’s sake, carry on and we’ll take special care.’ He agreed. He was very
quick-tempered at that point of time, very touchy about things. He has
mellowed much though this aspect of his character has not vanished
completely. He’s still difficult to please,” he assessed honestly.
In a cadre-based party like the BJP, if it seemed incongruous that one
member should be accorded special attention, Yashwant Sinha put it simply
as something SS did not have to ask for because, “Woh attention mil hi jata
hai (Anyway he gets that attention). If by chance he isn’t noticed, I trust he
has the maturity today to put up with it even if he didn’t have it earlier.
“Both of us have gone through ups and downs in our careers, and on most
occasions, we have consulted each other. We have also discussed inner party
issues. He has often taken positions in the party which may not have been
entirely to the liking of the party bosses. Whenever he has consulted me, I
have tended to be the sobering influence (because Shatrughan tends to be
volatile). I wouldn’t say that he has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth
but occasionally it does happen.
 “Shatrughan Sinha is here to stay in politics, in our party,” said the senior
Sinha. “If his was a fleeting affair with politics, it wouldn’t have lasted
almost four decades.”
Sahib Singh Verma, former Chief Minister of Delhi, bestowed the title of
Hanuman to film producer and Censor Board Chief Pahlaj Nihalani for
standing by Ramayanvasi SS’ side through decades. Hanuman followed SS to
Delhi too, and became almost as close to Yashwant Singh as the actor
himself.
Pahlaj became privy to many of SS’ political adventures.
He noted that other politicians were generally wary of SS, “Because of his
popularity and face value which he never lost whether his party was in power
or not.”
He remembered a National Executive Meeting of the BJP in
Bhubaneshwar.
“All the party bigwigs were there and two to three lakh people had
gathered to hear them. There was a gallery of top names from the NDA on
stage,” Pahlaj described the event. “Atal Bihari Vajpayee was giving his
speech when Sonu entered. People immediately started turning around to see
Sonu and there was a ripple of excitement. It prompted Atalji to say,
‘Shatrughan, abhi aap hi aake boliye, main bait jata hoon (You come and
address them, I’ll sit down).’ It was embarrassing and one could at that
moment see the reaction of Pramod Mahajan and others. According to me,
that was the turning point when the Late Pramod Mahajan and the Late
Gopinath Munde and their coterie noted his immense popularity and worked
overtime to have him sidelined,” charged Pahlaj like a loyal aide. “Mahajan
was dead against Shatrughan Sinha and that’s why in the 1998 government,
he didn’t get a berth in the first and second Cabinets. Sonu was quoted
extensively when he said, ‘Whether a mantri (minister) or a santri (security
guard), I am here for the party. I am interested in seva (service), not meva
(the perks).’” The catch-phrases were typical of the film star-turned-
politician.
Pahlaj also believed that his friend had an uncanny ability to accurately
size up a political situation. “He knows his politics,” he avouched. “In 1990,
he said, ‘Chandrasekhar will be the PM’ and people were shocked. With
fifty-two seats, how could he be the PM? But Sonu had the vision and a point
of view. He had forecast it for VP Singh too.”
Watching his political prophesies come true, was a matter of pride for SS
himself.
“I was the first person to stand up and declare that Naveen Patnaik would
be CM of Orissa, the worthy son of a worthy father. Naveen Patnaik too
acknowledges it to this day. My party had even been upset with me for
declaring it then,” SS put in with a smile. Some things had evidently not
changed.
“I had predicted Kejriwal’s victory also. And I had said that the Grand
Alliance in Bihar was very strong, the writing on the wall was clear.”
SS’ party was not amused in 2015. After he was marked as a dissenting
voice for a major part of the year, he was pointedly but quietly struck off his
party’s ‘star campaigner list’ during the Bihar Assembly elections in October
2015. On the other hand, every time SS fired a salvo or a tweet, there was
predictable applause from BJP’s main opponents, Nitish Kumar and Lalu
Prasad Yadav.
Even as the election fever peaked in Bihar, SS continued to meet Nitish
Kumar. Although the actor and the Chief Minister were both aware of how
their meetings would be perceived, SS would drive into the Circular Road
residence of Nitish Kumar without even the customary stop at the security
gate, and be accorded a hearty welcome. It was the same at Lalu Prasad
Yadav’s bungalow. And JD(U) Spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Pavan
Verma also shared the bonhomie of a close comrade with SS.
“Aaj se thodi jaante hai? (It’s not as if this is a recent friendship),” Nitish
Kumar pointed out, shrugging off the implications of SS’ visits. “His real
pehchan (identity) is that of being the pride of Bihar, as the man who brought
samman (honour) to Bihar through his art, through the film medium. Hum log
ke man mein, aadar ka bhav hai (In our minds, we have only respect for
him).”
Playing politics with customary dexterity, the JD(U) Chief who returned to
the CM’s seat with a thumping mandate in November 2015, remarked,
“Jahan unki pratishta ka sawaal hai (When it’s a question of his prestige), if
he is hurt, the whole of Bihar is hurt. When the BJP needed him, they
paraded him all over the country but matlab nikal gaya, toh pehchanne se
inkaar karne lage (After using him, they refused to give him due
recognition). Everybody knows what he did for the BJP in its initial stages,
and then they dropped him like a hot potato? We have all been watching
what’s been happening (to SS). We all know how much he did for his party.
The party didn’t get established on its own.”
The Opposition leaders had a field day treating SS’ wounds as their own
and were clearly upbeat with his protestations. Nitish Kumar commented,
“He is renowned for fearlessly airing his opinions in public. If there’s a
change in this personality (trait) of his, his uniqueness will be finished,
khaasiyat khatam ho jayegi. It’s his USP. Chandrashekharji (Late Prime
Minister) was known for saying what he thought was right. Some would be
pleased, some wouldn’t be. But woh apni jagah kaayam rehte thay, he stood
his ground. It’s the same with Shatruji.
“Shatruji apni samajik sadbhav ke pakshdhar rahe hain (He believes in
social harmony and stands by it). He has his own opinions. I feel his nazariya
(view) is different from that of his party, so his (contrary) opinions
sometimes surface.
“Irrespective of his political affiliations, we are his himayati, prashanshak,
his admirers. He is our pride. To be a part of a political party is a small part of
his life, we don’t give it much importance. He will be welcome anywhere
irrespective of the party. Unka swagat hoga.”
The BJP minus SS, or Bihari Babu without his right-wing party was a
welcome prospect, even if Nitish Kumar fell short of unconditionally
throwing his doors open to the actor-politician.
“He doesn’t need a party,” Nitish Kumar remarked, side-stepping the
pointed question. “If Shatrughan wants, he can stand as an independent. It
would be our pleasure to support him. I don’t see any gunjaish (scope) for it
right now. But he’s most welcome.”
In the bungalow opposite Nitish Kumar’s, his electoral ally echoed the
same sentiments but was ready to welcome SS into his party, the RJD.
“Shatrughan Sinha Pataliputra ke putra hai. Cinema jagat mein Kayasth
samaj ka beta bade oonchayiyon tak Bambai mein jaake kafi sanghursh karke
establish kiye…pehle pankti ke (frontline) desh ke jo kalakaar hai usme apna
sthan banaya….nazdeek se nahin lekin door door se Bihar ka bachcha
bachcha jaanta hai unko, hamara Bihari Babu, us roop mein jaante hai (He
is the son of Pataliputra. This son of a Kayasth reached the peak in the world
of cinema after struggling in Bombay and became one of the front-rankers of
the film industry. Every child in Bihar knows him. They know him as our
Bihari Babu).
“It is said that (people from the) Kayasth samaj (society) are kamzor,
weak. But look at Shatrughan Sinha. Though born in a Kayasth family, ek se
ek pehelwan ko, patakkar marte thay cinema mein (…he could take on the
strongest of bodybuilders in his films).
“He is a very close friend of ours, bahut nazdeeki mitra hai. We got to
know him from the time he entered politics, rajneet mein aate aate jaan
pehchan ho gayi.”
The mitrata, friendship, was on display when Lalu Prasad gave SS’
mother, Shyama Devi, a State funeral on her demise. “Ek maiya ka beta itna
oonchayi tak gaya to unko sammaan dena, unko pratishta dena humra farz
tha (It was my duty to give a State funeral to the mother of a son who had
reached such heights of success). Yeh apeksha bhi rehti hai logon mein.
Humre paas power tha toh rashtriya samman ke saath, unko salami de karke,
Amma ko vida kiya (People expect it of you too, and since I had the power,
we bid farewell to Amma with respect and with a salute).”
He appreciated SS maintaining cordial relations with him, irrespective of
party compulsions. “Rishte rakhna chahiye.Yeh aadmi mein woh gun hai
(One must maintain relations, he has that quality in him).”
Unlike statesman Nitish Kumar who measured his words and feigned that
party affiliations didn’t matter, Lalu Prasad said, “When he joined the BJP,
mujhe takleef huyi ki Shatrughan Sinha ko sara desh maanta hai, ee ka kiya
(I was troubled because the whole country knew him and what had he gone
and done)?”
But, added the RJD chief, “Sarvajanik roop se (publicly) humne kaha (I
said this): despite being with the BJP, I can issue a certificate that this man is
not communal.”
Lalu also talked of SS’ statements that had put his party in a spot during
the Assembly elections and about the actor’s uninhibited association with the
Opposition. He observed, “Agar Lalu Prasadji ko milna hai, ek hazar kuch
bol rahe BJPwale logon ko, lekin woh parva nahin karte, parva nahin karte
ki party unko kya karegi (If he wants to meet Lalu Prasad, irrespective of how
his party takes it, he doesn’t worry about the consequences or the outcome of
his actions). He is so innocent, like a Yadav-va.”
Lalu echoed the same line as Nitish over the BJP tossing aside a man after
using him. “Jab zaroorat padi to use kar liya. Rural area mein bhi BJP ko
pahunchane mein inka haath tha, kafi yogdan raha ha. Contribution hai.
They used him, woh theek nahin hai (He had a hand in popularising the BJP
in the rural areas, he made a definite contribution to the party. But they used
him and that’s wrong).”
Unsurprisingly, he also justified SS’ cannonade against his own party. “JP
ne kaha tha, kisike bhi galat raaste ka datke virudh karna (JP had said that
you must strongly object to anyone who’s on the wrong path). Agar
Shatrughan Sinha ne sahi baat ko kaha (If SS spoke the truth), it shows he’s
not hungry for power. Is aadmi ke zehen mein chaaploosi nahin hai, ye
hamara finding hai about SS. Aajkal tel malish karne wala jyada hai aur sahi
baat ko bolnewala kum hai, rajneeti mein (I find that this man is incapable of
sycophancy. In today’s politics, there are far too many sycophants and too
few who say what’s right).
“After all, Shatruji ne kya galat kiya (What wrong has he done)? This is a
democracy. Hum to bolte hai ki hamare yahan aapka sthan hai (I openly say
that we have place for him in our party). If he needs our support, we are there
for him, samarthan denge. He’s a good man. Our doors are open for him,
twenty-four hours, bilkul swagat karenge, openly bola hai (we’ll definitely
welcome him, I’m saying this openly).”
What was important to note was that the grand sweep by Nitish Kumar and
Lalu Prasad Yadav, with Lalu winning even more seats than the sitting Chief
Minister, underscored SS’ political canniness. He knew his politics, he had
sniffed which way the wind was blowing and had stated it fearlessly,
however uncomfortable it made his own party.
Perhaps a political observer outside the BJP would have a more objective
view of precisely where Shatrughan Sinha stood in politics today. Executive
Editor of NDTV Hindi, Abhigyan Prakash, a journalist with a ringside view
of and an opinion on everything to do with Indian politics, watched and
commented on the SS-BJP roller coaster.
“Where I would say that Shatrughan Sinha’s grudge against his party is
justified is that he joined the party when it had a hope in hell,” Abhigyan
shrewdly noted. “When he came in, he was a star, not the BJP. So when he
says that he hasn’t been treated fairly by the BJP, his point is valid. There
was a time when nobody knew that one day there would be a BJP
Government in power – a Vajpayee, an NDA-formed government that would
last for six-and-a-half years, and now a solid government with Narendra
Modi as Prime Minister. So I strongly feel that Shatrughan did not take the
conventional route, some would even say it was the wrong route.
“I know there were a lot of problems when he was made a minister (in the
Vajpayee-led Cabinet). The political dynamics within the BJP had changed in
such a way that it took a lot of pushing himself, a bit of lobbying etc, to
become a minister whereas it should’ve been given to him earlier. But I have
to mention that the same happened to Sunil Dutt as well in the Congress
because a lot of people take film people lightly, at least in North India. It is
exactly the opposite in the South where they are taken very seriously. In
North India, the general perception is, they’re just film heroes, call them to
rallies to wave out to the public, have photographs taken but don’t take them
seriously as politicians.
“His becoming a minister, therefore, surprised many. You wouldn’t
question it when say, Yashwant Sinha who is not an original BJP man, he
was actually a Chandrashekhar man, straightaway became the Finance
Minister of the country. It wouldn’t have been questioned if the Late Pramod
Mahajan or Sushma Swaraj was made a minister. But you would question a
Shatrughan Sinha being made a Cabinet Minister because he was a film star.
“There have always been lobbies working against him within the BJP,”
disclosed Abhigyan. “People like Arun Jaitley and Pramod Mahajan were
always against him.”
Tearing down the bias against a film star in public life was as tough a
struggle for SS as it was for a lanky scarface from Patna to make it as a film
star in Bombay. If he did it, it was against a daunting stack of odds, including
the fact that he was essentially an outsider in the BJP.
 “One disadvantage you have to accept is that Shatru is not an RSS guy,”
pointed out Abhigyan. “He is a film star; his cultural upbringing is very
different and it has to be. He’s not rooted in the RSS culture and discipline.
So he was always a bit of an outsider phenomenon.”
Abhigyan also believed that the film star trait of wanting ‘Yes men’ around
him trailed SS enough to exclude really astute advisors from going anywhere
him. “He was always surrounded by people who knew that if they said ‘Yes’
to him, it worked better,” charged Abhigyan. “So I don’t think he ever had
people who could show him the mirror. And that is very important because in
politics you’ve got to have people who’re slightly critical, people who’ll
guide you better. But this is the film star syndrome because that’s how a hero
is treated in the film industry.”
On the other hand, SS had natural skills to handle a career in politics.
“Quote me on this,” said Abhigyan. “Shatrughan Sinha is a typical Bihari. By
his social upbringing, he is a politically astute man, not sharp but astute. He
understands politics, he’s certainly not naïve. He knows what a move could
be, what a counter-move could be; he has great PR skills of his own but the
biggest failing is that he has never been able to build his own people in
politics. Even in Patna, his own party workers worked against him, the party
cadres worked against him. There were lots of people who wanted to bring
him down.
“What the party also feels is that because he is Shatrughan Sinha and the
media will carry his stories, he gives his bayaan (opinion) at any opportunity
(which sounds like he’s going to leave the party) and that’s not sensible
politics. Even when his ticket was being decided (in 2009), I don’t think there
was any debate on it because he was the best candidate for it which he proved
by his victory but by then he had done so many things, made so many
statements, started hobnobbing with so many people that even within the
party there was the feeling ki yeh kya aadmi hai, kya commitment hai
towards us (what sort of a man is this, where’s his sense of commitment).”
Strangely, across the border there was the belief that SS was committed to
Indo-Pak peace.
The imposing Taj Mahal Hotel on Man Singh Road in Delhi had turned
into a fortress when the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif was in
residence as a guest of India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The day
after Modi’s swearing-in ceremony, SS’ car drove in unchallenged with the
posse of security men fawning over the celebrity. Security checks, frisking,
even the mandatory x-ray of handbags were waved aside as he strode into the
hotel with his team of four. The staff beamed, the men in khaki were thrilled.
Even the security personnel on Sharif’s floor sported wide smiles of
recognition as SS’ team was ushered into Nawaf Sharif’s presence. Sharif
too, had his team of officials by his side, including the hawkish Sartaj Aziz.
The PM spent a minute wiping a speck of dust that bothered his crisp white
shirt, and then sat back with a smile. SS’ men brought in boxes of kaju katli
(cashewnut sweetmeat) and a huge box of kulfi (traditional Indian ice cream)
for the PM to take back to Pakistan. SS had, it transpired, astutely found out
what Nawaz Sharif was fond of, and had come armed with his gifts
accordingly. At the end of the visit, the VIP Pakistani too, had something for
SS. He sent him home with two green boxes – delicious almond cookies from
a Karachi bakery.
During the meeting, apart from inviting SS to visit him again in Pakistan
(the two had met even when Sharif was in the Opposition and the Zardari
Government was in power), the PM from next door said, “People like
Shatrusaab can play a very important role in fostering good relations between
the two countries.”
Sharif acknowledged that SS had a vital part to play in public life,
especially with his party’s overwhelming majority in the Lok Sabha.
“It would be nice if we could have one team from our side and one from
India with men like Shatrusaab in it to bring the two countries closer,”
suggested the PM. And then he paid him the best compliment that the leader
of another country could pay an Indian citizen. Sharif said, “If we had
Shatrughan Sinha on our side, we wouldn’t need anybody else in our team.”
For SS, the compliment was far sweeter than the almond cookies.
But on home ground, SS continued to throw his political googlies. He
himself fuelled speculation when he disclosed that a few years ago, an
astrologer had predicted he would move to another political camp. “He
predicted that I would change my party just once in my political career,” SS
made a full-throated disclosure. “I hope, wish and pray it doesn’t come true
but this prediction was made.”
Headlines were always just around the corner.
 8

Inside Ramayan
Some people don’t believe in heroes. But they haven’t met my dad.

Anon

For a man who lost his way as boyfriend and husband, and who preened over
his masculinity, Shatrughan Sinha made an indulgent, gentle father. He
greeted the birth of his twin sons, Luv and Kussh in 1981 at Nanavati
Hospital, as double proof of his masculinity, with friends firing 21 gun shots
in the air from his bungalow in nearby Juhu. But the he-man turned to putty
in his children’s hands, especially in the chubby grasp of his baby girl,
Sonakshi.
After fathering three children, SS may never know how to change a nappy
or burp an infant but as a provider and protective dad, he got a definite
thumbs-up.
“I know I’m the apple of his eye and I’ve always taken full advantage of
it,” Sonakshi’s eyes glinted as she nonchalantly accepted the basic fact.
Although Sonakshi lapped up the attention, the realisation that she had a
celebrity father hit her much after infancy.
“It was only in school, when I began to be introduced to people as
Shatrughan Sinha’s daughter, that I realised he was someone special. What he
was all about, built up gradually. As we grew up, and began reading and
watching more television, we got to know more about Dad as a famous
personality.”
The man with the booming voice who never failed to pull up anyone or put
anybody in his place, made an unexpectedly tender father, a dad who never
even raised his voice, let alone his hand.
“Dad has never been a strict father,” Sonakshi frowned at the mere
suggestion. “He has never raised his voice with me even once. Maybe he has
a couple of times with the boys but never with me. Even if I had to be
corrected, it would come through Mom and never directly from him.”
Sonakshi had heard umpteen times about his gaunt, tanned, dishevelled
look while shooting for Antarjali Yatra which had prompted her mother to
burst into tears, thinking he was disappointed with the birth of a girl child.
Sonakshi giggled at the visual and happily accepted, “Ever since that day, I
have been the apple of his eye. I’ve been the most pampered kid around. I
know it and he knows it and we’re both okay with it!”
Poonam’s erroneous conclusion that her husband was unhappy to have a
daughter was actually at variance with what had transpired with the Sinhas a
few months earlier. After having twin boys, when Poonam conceived again,
her husband was reluctant to have a third child, more so when a sonography
had mistakenly concluded that it was once again a male foetus. But Poonam
had been adamant about going ahead with the pregnancy and SS had relented.
Sonakshi had been updated on that as well as she said, “I know my mom’s
sonography had shown a baby boy but she’d wanted a girl and was really
praying for one. But I think I am more a boy, I’m not really a girlie-girl. My
brothers treat me like a boy. I feel I’ve been brought up like one.”
That may be one of the reasons why, despite watching her mother perfect
the role, Sonakshi never groomed herself to be the lady of the house. “No,”
protested Sonakshi, “I told you I’m one of the boys. When the time comes to
do it, I guess I will. I have enough on my plate right now.”
 There was a clear demarcation about what was Mom’s territory and where
Dad ruled. “When there’s something personal that I want to discuss, I always
find it easier to tell my mom than my dad,” said Sonakshi. “I still won’t be
able to discuss boyfriends or a crush or anything like that with him. Nor has
Dad ever asked me about anything. I think it embarrasses him to talk to me
about personal things. He’s there only for the pampering, for the loving, for
the fun and the jokes.”
Most definitely for the pampering. Plump little Sonakshi had thrown a
tantrum on her first day in nursery school and had insisted that Dad carry her
in his arms to her classroom. “On my first day at Arya Vidya Mandir, my
classroom was on the first floor but we didn’t know that and he took me all
the way to the fifth floor,” she grinned. “I insisted on being held in his arms,
so he had to carry me up five floors and then carry me back to the 1st floor.
But he did it gamely. In fact, I’ve never seen him irritated about any of these
things. Dad is one of the calmest, most unfazed people I know.”
SS actually enjoyed his role as father to three. “He always made it a point
to be with us on every birthday and every anniversary, and insisted we be
together on New Year’s Eve,” revealed Sonakshi.
What he never insisted on was a great report card from her.
“That was Mom’s territory,” Sonakshi laughed. “Dad must have come for
one Open House Day in school when I was in Std IV or V, and that too
because I’d insisted on it. Of course, he came along happily; he’ll come
anywhere for me. I had found out by then that he was a star and dude; I
wanted to show off! But as far as our studies were concerned, neither of them
ever pressurised us, which I think made us want to do well on our own.
“I think Dad has balanced both roles very well, as a public figure and as a
father,” Sonakshi applauded. “I always knew that if I called him anywhere,
he’d be there for me. I called him once for a college function when I was at
Jai Hind (Churchgate) and he drove down to South Mumbai to be there. He’s
also very nice and jovial with my friends. To this day, he calls one of my
close friends, ronewali ladki (the weepy girl) because she once cried in front
of him while watching a movie or something.”
Poonam Sinha was the one steadying presence at home who devoted
herself to raising her four children (SS included) and then found time to be a
businesswoman as well. Poonam handled the finances of the family, kept a
close watch on investments and supervised every move made by any of the
Sinhas. As SS often said proudly of his wife’s abilities, “I don’t keep track of
even one rupee. Promi is the one who manages all the money in the family.”
After Ramayan, the Juhu landmark, was damaged in the floods that
ravaged Mumbai’s suburbs in July, 2005, it was Poonam who took it upon
herself to demolish the bungalow and construct a large eleven-storey building
in its place with a duplex apartment for each member of the family.
For all SS’ macho ways outside, it was Poonam who wore the pants in the
Sinha house. Those close to the family always knew that SS couldn’t function
without Poonam. “Only she can handle Dad the way she does,” observed
Sonakshi.
Of the three children, it was the daughter who made a sure-footed foray
into films, like her dad, and inherited most of his qualities, the admirable and
the avoidable. Sonakshi was also the pampered and portly brat with a pair of
specs who’d waddle up with her father whenever he was called on stage to
give away an award. When SS proudly showed off his daughter at every
given opportunity, neither father nor daughter realised that he was preparing
her for a lifetime in the limelight. But she cherished those moments.
“He always took me on stage at awards functions,” she remembered, “and
he’d always say, ‘She’s my award, my lifetime achievement award!’ I used to
love the attention I would get the next day in school when everybody would
say, ‘We saw you on TV!’”
But she wouldn’t accept that this early exposure to the limelight had much
to do with her becoming an actress in her later years.
“I won’t say that it was the beginning of my wanting to be an actress,” she
ruminated. “Becoming an actress just happened. I became fat, so I couldn’t
even think of becoming an actress. I was happy with my fashion designing, I
was doing really well. Without any pressure from home, I would want to do
well in my studies, I was topping every year. I’d set my mind on becoming a
fashion designer. Strangely, even when I was fat, people around me would
tell me, ‘You must get into acting,’ and I’d ask, ‘How? Have you seen me?’
“Dad always gave us freedom; he’d made it clear that all of us could do
whatever we wanted to in life, as long as we didn’t compromise the dignity of
the family. So he was okay about my getting into fashion designing.
“I was fond of sketching, I do sketch very well. I think Mom used to paint
too. I like sketching clothes and girlie-figures, very fashion-oriented. When
I’m painting, I do faces.”
Dad Shatrughan was not adamant about his children getting a basic degree
before branching out. “I did a three-year diploma course in fashion designing
and he was fine with it,” Sonakshi pointed out. “After one year of Junior
College at Jai Hind and one year at NM College, Juhu, I did three years of
Fashion Designing. But both Luv and Kussh are degree holders. Luv
graduated in Mass Communication (through Webster University in Thailand)
and Kussh did Mass Media here. Kussh also went to NY Film Academy to
study direction.”
Prithviraj Kapoor thundered ‘Khamosh’ in Mughal-e-Azam. SS mimicked it with such flair that it
became his signature exclamation. From a stern ‘Silence’, ‘Khamosh’ morphed into a word that
brought a smile to the face
Shyama Devi (left) and Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Sinha (right) created their own little Ramayan by
naming their four sons Ram, Lakhan, Bharat and Shatrughan. The sons were born to them after they
prayed at the Ram Rama Pati Bank, a temple in Benares, UP

A family car for the family of six

Lakhan, Shatrughan and Bharat with mother Shyama Devi. Eldest son Ram had left ‘paani ke jahaaz se
(by ship)’ to study in America

Shatrughan, the tall, lanky youngster with stardom in his eyes, struck a filmi pose every time a camera
was trained on him

Bhuvaneshwar Niwas, the Sinha family residence in Kadam Kuan, Patna, was named after patriarch
Bhuvaneshwar Prasad. SS often pitched Bhuvaneshwar Niwas into his electoral rallies in Odisha to
make a connect

Patna Science College was where SS discovered that test-tubes and theorems had no place in his heart;
it beat for applause and audiences. Twelve years after dropping out of college and going to FTII, he
returned as a celebrity to the same college as the Chief Guest for its Diamond Jubilee function
The replay of the Ramayan continued with the birth of twin sons Luv and Kussh which was greeted with
a 21-gun salute by his friends

Brother Lakhan and SS may blow hot and cold with each other but Dr Anvay Mulay who did a bypass
surgery on both of them, found the configuration of their hearts astonishingly similar

Unchanged over the years, the only two women he truly cares for – his “heavy love” Poonam (left,
middle) and “baby love” Sonakshi (above)
Whatever the distractions outside his marriage, SS is the quintessential traditional Bihari who revels in
the role of head of this nuclear family of five. Right from the start, the star has proudly stepped out in
public with his beautiful wife Poonam, his twin sons Luv-Kussh and Sonakshi, the baby of the family
Film star and MP Shatrughan Sinha inside Bhuvaneshwar Niwas. Framed on the wall are priceless
moments from the family album with a garlanded portrait of father Bhuvaneshwar Prasad occupying
pride of place

Secular friendships have included childhood buddy Mahmood Alam. At SS and Poonam’s wedding in
1980, Mahmood Miya made two dozen special glass bangles at his factory in Firozabad with
“Poonam” and “Shatrughan” inscribed on them as his personal gift to the bride

Journalist-turned-star secretary Pawan Kumar and SS have had a professional association for over
four decades. At one time, Pawan Kumar was Amitabh Bachchan’s secretary too
Convinced that stardom would soon be his, even as a struggler SS practised for hours and perfected his
signature. To this day, SS painstakingly signs his full name the same way for every fan. This was the
autographed photograph that used to be sent in response to bagsful of fan mail

SS knew he was home the day he entered FTII as the first student from Bihar (which then included
Jharkhand) to be enrolled in the Acting course. The indifferent student of Patna Science College took to
the FTII course like a duck to water

Those were the days when FTII senior Subhash Ghai (3rd from right) and SS shared moments amicable
and inimical. When Subhash Ghai turned producer with Karz, he signed Rishi Kapoor (next to SS) as
the leading man. But he and SS, his first hero, celebrated most occasions together. Here they are with
(left to right) Prem Chopra, Randhir Kapoor and Jeetendra

FTII junior Raza Murad has video clips of SS’ scenes stored in his cell phone and is an encyclopedia
on all things Shatrughan. An unabashed admirer, his only grouse is that SS joined the BJP (Photo
courtesy: Yogen Shah)

Ever since producer and current Censor Board Chairman Pahlaj Nihalani signed SS as one of his
leading stars for Hathkadi, they have been handcuffed in a friendship that is more personal than
professional. For his close proximity to SS, Pahlaj was even nicknamed ‘Hanuman’ by Sahib Singh
Verma, former Chief Minister of Delhi (Photo courtesy: Yogen Shah)
SS never worked with Tamil cinema icon and Chief Minister MG Ramachandran. But his connection
with South India and with politics was evident early as he had deep respect for MGR

Big-time box-office names of the eighties included filmmaker Manmohan Desai (3rd from left) who
changed his scripts to accommodate SS’ growing popularity and tailored dramatic entries for him, and
Subhash Ghai (next to SS)

SS deeply admired Kabir Bedi’s personality. They worked together in Rakesh Roshan’s mega-success
Khoon Bhari Maang where Bedi was the villain and SS was the hero
SS backed Subhash Ghai’s script of Kalicharan so unstintingly that producer NN Sippy put his money
on it. Kalicharan marked the debut of Subhash Ghai as director and SS in a double role saw huge
commercial success as its leading man

Like SS, Poonam Dhillon also hails from a family of doctors, medical practitioners in her case. She’s a
regular on his guest list of close friends. The socially aware actress also belongs to the BJP

Although SS was essentially a commercial Hindi film star, he produced an art film titled Kalka. A story
on the exploitation of the coal miners of Dhanbad, it was directed by internationally acclaimed
documentary filmmaker Lok Sen Lalwani. For the first time, Jagjit Singh composed music for a Hindi
film

FTII junior Anil Dhawan and SS shared a very close friendship and did several films together. In fact
when BR Ishara offered SS the lead role in Chetna, a big success in its time, he pointed the director
towards Anil Dhawan as the more suitable man for the part. SS himself opted to do only a cameo in it.
But it was the cameo that brought the audience in

Gentleman and neighbour Devendra Goel’s Aadmi Sadak Ka (co-starring Vikram) was one of the
many mainstream successes SS notched up after shifting from villain’s roles to the lead
Although SS and Reena disliked each other to begin with, they soon became “far too close”. His
relationship with co-star Reena Roy seriously rocked his long-standing romance with Poonam. SS and
Reena were considered a very saleable pair at the box-office and they did several successful films
together including Kalicharan, Vishwanath and Naseeb

The unprecedented success of a villain who drew applause and encore could never be replicated by any
other actor in India or abroad. Glimpses of SS’ cinematic journey include masala movies like Billoo
Badshah (above left and centre)

From the box-office to the boondocks of Bengal was a challenge for a star used to the luxuries of
commercial cinema. But Goutam Ghose’s will prevailed and when SS played a chandal (low-born) with
great aplomb in Antarjali Yatra, he touched base with realism
SS was the main villain in the Hema Malinistarrer Babul Ki Galiyan but he soon rose to become her
hero in films like Do Thug and Shararat. Family friends, they live in the same starry neighbourhood of
JVPD (Juhu-Vile Parle Development Scheme) and belong to the same political party too

Rakesh Roshan’s first directorial venture Khudgarz, inspired from Kane and Abel, pitched SS opposite
Amrita Singh. Despite delivering one of the biggest hits of his career, SS soon turned to politics

SS and Moushumi Chatterjee worked companionably in many films together including Gautam
Govinda and Chambal Ki Kasam. Pahlaj Nihalani’s Aag Hi Aag was one of their bigger hits. SS’
fluency in Bengali turned them into friends

Thank you, Mumtaz, for Khilona which took SS to the top of the heap
Bonding with the younger generation – SS with Madhuri Dixit at a function

Although fame and fortune had turned in his favour, SS didn’t hike his fee for Heera, earning gratitude
from Late filmmaker Sultan Ahmed

Filmmaking was like a picnic when SS worked in friend Pahlaj Nihalani’s films. They enjoyed filming
Aag Hi Aag with a long outdoor spell on a rocky terrain near Bengaluru. It marked the debut of
Chunky Panday as actor
SS’ unwavering pride in his home state Bihar earned him the lifelong title of ‘Bihari Babu’. Along with
Shekhar Suman and Manoj Bajpayee, they form the Bihar Brigade of Hindi cinema

For Gabbar, my good friend… When Amjad Khan turned director with Chor Police, SS happily
consented to play the leading man in it. SS remains a friend to Gabbar’s wife Shehla and the Khan
family to this day

Govinda also debuted as hero in a film that co-starred SS – Ilzaam. The senior actor was impressed
with the newcomer’s talent, especially his dancing prowess. Vinod Khanna was another actor SS
admired immensely for his impressive personality

SS opted out of Sholay but his friendship with its maker, Ramesh Sippy and wife Kiran, has grown over
the years

The inner circle of the Sinha family includes hotelier (left) Gulshan Arora, V-P, Sun-n-Sand and
Subhash Ghai (right). Even when SS had the choice of premium hotels as a Cabinet Minister, he would
patronise his friend’s hotel for personal and professional occasions

It was literally a case of ‘Anything for Duttsaab’ when SS supported his son Sanjay Dutt all through the
younger actor’s court case for his involvement in the 1993 bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai. SS and
Dutt Junior have acted together in indifferent films like Adharm and Insaaf Apne Lahoo Se
When SS dropped in on Sonakshi’s shooting of Dabangg, it was like a Mere Apne moment. His old co-
star Vinod Khanna played hero Salman Khan’s father in the film
A strong South connection saw the Bihari Babu inspire several superstars including Rajinikanth (top,
left) in Tamil Nadu, Chiranjeevi (centre) in Andhra Pradesh (seen with industrialist-Congress
politician T Subbirami Reddy, Rishi Kapoor and Mohan Babu) and Ambareesh (bottom, left) in
Karnataka (seen here with wife Sumalatha and son Abhishek)
Thirty-five years of wedded bliss. The one who stood by SS through every conceivable emotional
upheaval gets the “rarest of rare” title from her husband. Poonam gave up her career as actress to
mould herself into the ideal partner for him. They met serendipitously on June 27, 1965 when SS
boarded the train from Patna to go to FTII (Photo courtesy: Yogen Shah)
July 9, 1980: When Shatrughan Sinha and Poonam became man and wife at The Taj Mahal Hotel,
Bombay

With Lakhan bhaiya, his wife Geeta Sinha, Annapurna didi and mother Shyama Devi

Sister Annapurna, mother Shyama Devi, close friend Bipin Upadhyaya and Yash Johar (behind
Annapurna) with the bridegroom

Mooli Aunty (Kamla Punwani) who brought up Poonam was a strict chaperone until she officially
handed her girl to SS
The bride breaks her fast with a sip of water from her husband

“I do” signed and sealed as the marriage gets registered. The couple is flanked by SS’ sister
Annapurna (left) and Poonam’s sister Aruna (right)

‘I’ve done the honourable thing by Promi’ – bridegroom Shatrughan is jubilant. To his right is Lakhan
bhaiya, and flanking the bride are motherin- law Shyama Devi, Manoj Kumar and wife Shashi
The crown’s shifted to her forehead – Lakhan, Shyama Devi, Annapurna and Geeta rally around the
bridal couple

The bride’s family – Uncle Lekhchand, brother-in-law Ram Lalwani, Aunty Mooli and sister Aruna

Here comes the bride – escorted by Rehana Ghai (left), Padma Aunty and slimming expert Dr Snehlata
Panday (extreme right), also known as Chunky’s mom
The couple that inspired the Sinhas – Nargis and Sunil Dutt

Dev Anand (right) had backed SS when he was a newcomer. Vijay Anand is next to SS and Yogi (far
left)

Royalty turns up in the form of former captain of the Indian cricket team Nawab of Pataudi and his
wife Sharmila Tagore
Rare and special guests included Subhash Ghai’s mother Subhadra Ghai with Manoj Kumar behind
her

Rekha makes a smiling appearance (Bipin on far left)

“Newly-weds” Dharmendra and Hema Malini who had just announced their controversial marriage a
month earlier, greet the couple of the day
SS had turned up late for his own wedding, delaying all the functions by a few hours. Punctual guest
Jaya Bachchan was on her way out when the bridal couple arrived for their reception

Memories of FTII friendships – Trilokinath Parashar (left) and current Congress politician Baldev
Khosa (right) with wife Shashi

Dilip Kumar greets SS-Poonam on their wedding day. Thirty-five years later, the thespian blesses their
son Kussh and his bride Tarunna
(Above) Chubby little Sonakshi loved going up on stage with her celebrity father at the Filmfare
Awards to give a Lifetime Achievement Award to Yash Chopra. (Right) It’s the proud father’s turn to
walk the ramp with his celebrity daughter (Photo courtesy: Yogen Shah)
Amitabh shared a hearty laugh with bridegroom SS thirty-five years ago. The camaraderie remains
when Amitabh greets SS on his son Kussh’s wedding

Mutual pride – Sonakshi has been the apple of his eye from the day she was born (Photo courtesy:
Yogen Shah)
After much deliberation, Shatrughan Sinha stepped into politics by joining the BJP

The men who shaped his politics – Mentor Jayaprakash Narayan with whom he often spoke in Bhojpuri
Bihari Babu meets Atal Bihari

Marg darshak (guide) LK Advani

Flagging off his campaign – sister Annapurna, wife Poonam and daughter Sonakshi apply the sacred
tilak on the candidate’s forehead
The all-important signature on the nomination papers was the first step for Shatrughan Sinha to
officially lead the BJP campaign for the Patna Sahib seat in the Lok Sabha elections. An enthused
electorate turned up in huge numbers even when he went to file his nomination

As a star campaigner, he formed a troika at the top with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani at
electoral rallies that drew a sea of admirers
Close friend Dr Harsh Vardhan and SS have hit the campaign trail together on innumerable occasions
Whether Atal Bihari Vajpayee led the party or Narendra Modi, Shatrughan Sinha was in demand as a
crowd-puller whose oratory skills delivered a substantial political message with dramatic flair

Wife Poonam has always been by his side. She camped in Patna Sahib and went door-to-door making a
personal connect with voters while husband Shatrughan focused on his special forte, addressing lakhs
of supporters at crowded rallies. Luv and Kussh (facing page, centre, flanking SS) accompanied their
parents all through the two Lok Sabha campaigns
Changing equations – with Sushil Modi of the BJP and alliance partner Ram Vilas Paswan at Patna
Sahib during the 2014 elections`

2009 (facing page, top) and 2014 were battles fought within his party and without. SS had to battle
opposition from his own party on both occasions before he was declared the BJP candidate from Patna
Sahib. He won both the elections with handsome margins

Once his name was made official, SS roared at every rally and wrested his Lok Sabha seat from his
political rivals

Hard fought and well won, the victor entered the Lok Sabha after registering a stupendous margin and
demolishing the opposition in 2009 and 2014
The most important landmark of his political career: Shatrughan Sinha was sworn in as a Cabinet
Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Cabinet in 2003, holding important portfolios like Health and
Shipping, one after the other

It was a proud moment for SS to be administered the oath by President KR Narayanan, and to then join
the Prime Minister as he posed with all his leading ministers

“From being a party with a difference, we have become a party with differences,” charged Shatrughan
Sinha as he was pointedly sidelined by the BJP frontline after the 2014 elections

Unchanged – over the years, SS has grown closer to former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha who
remarks, “Given our surnames, we could very well be related.” Also in the picture is Subhash Ghai
(middle)

SS with Sushma Swaraj – “The long and the short of the BJP. But the short is more mature,” says
Shatrughan about the pint-sized Minister for External Affairs who packs a punch (Poonam and Sunil
Dutt also in the picture)

SS once campaigned for Arun Jaitley too. Currently Finance Minister, I& B Minister and Minister for
Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley and SS are known to have their differences

SS with fellow Biharis and BJP colleagues, lawyer Ravi Shankar Prasad and licensed pilot Rajiv
Pratap Rudy (above left) who landed safely in Parliament and in Modi’s new government, and Rajya
Sabha MP and party spokesperson MJ Akbar (above right), once close to SS. MJ was surprised when
the actor-politician kicked the butt and embarked on anti-tobacco campaigns when Akbar himself had
picked up the habit watching SS’ flamboyant on-screen smoking

Mumbai chapter of the BJP – Jaywantiben Mehta, SS and Vinod Khanna

Friends with contrasting personalities – SS was vocal that Dr Harsh Vardhan would have been “the
better and only choice” as the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in Delhi (instead of Kiran Bedi, the
party’s official candidate)

SS with Late Pramod Mahajan (left) and Late Gopinath Munde (bottom extreme left). The two famous
brothers-inlaw were reported to not favour elevating the actor-politician to the central Cabinet

SS does not have RSS roots but enjoys a healthy acquaintance with the nationalist organisation’s
current Sarsanghchalak (Chief) Mohan Bhagwat
Close friends with much in common. Unafraid to speak their minds, eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani
courts as much controversy within the BJP as SS does (seen here with Rani Jethmalani who passed
away, and Poonam Sinha)

“I named Narendra Modi ‘Namo’ and Sushil Modi ‘Sumo’ and the names went viral,” claims SS. At an
election rally sharing the dais also with Rajnath Singh, current Home Minister of India
Son Kussh’s marriage to Tarunna was the biggest celebrity event of January 2015, momentous in many
ways. Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew down to Mumbai specially to attend the ceremony. And SS
brought all his siblings together under the same roof for the first time in 15 years. Dr Ram, Dr Lakhan,
Dr Bharat and Shatrughan came together for the Kussh-Tarunna wedding. Narendra Modi graciously
joined the brothers for a memorable photograph

A sweet moment – the PM offers mithai (sweets) to the couple while the Agarwals, the bride’s family,
and SS watch on. “I will always be grateful to our dashing, dynamic Prime Minister for gracing my
son’s wedding and giving his blessings to the couple,” says SS
Always under heavy fire for supping with the Opposition, SS has been unabashed about his friendships
that cut across party lines

He refused to contest elections opposite Sunil Dutt who belonged to the Congress; SS always accorded
him the respect due to an older brother
SS attended Sonia Gandhi’s iftaar party (an evening event when Muslims break their day-long fast
during the holy month of Ramzan). Seen here is also Congress leader Kamal Nath

A word from an opponent – Congress MP Shashi Tharoor graciously wrote the Foreword for this book
(with Late wife Sunanda Pushkar)

With former diplomat and JD(U) spokesman Pavan K Varma and restaurateur-friend Vijay Sinha in
Patna after Nitish Kumar returned to the Chief Minister’s chair
SS gets along well with LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan and son Chirag. Also in the picture is Ram Vilas
Paswan’s wife Reena

A clap for AAP from SS when Arvind Kejriwal stood against a giant like Sheila Dikshit and won Delhi.
Also seen here are Jose Kutty (between Kejriwal and SS) and Bandana Chaudhary from SS’ Delhi team
SS and Late Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh knew each other from their student
days in Poona. Deshmukh often wisecracked, “Don’t we look like long lost brothers from the Kumbh
Mela?”

Shaking paws – SS counted Tiger Balasaheb Thackeray, the Shiv Sena supremo, as an ally. Looking on
is Chhagan Bhujbal who later defected to Sharad Pawar’s NCP
“For better relations, both countries should have a team each with people like Shatrughan Sinha in it,”
said Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan

SS was also friendly with Late General Zia ul Haq and his family. His daughter Zain ties a rakhi to SS
to this day
Making an impact at home and abroad: SS addressed the UN General Assembly on three occasions. He
spoke on subjects as varied as the Palestinian problem and on the cooperative movement, focusing on
the Sudha milk cooperative initiative in Bihar
SS addressed the media in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Barkha Dutt put him in the hot seat in New Delhi

Blessings sought and got from Durga Ma and Lord Hanuman – SS is a grateful believer but is not
given to rituals
SS respectfully follows the rules of a gurdwara
The Making Of Anything But Khamosh: The Subject (SS) and Author Bharathi S Pradhan have taped
conversations running into over 200 hours. Here’s a marathon session at Bhuvaneshwar Niwas,
Kadam Kuan, Patna

Bharathi meets Bihar heavyweight Lalu Prasad Yadav (top) in Patna and superstar-politician
Ambareesh in Bengaluru

Facing page: After his bypass surgery, SS devoted his second lease of life to wife Poonam. The couple
gets ready (top, extreme left) to shoot a prestigious cover for Society magazine to mark their thirty-fifth
wedding anniversary (July, 2015). Editor Suchitra Iyer personally interviewed Shatrughan and
Poonam for the cover story
The famous five – SS, Poonam, Sonakshi flanked by Luv and Kussh (Photo courtesy: Yogen Shah)
 Sonakshi herself was never academically inclined.
“Like Dad,” she accepted, “I was never too inclined to study either. But no,
I wasn’t as colourful, as extreme as him. But in most other ways, I have taken
after my father. It’s true that I’ve got his stubbornness. I’ve also got his
confidence, his boldness, a lot of his personality is in me.
“Like my dad, when I want something, I’ll go after it, even go out of my
way to get it,” she counted the similarities. “If I’ve fixed a goal for myself,
like losing weight, I’ll make sure I achieve it. Earlier, ever since I can
remember, Mom used to be on my case about my weight. I used to hate going
to the gym. I’d tried it all before – gymming, dieting, stretching classes, every
trick in the book. There came a time when Mom stopped talking to me about
my weight. I wondered why she did that and then on my own accord, I set my
sights on losing weight. I was eighteen or nineteen years old then. I was
happy with the result, so I lost more. Little by little, I lost it all. That way, I
am stubborn like my dad. If I want something, I know how to achieve it.
“Dad was initially indifferent to the process but once he saw it happening,
he was very proud, very happy, I could see it in him. Earlier, he used to tease
me, call me moti in good fun. He used to call me his circus queen because if
there was any food on the table, I would make it disappear.
“Like my dad, I am very fond of food. I still am,” she continued
enumerating the common traits they shared. “But I’ve learnt to control the
quantity. Earlier it was an all-you-can-eat buffet for me, now it is an eat-very-
little buffet.”
Whatever the similarities between Sonakshi and her father, her turning
actress had more to do with her mother than her father.
“Mom had a big hand in my turning actress,” Sonakshi disclosed. “I think
it was her dream that I become an actress. She stopped acting at a young age
when she got married; it kind of ended that part of her life for her. So I think
she sees it all through me, she wants to see it happening to me. I would never
have done it otherwise. She kept egging me on, kept encouraging me. When I
started losing weight, she’d say, now you can start acting. She’d drop hints
every now and then in her own sweet way. She was definitely not against the
idea.
“The offer to do Dabangg was so perfect; it was almost like a home
production. My family had the confidence that the Khans wouldn’t do
anything to bring shame to them. When Dabangg happened, I never had to
tell my parents that I wanted to act. It was just assumed that I would. Mom
knew it would happen and Dad eventually figured out that it would happen.”
It came naturally to her to opt for roles, wardrobe and behaviour that
wouldn’t upset her parents in any way.
“I don’t ever want to put Dad in a spot because of me. We know about his
political background, we know where he comes from and we don’t want to
jeopardise that.”
Largely uninterested in politics, what Sonakshi did imbibe from his
political story was the manner in which he handled failure and success.
 “He left his acting career at his peak, on his own terms to join politics,” she
stated proudly. “Once he went into politics, he gave it his everything. It has
taken him a long time to get to where he is today. The best thing has been
that we’ve never seen him upset, depressed or voicing disappointment. Even
if he was facing a low, he’d see something positive in it and work on it. Like
when the BJP lost the elections in 2004, we never saw him brooding in a
corner or not talking to anyone. He’d always be thinking of what to do next.
When the BJP lost that election, he also lost his ministerial portfolio. But we
never saw him crying over what had happened. He is always looking
forward, very positive.”
It was during the dubbing of Dabangg that Sonakshi discovered another
quality she shared with her father. Producer Arbaaz Khan had kept aside
more dates than necessary for her dubbing since she was a newcomer. “But I
did it in half the time,” she gloated. “I was like, okay, keep underestimating
me but don’t forget, Shatrughan Sinha ki beti hoon (I’m his daughter). Salim
Uncle used to tell me many stories about Dad’s dubbing. Or about the many
times he would fetch up late for shooting and learn a three-page dialogue in
one shot, that too without reading it. An assistant would read it out to him and
he’d get it. But I don’t have that kind of phenomenal memory. My memory is
as bad as his is good. That’s one quality I haven’t inherited from him.
“What I do have is his confidence. Even when I walked the ramp for the
first time, I wasn’t nervous.”
There was, however, a vast difference in the manner Sonakshi and her
father handled the attention that came with stardom. While SS yearned for it,
earned it and revelled in it – to this day – Sonakshi got it so easily from the
day she was born that she took it for granted, even found it irksome at times.
“I know the attention comes with the territory,” she mused, “but I don’t
enjoy it much. I like my private space. If I’m out for dinner with friends, I
wouldn’t want ten people to come up and ask for pictures. On the other hand,
Dad loves the spotlight; he wants to be the centre of attention. That’s an area
where we’re totally different. I shy away from it, he wants to be there.
“But I understand that it’s been different for him,” she said, studying the
difference in their approach to stardom. “He came from a small town where
his ambition in life was to become a film star while we had already seen it all
through him. Since we were kids, we’ve seen people come up to him for
autographs and pictures. So for us it wasn’t a new experience at all.”
While Sonakshi didn’t enjoy the attention that followed her own stardom,
she had basked in the reflected glory of her dad, as a kid. “I’ve enjoyed being
Shatrughan Sinha’s daughter in every way,” she enthused. “We’ve had the
best family vacations all over the world. The special treatment that he always
got, would get carried forward to us and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
In fact, she often found her father’s far-reaching fame fascinating. “Once,”
she narrated, “we’d gone to Chicago and we were getting out of the parking
lot of the hotel where there was this Nigerian lady collecting the tickets. My
dad rolled down the window and paid her the money and when she saw him,
she said, ‘Khamosh!’ I was so taken aback; I was like, ‘What? She’s Nigerian
and she’s calling you “Khamosh”?’” Sonakshi laughed heartily at the
recollection. “That really shocked me. This happened when we were really
young, so I realised very early in my life that his fame wasn’t restricted to
India, he was known worldwide.”
Pretty early, his kids also caught on to a mood change in Dad when they
were on holiday.
“When we’d go abroad, he’d be more relaxed for sure,” observed
Sonakshi. “He’d come out with us to the malls, go out for lunches and
dinners. Indians would come up and say, hello, take an autograph, and he
always handled the attention very well.
“Dad generally likes going to places where we have friends. He likes
Chicago, Australia, LA, New York. He once took me to Las Vegas and we
went to all the musicals and plays. He doesn’t gamble but we’d take a walk
around the casino.”
As an indulgent father, SS also never had a problem with the shopping lists
of his children.
“Lucky for him, I’m not spoilt, I don’t ask for much,” said Sonakshi. “On
his own, he spoilt me enough and more in my early years. Every time he’d
travel, he wouldn’t know what to get me, so he’d ask people to get stuff and
bring it. At least half his suitcase would be filled with things for me.”
While he shopped ungrudgingly for his children, SS rarely ever bought
anything for himself – his needs were strictly Poonam’s department. “Mom
does all his shopping, he doesn’t lift a finger when it comes to himself,”
giggled Sonakshi. “His entire wardrobe, styling, everything is done by my
mother. He is very upset that I haven’t got around to designing anything for
him,” added the daughter.
Sonakshi was also sharply observant of her parents. If the SS-Poonam
marriage breasted the thirty-five-year mark in 2015, she gave the entire credit
to, “My mother. They’ve lasted together because of my mother, I know that
much. She is too strong a woman to let go of a relationship.
“They were meant for each other. There’s great tolerance between them in
spite of each other’s shortcomings,” she said insightfully. “It’s a dream
marriage. Who wouldn’t want one like that?”
To answer that, Sonakshi herself wouldn’t want a marriage like that
because while SS was the father she wouldn’t ever trade for another, when it
came to him as a husband, she removed her blinkers. “No, I don’t want a man
like my dad,” she stated firmly. “I want someone completely opposite. I want
someone I can control, while my father’s totally out of control.”
Her twin brothers were, however, more moderate, certainly more mellow
in their views about their father.
By the time they were four or five years old, Luv and Kussh had realised
that they were the privileged kids of a celebrity father.
“When we’d be playing outside the house, people would stand there and
ask, ‘Shatrughan Sinhaji hai kya? Autograph chahiye (Is Shatrughan Sinha
there? We’d like his autograph).’ So we understood how popular he was,”
replayed Kussh.
Luv added, “For instance, when he’d come out of the airport, there’d be a
massive crowd standing and they’d stop to watch him. So you realised that he
was someone known all over the country. Even as kids, when we were
travelling with him, his personality, his presence would make a difference to
the surroundings. His personality is so domineering that even if he were not
an actor, he’d still attract attention and because he’s an actor, it just got
amplified.”
SS as actor-father was not one to stop his kids from coming to the studio or
from watching his movies. Kussh remembered, “We used to cry when he
died in his films. I think all star kids go through this.”
 Luv stated, “We started seeing films even before we knew what they were.
That’s pretty much why I still watch a movie a night.”
“We went to a lot of his outdoor shootings, of films like Loha, Zalzala,
Aag Hi Aag. We enjoyed it and were very happy that he always involved us
in whatever he did,” said Kussh.
As twins of an actor, they got even more attention than the normal
celebrity kid, until they were six years old and Sonakshi came along. The
spotlight shifted from them but neither brother really resented it. “We were
both very close to her,” explained Kussh. “We were more curious over who’s
this new baby in the house.”
“Kussh was always closer to her,” admitted Luv. “I felt there was too much
pampering going on. I didn’t think it was wrong but I felt it needed to be
balanced. Sona always felt that when everybody else was pampering her, I
was the only one not doing it. So that would lead to arguments between a
younger sibling and an older one. But there was never any ugliness.”
Much like Sonakshi, both boys also described SS as a father who always
found time to be with his family.
“We’ve never felt a void,” remarked Kussh. “He was always there for
occasions, always went the extra mile when it was important. That’s why till
date, unless I was out of the country studying, we’ve never missed New
Year’s Eve with the family.”
One of the points of friction between SS and Poonam was over the
decision to send the boys to Kodaikanal International, a boarding school.
Poonam got her way while SS was never in favour of sending the kids away
from home.
“Yeah, we know he didn’t want to send us,” said Luv. “But I think it was a
good decision. We came back educated and exposed to a lot more than what
we would have in Mumbai. We were about thirteen, fourteen when we were
told that we’d be going to another school. The first one-and-a-half years were
difficult but then we were fine.
“I liked the difficult period also,” he continued. “It definitely helped us.
The first year, you feel isolated. Then you all come together; it’s a very
interesting social experiment.”
They did their bit of crying the first time they were separated from their
parents but it was an enormous help that they always had each other. Besides,
both parents had also flown down and stayed on for a week to help them
settle in.
“That’s what I mean by, he was always there. He never made us feel he
wasn’t there for us,” pointed out Kussh.
He also never raised his hand on any of his children, the boys included.
“He has never hit us but he always made his point come across,” said Luv.
“He has always told us, you have to push yourself hard. I also believe in that.
With me, it’s always been, you can’t stop learning. I still do my yoga and
martial arts classes. Why waste time? These years are never going to come
back. Sometimes I’d feel, why is he putting so much pressure on us when I’m
already working so hard? But now I understand that maybe I’d have felt, ‘I’m
Mr Sinha’s son, I don’t have to push myself so much.’”
Kussh offered, “Papa always explains a viewpoint to us; he never puts his
foot down as such.”
Luv expanded on that thought. “Once,” said Luv, “we were in Hyderabad
and there were two cars waiting. One was air-conditioned, the other was not.
I was very young and when he asked me to go in the other car, I said, ‘No, I
want to go in the air-conditioned one.’ He didn’t stop me, he didn’t say
anything then. But later he asked me, ‘What difference would it have made if
you had come in the other car?’ I realised that it wouldn’t have made a
difference.”
“He has told us a couple of things which we still follow,” said Kussh. “One
was how he wanted a bicycle but Dadaji wouldn’t get it for him. So he’d tell
us that you may want a lot of things, you may not always get it all but you
can always work towards it. You can’t say, I didn’t get it and stay negative
about it. Think positive and work towards bettering yourself. He was always
interested in us; even now he is. He’ll see that everyone is doing what they
have to. He has never been a father only in name.”
There was a vast difference in the father as described by the boys and in
the indulgent parent that Sonakshi grew up with. In fact, while she calls him
Dad quite casually, the boys are prone to a more formal ‘Papa’.
However, Mom was undoubtedly the disciplinarian.
“Mamma was tough,” Kussh said. “From locking us up in the bathroom to
switching off the lights, she did it all.”
“There were one or two instances when Papa would open the bathroom
door and let us out,” smiled Luv. “I remember one time when I was crying a
lot and he felt we’d been punished enough, so he opened the door.”
The boys talked in one voice when they both declared that their father was
certainly not their friend.
“We don’t want to be friends with him. We’d like to retain that respect for
him,” they said.
Luv went on, “I have enough friends. I respect my father more than any of
them. When I have a son, I’d like him also to keep that respect, not become
my buddy.”
On Shatrughan and Poonam’s thirtieth wedding anniversary, at a small
family dinner in one of their favourite restaurants, Kussh arrived straight
from the airport after a trip to the US. SS was quite kicked when his son
presented him with a pair of shades and told his father, “It’s the only piece
left on the planet!”
“I was in America and I literally stood there for 45 minutes, imagining his
face and trying on different glares in front of the mirror,” Kussh explained
the process of selecting a gift for his father. “90% of the time, glares don’t
suit the person you buy them for. Surprisingly or luckily, that pair suited him
perfectly.
“Every time Papa gives us something, he’ll say, ‘It’s the last piece, one in a
million.’ That’s why I said, ‘It’s the only piece left on the planet!’”
Otherwise, picking up the right gift is not easy for the two boys. “Once for
their wedding anniversary, I gave them a collage of all their photos which I
myself scanned and made into a huge poster. I took the time and did it. We
do things like that,” said Kussh.
“Sona’s good at giving gifts; she gives sketches, makes cards. That’s her
talent,” added Luv.
On their part, the twins too, put a full stop to asking for gifts from their
parents a long time ago.
Luv remembered, “It was crazy when we were younger. We used to get
two of the same thing – if one got a game machine, the other had to get the
same. This happened till we were about eight. Then Mamma put her foot
down. She said, ‘Enough birthday parties, enough of excess gifts.’ Now we
never ask for anything, we’re thankful for what we have. There’s no greed or
need. But Papa gave me his pen,” Luv revealed. “It’s not diamond-encrusted
but a very nice pen. And it’s very important for me because he gave it to me.
Those kind of things are more important for us now. I keep that pen in my
bag and use it only to sign something important.”
“The emotional value matters more than the brand value,” added Kussh.
Apart from the unbridled love lavished on Sonakshi, the boys were also
taught to touch their parents’ feet every day, and those of other senior family
members and close family friends. Luv and Kussh do that to this day but not
Sonakshi because the rules in the Sinha household are different for the two
genders.
“Girls in the family don’t touch elders’ feet,” explained Sonakshi. “My
brothers do to this day. I go straight for the hug.”
SS said that he too, used to touch his parents’ feet every day way back in
Patna. “And today my sons touch Promi’s feet and mine every day,” he said.
“In our families, the daughters don’t do it, so Sonakshi doesn’t touch our feet.
It is a sanskar in our family. As long as a tradition is not destructive or
negative, I don’t argue with it. But yes, if any tradition gives rise to
superstition, then I tend to debate it and say, let the magic of logic work.”
Far from resenting it, Luv and Kussh actually loved the tradition. “I’ve
never felt odd doing it. If my kid didn’t do it, I’d probably make him do it,”
said Luv.
Kussh added, “It establishes a sense of dignity.”
When SS had his first brush with politics after the Emergency of 1975, he
was not even married. When he fought his first election (opposite Rajesh
Khanna in Delhi in 1991), the twins got an inkling of its importance. His loss
at that time was like a classic hands-on lesson from father to sons on how to
look at failure.
“I think he did feel bad about it and the media of course played it up as a
clash between two stars,” groused Kussh. “A lot of negative press followed
him but we’ve always seen my father very strong as a person. He was the
first actor from the Indian film industry to have ever been made a Cabinet
Minister. So who says that you are defined by your first election failure? My
father himself says, ‘The show is never over.’”
“After losing the first election, if he’d given up, cut ties with the BJP and
said, ‘I’m going home, back to films,’ he wouldn’t have achieved what he
did.”
It wasn’t only his politics they were aware of. The boys also knew what
had gone on between their father and women outside his marriage.
“He’s a very successful man,” Luv rose to his father’s defence.
“We don’t ask him but he jokes about it,” Kussh revealed. “He’s my dad,
not my friend, for me to ask, what’s happening?”
Like Sonakshi, they too looked at their parents’ marriage as a blockbuster
success. However, they were loyalists to the point of even defending his male
chauvinism.
“He’s got strong views,” accepted Kussh as he explained, “so he may seem
like a chauvinist to some women. Yes, Mamma had to give up a lot but that’s
one of the reasons he loves her so much and respects her so much.”
“He doesn’t respect anyone as much as he respects her,” Luv endorsed.
“Mamma’s always been there for him, very strong.”
“If she’d stayed on in films, in two years she could’ve been a top heroine,”
said Kussh. “But she chose to give it up. He told her to. It might seem
chauvinistic today. But at that point, it was the rule of the day. It’s easy to
look at it in 2015 and see him as a chauvinist.”
Luv also batted for his father: “He’s got strong views which a woman may
find chauvinistic.”
Kussh interjected, “He’s a strong personality. Whether male or female, he
dominates everybody. How do you call that chauvinism? It’s just his
personality, nothing to do with the gender.”
But both of them said what the world knows: “Papa tries not to show it but
he is extremely dependent on Mamma.”
Inside Ramayan, a different Shatrughan Sinha resided.
SS glowed with pride over the two women in his life and glowered when
his sons dealt him a few unexpected blows.
Sonakshi who had coined the term “bestest” for him had a special place in
her dad’s heart.
“She’s the answer to our prayers,” said SS. “She’s the outcome of her
mamma’s beauty and her father’s confidence. To be called Sonakshi Sinha’s
father is a matter of pride for me. It’s the only relationship where there’s no
jealousy. A daroga (police inspector) would want his son to become a
Collector, a Collector would want to see his son as the Governor. Parents
always want their children to do better.
“There are only two ladies I am really tied to in my life – my heavy love
and my baby love,” he smiled, his face softening. “I’m so attached to
Sonakshi, there was a time when I couldn’t imagine life without her. I used to
give the example of people like Sharad Pawar and say that like them, I plan
to keep my daughter and son-in-law with me in the same house.
“But every stardom takes its toll,” he accepted, after getting used to her
long absences on work. “Yesterday I couldn’t think of staying away from
Sonakshi. But today I can. I just want her to be happy wherever she is.”
It was not only her stardom that gladdened his heart. She won him over, all
over again, when he watched her play hostess at her brother Kussh’s wedding
in January 2015.
“I’ve had a glimpse of her mother’s quick temper in Sonakshi,” he
revealed. “But at the wedding, with all the cameras, the guests, everybody
wanting to meet her, be photographed with her, she never once lost her smile.
She personally supervised everybody’s wardrobe. I didn’t want to wear a
pagdi (turban) but she made me wear it. Not once did she lose her cool with
Luv or with anybody else. She took care of each person, posed with every
person. What stamina she exhibited, kya gazab ka (what extraordinary)
patience. The way she danced, what a fine performance she gave as the
bridegroom’s sister!”
The marriage itself had been hatched behind SS’ back.
He provided the details. “Luv had a lovely girlfriend from London. Kussh
and Tarunna met through her,” said SS. “Luv may have broken up with his
girl but I liked her a lot. She was vibrant, self-respecting and came from a
lovely family.
“Promi knew what was brewing between Kussh and Tarunna but told me
about it much later. I met her family almost at the final stage of the
discussions.”
It was the wedding of the season with the cream of politicians topped with
the Prime Minister himself, the topmost corporate houses that included the
Hindujas, Lakshmi Mittal, Anil Agarwal, and both Ambani brothers, and the
highest of bureaucrats and celebrities. “I will always be grateful to the Prime
Minister for honouring me with his presence and his blessings,” the father of
the bridegroom flushed with happiness.
Once the adrenaline had settled, he was reflective and, like his opinions on
film world colleagues and politicians, he made forthright observations on his
sons. While he took pride in their sanskar and no-alcohol-no-cigarettes
lifestyle, he noted with a twinge of sadness, “In metro cities, the relationship
most children seem to have with their parents is need and greed based. They
prefer Google to the wisdom of their parents.”
He dwelt briefly on how disappointed he was with son Luv’s decision not
to go to FTII to polish his act. “I’ve been such an admirer, supporter and
promoter of the FTII,” SS said. “But either because of confusion or because
of the insistence of a friend or girlfriend or on Google Baba’s dictate, he
didn’t accept the much-coveted admission to FTII. I didn’t like his decision
when he turned it down.”
He also noted with disapproval that when he had a bypass surgery in 2013,
Luv would come to see him in hospital, “All decked up and wearing dark
shades as if he was coming for a fashion show.”
He continued, “Sometimes if I seem withdrawn, it’s because I feel that
everything I say is weighed according to their scale and their terms and
conditions.”
He backed up that remark with Kussh’s baffling behaviour during his
engagement and wedding.
“One day before the marriage,” revealed the father who was shaken by
some of the actions of his sons, “we’d gone with Kussh and his fiancée to pay
our respects to Dilipsaab. It was an emotional occasion, with both the
families meeting with a great deal of warmth. Kutty, my PA from Delhi who
has been with me for almost twenty-five years, was also present. Like some
of the others there, Kutty also took a few pictures of all of us with Dilip
Kumar on his mobile. But all of a sudden, Kussh said, ‘Let me see them,’ and
proceeded to delete the pictures from Kutty’s phone. That hurt me a lot. Did
Kussh think he had become bigger than me that day to do something like this
when I was there and before a senior like Dilipsaab?
“When I pulled him up for it and said that perhaps Kutty would have liked
those pictures as a remembrance, he said, ‘I’ll send him some pictures.’ I’m
not sure if he has and it has hurt me immensely.
“It wasn’t the first time Kussh was doing something like this. In July 2014,
on his engagement day in London, Bharat bhaiya had taken some pictures of
the function. Kussh had again said, ‘Show them to me,’ and deleted them
without a word.
“Kussh has so many plus points,” said his father, “but in all the excitement
of his marriage, the way he reacted over his photographs was
incomprehensible. That was not his job.
“That’s why during the marriage too, though I staged my play Pati Patni
Aur Main for the bridal couple, I was a little restrained through the
celebrations. It’s not that I didn’t stand by my wife. I did my duty. Maybe it’s
my fault that I get so easily affected by people close to me,” he remarked
before talking about another incident that had shattered him.
“A few months before the wedding, we had a small function in Mumbai
for about forty-fifty close people at Chambers at the Taj, a hotel to which I
am very emotionally attached. I had got married at the Taj thirty-five years
ago, so did my son. A few photographs were being taken and when I looked
at them, I said to Kussh, ‘Bade achche lag rahe ho (You look so dapper).’
And he retorted, ‘Again you’ve started?’ What did he mean by ‘Again’? Or
maybe he didn’t mean it the way it sounded. But after that, I sat looking
knocked out in my chair. Yashwant Sinha, the Hindujas, everybody was
there. People around must have thought I was reacting to all of us entering a
new zone in our lives. But the truth is, I was stunned by what my son had said
to me.
“But what can we do?” he said helplessly. “They’re our children. Tarunna
is a very good girl. Like my wife says, she’s our daughter, not a daughter-in-
law.”
The father in him balanced his remarks with the explanation, “The boys
exercise, go to the gym, they’re sharp, intelligent. Basically they’re madly
attached to the family but don’t know how to show it.”
He analysed his sons and expressed concern for Kussh. “I am more
concerned about Kussh because he keeps too much inside him. He should
loosen up, become more flexible. He needs humour, fun in his life. Luv is
more expressive, a lot more free. I have nicknamed Kussh ‘the intellectual’
for always being so wound up and intense.”
Like Luv who turned down a coveted seat in FTII, Kussh had done
something similar when he was sent to New York to study filmmaking.
“Just before the completion of his course, he came back,” remembered his
father with evident disappointment. “I was there when he decided to return
prematurely and I could see that although he showed confidence, he was
diffident inside. I’d organised everything for him, a first class ticket, had his
luggage taken care of, the works. But he was still not in control of the
situation.
“Both Luv and Kussh are good, smart boys but a little pampered.”
SS said with the wisdom of his years, “All five fingers are not the same.
Even in Raj Kapoor’s family, or in any other family, all members don’t attain
the same degree of success. One doesn’t have to be ashamed of that. I’m very
confident that once Luv and Kussh get going, they will make us very proud.
Not any less than what Sonakshi has made us.”
SS then dropped a hint of what the future held for his family. “I’m not
distracting Luv and Kussh from what they want to do,” he said. “Luv wants
to be an actor and Kussh wants to make films. But I feel, if they gave it the
kind of discipline and dedication it merits, they could do very well in politics
also.”
After SS blazed a twin trail, his legacy was clear. Films and politics would
be the chief preoccupations of the Sinha family.
 9

Born Again
Maybe it takes a near-death experience to feel alive.

Frank Ocean

Attention with attendant drama is the life-blood of a celebrity. That surge of

oxygen was given to Shatrughan Sinha when he faced a serious health scare
in June 2012. Newspapers and TV channels erupted with excitement when he
was wheeled into Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai as an
emergency case. It was so sudden that even daughter Sonakshi Sinha who
was busy at a shoot, was unaware of it and kept answering, “He’s fine,” when
she got messages enquiring about her father. Uncharacteristic of a man so
forthright at all times, the family closed ranks; few knew how close he had
come to the brink.
“This has been one of the major happenings of my life,” SS later recorded,
as he recouped in the hospital’s posh VIP suite after undergoing bypass
surgery.
On June 4, 2012, the Sinhas had the grihapravesh (house-warming ritual)
of their refurbished bungalow which now stood as a monumental eleven-
storey building. The paint was still fresh on the walls when the family moved
back into Ramayan, the bungalow that had taken four long years to be
restructured into a new home. In those four years, the family had rented
actress Amrita Singh’s vacant bungalow for a few months before moving bag
and baggage again, into a friend’s apartment in a building called La Vie.
It was in this apartment that the family saw a welcome resurgence in their
fortunes. Patriarch Shatrughan had served two terms as MP in the Rajya
Sabha but it was from La Vie that he contested and pulled off a thumping
victory in a Lok Sabha election (2009). The same address also proved
providential for the youngest member of the family of five when Sonakshi
became the toast of tinsel town with the resounding success of her debut film
Dabangg (2010).
“People said it was a lucky house for us and all of us had a tremendous
weakness for it,” accepted SS. But the excitement of returning to their own
familiar turf overrode all other sentiments. SS himself was keen to shift back
into his bungalow either on Sonakshi’s birthday on June 2, or on the twins’
big day on June 5. But Poonam’s will prevailed, as it always did in matters
related to the household, and they had their grihapravesh on June 4.
The first flutter came on June 30, the day when close family friend Hema
Malini’s daughter, Esha Deol was hosting her wedding reception. Escorted
by son Luv, Poonam had represented the family at the marriage on the 29th
and SS was scheduled to attend the reception the next evening. But just
before they could step out, SS experienced an unfamiliar breathing problem.
He called up Hema Malini’s brother and explained that he was all set to
attend Esha’s big day but had to step back ‘with a heavy heart’ because he
didn’t want to go there and make a scene.
“I wondered why I was feeling so breathless,” SS frowned as he
concentrated on the sequence of events that finally led to a seven-week stint
in hospital. “I’d been doing yoga for many years, no one in the family had
experienced any heart or lung problems.”
He had no cause to take it seriously as he stepped out the next night for
dinner at the house of close friends Anu and Navin Marwah. But the unease
followed as he requested his hosts to keep the windows open and asked the
smokers to kindly refrain from lighting up in his presence. He was clearly
uncomfortable and ended up not having dinner there.
Poonam and Shatrughan had rebuilt Ramayan with a lot of parental
thought. “We felt that with the kids growing up fast, they would need a
duplex apartment each. So we built an eleven-storey house with a terrace for
my exercise and yoga regimen, a floor for a gym, guest rooms and an office,
all for our own consumption,” he explained. SS also decided that his daughter
and his sons would get an equal share in the property, there would be no
gender bias in their inheritance.
However, the joy of settling in had to be postponed as the still-unready
house struck at them without warning. “Once we returned from the
Marwahs’, I started panting,” SS noted. “My wing of the house was not
ready, so we had to sleep in another part of the floor. But here I started
panting probably because I couldn’t take the smell of the paint that was still
fresh on two doors. I could feel myself reacting badly to it. I slept after
informing the doctor that something was amiss.”
On July 2, SS was booked on a 2 pm flight to Delhi to attend BJP leader
Nitin Gadkari’s son’s wedding reception. But when he awoke in the morning
panting violently, he changed it to a 5 pm departure. Soon, that too had to be
cancelled. By 10 am, SS was breathing with such difficulty that he needed
emergency help.
“Later, doctors told me that since I’d been doing yoga for so many years, it
could be stabilised. Otherwise, it would have been tough going. I was sitting
up on the bed, panting and gasping, when my wife rang up our doctor and
family friend, Dr Agarwal who was so nice that he wouldn’t even charge us
for the visit. Promi asked him to come soon when I corrected her and said, ‘I
want immediate relief.’ It hit her like a bullet because in my entire life, I had
never ever said anything like that to her. Dr Agarwal arrived with an oxygen
cylinder, had me brought down and put into the car. All the top doctors of
Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital had already been alerted.
“Nobody who knew me – my staff, my sons Luv-Kussh – none of them
had ever seen me in such a condition. Later, when Amitabh and Jaya
Bachchan very warmly visited me in hospital, they too said, ‘In all these
forty-five years we’ve never heard of you being hospitalised.’”
Perhaps it was precisely because it was a first-time shocker for them that
they erred when they went into hospital – by leaving the oxygen mask in the
car and taking the patient up 15 floors in the lift. The doctors were aghast
seeing him walk around in that critical condition without a mask. They
needed to treat him in the ICU on the ground floor itself. And so, they
trooped down 15 floors again, the patient barely able to breathe.
Even in that precarious condition, SS delighted, indeed revelled in his
celebrity status. “There were so many people in the corridors. I waved out to
them and told them, ‘I’m fine, nothing to worry.’ Yeah, I had my audience!”
he chuckled.
The doctors were not amused. His gasping had ‘reached a crescendo’ when
his wife saw his eyes rolling. “The doctors later said that they had actually
lost me for a minute. I was at the fag end of the golden hour, hanging on by a
golden minute. It was like the final Reel No 18,” the film buff added.
Poonam sensed the danger a split second before anybody else. “My wife
started shrieking, ‘Papa, Papa, wake up, wake up,’ and began to hit me.” The
doctors thumped his chest, put a tube down his throat as the oxygen supply to
the brain dropped alarmingly and the patient passed out.
“When I got up in the evening, I wanted to go home but the doctors
wouldn’t hear of it. Then I asked to be taken to the suite but when I saw a
grim look on the doctors’ faces, I realised something serious was going on.
After the tube was removed, my voice became hoarse like Marlon Brando’s
in Godfather.” It struck him then to check the date. Constant friend Pahlaj
Nihalani fumbled for an answer until the doctors took over and told him, “Mr
Sinha, today is the 6th.”
He had been unconscious for four days.
Giving in to his obstinate demand, SS was shifted for a short while into a
suite on the sixteenth floor. But when he again gasped helplessly and a
nebuliser was given to him, the doctors were forced to wheel him back on the
fast track into the ICU. His pride in his celebrity status raised its head again
as he later pointed out, “They created a special ICU for me with staff to
monitor me 24/7. They were nice enough to let me call whoever I wanted to
the ICU as long as I stayed right there.”
He went into the ICU once again and returned to a suite on July18 – after
Dr Anvay Mulay had performed a bypass surgery on him. He had gone into
hospital because of his lungs – he couldn’t breathe – but the doctors
discovered that there was an issue with the heart too – he had a couple of
blockages.
“I asked Dr Jamshed Dalal, one of the best in India and the Chief of
Angioplasty at the hospital, and Dr Ram Kumar Narayan, the Chief on the
administrative side, ‘What would you do in my place?’ Dr Dalal said, ‘I
would go in for a bypass and get rid of the problem once and for all. Putting
in a stent is a good idea but the procedure may have to be repeated again in
the near future.’ His reply sealed the decision for us, to get the bypass done
while I was still at the hospital. I didn’t consult anybody because the more the
opinions, the more the confusion,” related the patient as he recouped in his
suite.
Patna friend and Chicago-based Orthopaedic Surgeon Dr Upendra Kumar
Sinha broke into a sweat as he stated, “I didn’t realise how much he meant to
me until he had this heart trouble and bypass surgery in 2012. I cannot
imagine this world without him. We’re all mortals but without him my life
would be incomplete.”
As mentioned earlier, it was at this juncture that blood proved thicker than
water. Dr Bharat Sinha got a ticket in 15 minutes and flew down from
England to check on his younger sibling. He was in the Operation Theatre
when the surgery was performed by Dr Mulay. Similarly, Dr Lakhan Sinha
and his wife Geeta set aside past misunderstandings and stood vigil at the
hospital every single day.
SS was pleased that his children rallied around, boosting Poonam’s morale.
“Sonakshi would come to see me in hospital every day and it was I who
would ask her to go back home. The boys would come too but they wouldn’t
know how to show their feelings. Kussh would be by the bedside every day,
holding my hand. Maybe he was scared but didn’t want to show it. Mine was
a straightforward case but there were all sorts of rumours going around.
Rajesh Khanna was in his last stage, Dara Singh had passed away. Whether
he wore goggles or not, Luv was also there every day. All three were very
dutiful even if I did hear Sonakshi and Kussh fighting by my bedside.”
The night before the surgery, SS quietly sent for his lawyer and willed
everything he owned to his wife, Poonam. She reciprocated by making her
will too, leaving everything to him. It was an emotional moment for both of
them.
“In my full senses, cool, calm, composed, I signed my will,” said SS. “We
did it quietly. I don’t think even the kids knew about it.”
“I knew,” said his observant son, Kussh. “When I saw the lawyer come in,
I could guess that Papa was organising his will at that point.”
For a man governed primarily by gullibility and emotion, SS had a
practical streak about financial legalities. Decades ago, he had advised
Annapurna to acquaint herself with her husband’s financial portfolio.
“Whenever Sonu would say that a woman should know everything about the
family’s finances and investments in her husband’s lifetime, I would fight
with him,” recalled Annapurna who was also at the hospital with the rest of
the family.
Annapurna realised the wisdom in SS’ advice when, on a cold, icy
morning in Patna, her husband never woke up. “It was only when we went to
wake him up that we realised he was no more,” shivered Annapurna. “My
husband’s cremation, the funeral arrangements, the shradh (post-funeral
rites), I don’t remember any bit of it. Thereafter, Sonu took care of
everything. He threw a protective shield around me. After a few days, I
started going to the bank, the post office, to find out how much money we
had and where it was.
“One day his friend Pravin came over and put something in my hand,
saying, ‘Shatrughan has sent this for you.’ It was a sizeable amount of money
and was of great use because I was at sea about our financial status. After my
husband’s death, I have been completely dependent on Sonu. My father,
mother, beta, beti (son, daughter) – Sonu is all of those to me.”
He was always quietly caring, always offering security, and standing by
people as he had done with Poonam’s sister Aruna when her husband had
passed away at a young age.
When it came to his own surgery, he experienced no attacks of anxiety.
The night before, he sat chatting with an oblivious Subhash Ghai in the ICU –
Ghai stood up startled when he learnt that the bypass was scheduled for the
next morning. Soon after dawn, an hour before being wheeled in for pre-op
procedure, SS even called long distance and chatted with yours truly, his
biographer, promising to provide vital updates for the book.
“The doctors said I was a textbook case,” he later claimed. “It rarely
happens that a patient is wheeled in with a BP of 120/80. Usually there’s fear,
excitement, nervousness. But I was calm and cool.”
Right from 11.06 am when the surgery started, Poonam received a stream
of text messages from Dr Agarwal inside the OT, getting a cut-by-cut update.
When SS opened his eyes in the evening, he spotted Pahlaj Nihalani by his
bedside and taunted him saying, “Tum nahin sudhroge (You’ll never
improve),” because he was to have come in before the surgery but had
fetched up late. He also saw his brother Bharat who had been allowed into the
OT because of his medical qualifications.
And he saw his wife Promi. The quick flashes of her thumping his chest
and her 24/7 attention filled him with the gratitude of a man who had
witnessed his rebirth. “I not only owe this second lease of life to her, I
dedicate it to her,” he offered. “Wives like her are very rare. She can’t look
beyond the family. And when it came to her husband, she didn’t go home at
all, she just moved into the hospital. She kept my morale up all through it.
But for her dedication, her prayers, her tremendous faith in her angels and in
God, I wouldn’t have been here. At critical moments, she reminded me of
how Satyavan was brought back from the jaws of death.” (According to
Indian mythology, Savitri had pleaded with Yama, God of Death, and had
succeeded in bringing her husband Satyavan back from the dead.)
The reference to angels had a particular significance. Poonam had
unwavering faith in Raphael’s Angels and even carried with her a book on
the angels. A scientifically inexplicable phenomenon had occurred in the OT.
When SS came out of it, he talked of a green light that he had seen in his
subconscious at strategic times of the surgery.
What he didn’t know was that Poonam had put a small figure of an angel
into Dr Agarwal’s shirt just as he went into the OT. And in the book of
angels, it was clearly stated that their blessings would be manifest as a green
light!
When SS lavished so much gratitude on his wife and said unabashedly, “I
owe this life to her,” she shot back, “He owes it to God.”
Poonam did accept that he had come dangerously close to the finish at one
fragile point. “For 2 minutes, I think he had gone away. Kussh and I were
there, the doctors were talking to each other. Suddenly I saw his eyes rolling
up. It was something very different, not normal at all. Something about the
way he looked was very uncharacteristic of him. That’s when I started
screaming, beating his chest, calling out to him saying, ‘Papa, Papa...’”
“It was not a heart attack,” said Kussh. “I was paying close attention to
what the doctors were saying. They were saying that the paint had caused a
broncho-spasm, he wasn’t getting enough oxygen because of that. And when
you’re not getting enough oxygen, it can cause brain damage, affect the heart,
anything can happen. The doctors said it was of such high intensity, it could
have gone either way. That’s why he lost consciousness.
“How I realised it was more than just breathlessness was because they had
a heartbeat monitor attached to him and I could see his heartbeat dropping
alarmingly. I heard the doctors say, get a cathamine, a horse steroid. It was to
give a surge of adrenaline to get the heart beating stronger. The doctors did
whatever was required to keep him stable and prevent him from going
under.”
Kussh added, “The first time we walked into the hospital, Mamma was
scared. Obviously, she’s his wife.”
She nodded, “In thirty-two years of marriage, I’d never seen him even
seriously ill, or in discomfort.”
Kussh wasn’t entirely pleased with the way his father handled his health
issues. “At some point, you have to take things a little seriously, you can’t
always underplay them.”
Poonam put her finger on it: “He does that to avoid restrictions on his
lifestyle!”
She was bang-on, as at the hospital itself, a typical husband-wife verbal
skirmish was witnessed. “It’s definitely a wake-up call for him,” said she.
“There are lots of myths,” SS countered. “It had nothing to do with my
lifestyle. It was an extreme reaction to the paint, an extreme allergy. It had
happened to me once before when I had reacted to the pollen in my sons’
school in Kodaikanal,” he pushed on. “On another occasion, I was in
Chandigarh when I had started panting but Pahlaj had gone rushing on a
cycle to get me a pump and I was okay. I drink one-and-a-half litres of water
every morning. It shouldn’t have happened. But it was fresh paint, maybe
adulterated stuff. Uff, it was awful, the gasping...I couldn’t breathe.
“In this biography, people will get to know for the first time that it was
touch and go. People who know me for my laughter, my voice quality or my
‘Khamosh’, don’t know that I was on the verge of being khamosh forever. If
that had happened, this biography would have never been complete.”
SS conceded, “I’m not denying that at any stage a healthy lifestyle,
exercise, avoiding red meat, drinking moderately, sleeping early, resting well,
will be good for anybody. But even if I sleep by 12 midnight and wake up by
8, it’ll be a good eight hours of rest.”
At this, an exasperated Poonam demanded, “You’ve already started talking
about staying up till 12 midnight?”
“Going to bed earlier than that is easier said than done,” he retorted. “You
want me to sit here singing bhajans (devotional songs) all day?”
It was clear that the surgery had gone off well and he was back to his
combative self. Always a people’s person, SS kept track of every doctor he
came in touch with and every guest who dropped in to enquire about him.
His reunion with two of his brothers was also a heartwarming by-product
of the surgery.
“It’s all Promi’s doing,” commented Annapurna. “When they had the
grihapravesh at the re-constructed Ramayan, suddenly one of the garlands
from a God’s portrait fell right on Poonam. It was God’s blessings on her.”
Poonam corroborated, “The puja was going on when the garland
inexplicably fell on me and everybody felt, wow, this is actually God’s
blessings on you, on this house. Once Luv and Kussh’s lives and careers are
also on track, my life’s mission will be complete.”
She added an amusing sidelight to the grihapravesh that typified SS, the
man and the husband nobody could pin down for long. “He gets very restless
about all these rituals and he kept hurrying the panditji saying, ‘Aajkal ke
bachche nahin baithhte, jaldi kar leejiye (Children today aren’t able to sit
through all this, please speed it up).’ Kussh was so surprised, he shrugged,
‘When did we say anything?’”
Annapurna laughed indulgently at SS’ immature antics.
 Juxtaposed with the refusal to grow up in some ways was SS’ shrewd and
inborn inclination to keep tabs on all that was happening around him.
From Dr Mulay and Dr Rai at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital
to Dr Sanjeev Sinha from AIIMS who had flown down out of love and
affection, and the nursing staff, SS made a note of them all. And topped it
with a special mention of the Ambani family, of course.
“You get the feeling that you are in the anchal (lap) of Ma Kokilaben
Ambani,” he complimented his caregivers. “They gave me their best suites.
Tina (Ambani) was very kind. She even sent me lovely oil-free vegetarian
food from home.” SS liked it enough to stay back for an additional fortnight
after the doctors had discharged him.
The roster of VIP guests grew long and impressive by the time he went
home: Rajnath Singh, Vijay Goyal, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Praful Patel,
Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, yoga guru Vikram Choudhry, Govinda, Amitabh
Bachchan, Subhash Ghai, LK Advani, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj were
a few who dropped in while Yashwant Sinha played an older brother’s role
by arriving to take SS back home.
By this time, the entire staff was on the same wavelength as SS and
pandered to him accordingly, even speaking the language that he was at home
with. This was especially true of heart surgeon Dr Mulay who did more than
just rejuvenate him with surgery. When he came out of the OT, the doctor
told Poonam, “I read your name on his heart. But there were several other
names also written on it.” He mock-despaired and grinned, “Don’t worry, I
have deleted them all.”
“He deleted them so that I can add a few new names,” SS promptly shot
back.
The incorrigible was back in the game, fighting fit to battle within his party
and without.
He was back to being anything but khamosh.
 Filmography
Film and Television Institute of India (FTII)
And Unto The Void (English)
An Angry Young Man (English)

TV Serials for King Brothers for MGM

The Witness (1968) English)
The Khandur Uprising (1967) English

Mahua (1969)
Cast: Shiv Kumar, Anjana, Shatrughan Sinha, Farah
Director: Bibhuti Mitra
Producer: Mitra Productions
Music Directors: Sonik-Omi

Pyaar Hi Pyaar (1969)

Cast: Dharmendra, Vyjayanthimala, Pran, Shatrughan Sinha (guest appearance)
Director: Bhappie Sonie
Producer: Rajaram, Satish Wagle
Music Directors: Shankar-Jaikishan

Saajan (1969)
Cast: Manoj Kumar, Asha Parekh, Madan Puri, Om Prakash, Shatrughan Sinha
Director: Mohan Seghal
Producer: Mohan Seghal
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

Ek Nanhi Munni Ladki Thi (1970)

Cast: Mumtaz, Prithviraj Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Helen
Director: V Badekar
Producer: FU Ramsay
Music Director: Ganesh

Holi Ayee Re (1970)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Mala Sinha, Rajendra Nath
Director: Harsukh Jagneshwar Bhatt
Producer: Vijay Bhatt
Music Director: Kalyanji-Anandji

Khilona (1970)
Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Mumtaz, Shatrughan Sinha, Jeetendra
Director: Chander Vohra
Producer: LV Prasad
Writers: Gulshan Nanda, Agha Jani Kashmiri
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

Prem Pujari (1970)

Cast: Dev Anand, Waheeda Rehman, Shatrughan Sinha, Ashok Kumar, Madan Puri
Director: Dev Anand
Producer: Dev Anand
Music Director: SD Burman
Lyrics: Neeraj
Story: Dev Anand
Cinematographer: Fali Mistry

Raton Ka Raja (1970)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Dheeraj Kumar, Jayshree T, Rajendra Nath
Director: Rajesh Nahata
Producer: Ranglok Pictures
Music Director: RD Burman

Chetna (1970)
Cast: Anil Dhawan, Rehana Sultan, Shatrughan Sinha (guest appearance), Dilip Dutt
Directors: BR Ishara, Partho Ghosh
Producer: IM Kunnu
Music Director: Sapan Jagmohan
Lyrics: Naqsh Lyallpuri
Cinematographer: Sudershan Nag

Gambler (1971)
Cast: Dev Anand, Shatrughan Sinha, Sudhir, Zahira
Director: Amarjeet
Producer: Amarjeet
Music Director: SD Burman
Lyrics: Neeraj
Story: Kaushal Bharti
Cinematographer: Faredoon Irani
Editor: Babu Sheikh
Art Director: TK Desai

Ganga Tera Pani Amrit (1971)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Nirupa Roy, Navin Nischol, Yogita Bali
Director: Virendra Sinha
Producer: Virendra Sinha
Music Director: Ravi

Ban Phool (1971)

Cast: Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Asrani, Durga Khote, Sunder
Director: Vijay Bhatt
Producer: CD Shah, Harish Upadhyaya
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Story: Arun Bhatt
Screenplay: Dhruva Chatterjee
Cinematographer: Pravin Bhatt

Dharti Ke God Mein (1971)

Cast: Som Dutt, Shatrughan Sinha, Poonam Sinha
Director: Kewal Mishra
Producer: GD Aggarwal
Music Director: Sonik-Omi
Do Raha (1971)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Anil Dhawan, Radha Saluja
Director: PD Shenoy
Producer: Ramdayal
Music Director: Sapan Jagmohan

Dost Aur Dushman (1971)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Khanna, Rekha, Birbal, Ranjeet, Jayshree T
Director: Kewal Mishra
Producer: Kewal Mishra
Music Directors: Sonik-Omi

Ek Nari Ek Bramhachari (1971)

Cast: Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Mumtaz, Jagdeep, Keshto Mukherjee
Director: KP Atma
Producer: P Gangadhar Rao
Music Directors: Shankar-Jaikishan
Lyrics: Kiran Kalyani, Neeraj, Anjaan, Hasrat Jaipuri
Screenplay: K Patma
Dialogue: Pt Mukhram Sharma
Cinematographer: Ajay Vincent

Khoj (1971)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Farida Jalal, Deepak Kumar
Director: Jugal Kishore
Producer: Jugal Kishore
Music Director: Usha Khanna

Man Tera Tan Mera (1971)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Anil Dhawan, Manmohan Krishna, Prakash, Rehana Sultan
Director: BR Ishara
Producer: IM Kunnu
Music Director: Sapan Jagmohan
Lyrics: Naqsh Lyallpuri
Cinematographer: Sudershan Nag

Mere Apne (1971)

Cast: Meena Kumari, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Deven Verma, Abhi Bhattacharya, Sumita
Sanyal, Asrani, AK Hangal
Director: Gulzar
Producers: NC Sippy, Raj N Sippy, Romu N Sippy
Music Director: Salil Chowdhury
Lyrics: Gulzar
Story: Gulzar, Indra Mitra
Cinematographer: K Vaikunth

Paras (1971)
Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Mehmood, Rakhee, Farida Jalal
Director: CP Dixit
Producer: NN Sippy
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Indeevar, Varma Malik
Screenplay: SM Abbas
Dialogue: SM Abbas, Darpan
Cinematographer: KH Kapadia

Parwana (1971)
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha (guest appearance), Naveen Nischol, Yogita Bali, Om
Prakash, Helen
Director: Jyoti Swaroop
Producers: Jai Pawar, RL Suri
Music Director: Madan Mohan
Lyrics: Kaifi Azmi
Story: Madhusudan
Screenplay: Agha Jani Kashmiri
Dialogue: Agha Jani Kashmiri
Executive Producer: Romu N Sippy
Cinematographer: S Ramachandra

Bombay to Goa (1972)

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Aruna Irani, Shatrughan Sinha, Mehmood, Keshto Mukherjee
Director: S Ramanathan
Producer: NC Sippy
Music Director: RD Burman
Executive Producer: KC Nair
Cinematographer: Fali Mistry

Babul Ki Galiyan (1972)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Sanjay Khan, Jagdeep, Tun Tun
Director: SD Narang
Producer: SD Narang
Music Director: Ravi
Lyrics: Rajendra Krishan
Story: Gulshan Nanda
Screenplay: Z Hussain
Cinematographer: Prakash Digpal

Bhai Ho To Aisa (1972)

Cast: Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Bipin Gupta, Jagdeep
Director: Manmohan Desai
Producer: AK Nadiadwala
Music Directors: Sonik-Omi
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
Story: KB Pathak
Screenplay: KB Pathak
Dialogue: Prayag Raj
Cinematographer: NV Srinivas

Buniyaad (1972)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Yogita Bali
Director: B Subhash
Producer: Virendra Sinha
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Do Yaar (1972)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Khanna, Nazima
Director: Kewal Mishra
Producer: Kewal Mishra
Music Directors: Sonik-Omi

Jaban (1972) Bengali

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Biswajeet, Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Dilip Bose
Director: Palash Bandyopadhyay
Music Director: Sudhin Dasgupta

Kundan (1972)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Vijayashree
Director: Prayag Raj
Producer: Ratan Mohan
Music Director: Ganesh

Milap (1972)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Reena Roy, Manmohan Krishna, Danny Denzongpa
Director: BR Ishara
Producer: IM Kunnu
Co-Producer: Tahir Bhai
Music Director: Brij Bhushan
Lyrics: Naqsh Lyallpuri
Dialogue: Raj Kumar Bedi
Executive Producer: IM Kunnu
Cinematographer: Sudershan Nag
Costume Designer: Shaikh Nassan

Raaste Ka Patthar (1972)

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Prem Chopra, Neeta Khayani
Director: Mukul Dutt
Producers: Bolu Khosla, Lekhraj Khosla, Ram Shankar, S Ramanathan
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Screenplay: Jayant Dharmadhikari
Dialogue: Rahi Masoom Reza
Cinematographer: Kaka Thakur
Costume Designers: Arlene Lok, Bhanu Athaiya, Panna

Rampur Ka Lakshman (1972)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Rekha, Randhir Kapoor, Ranjeet, Viju Khote
Director: Manmohan Desai
Producer: AA Nadiadwala
Music Director: RD Burman
Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri
Story: KA Narayan
Screenplay: KA Narayan
Dialogue: KB Pathak
Cinematographer: Sudhin Majumdar

Rivaaj (1972)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Sanjeev Kumar, Mala Sinha
Director: T Prakash Rao
Producer: KC Bokadia
Music Directors: Shankar-Jaikishan

Shaadi Ke Baad (1972)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Jeetendra, Raakhee
Director: LV Prasad
Producer: Prasad Productions
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Shararat (1972)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Mumtaz, Biswajeet, Raj Mehra, Tun Tun
Director: Manmohan Desai
Producer: Ratan Mohan Music
Director: Ganesh

Tanhai (1972)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Rehana Sultan, Anil Dhawan, Laxmi Chhaya
Director: Jagdish Nirula
Producer: SI Shivdasani
Music Director: Usha Khanna

Aa Gale Lag Jaa (1973)

Cast: Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Sharmila Tagore, Om Prakash, Pratibha Sinha
Director: Manmohan Desai
Producer: AK Nadiadwala
Music Director: RD Burman
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
Story: Amir Shamji
Screenplay: Salim Merchant, Santosh Saroj
Dialogue: Santosh Saroj
Cinematographer: Anwar Siraj

Blackmail (1973)
Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Rakhee, Madan Puri, Pushpa Pathak
Director: Vijay Anand
Producer: Vinod Doshi
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Rajendra Krishan
Story: Vijay Anand Screenplay: Vijay Anand
Dialogue: Vinod Kumar
Executive Producer: Kanu Bhai
Cinematographer: NV Srinivas

Chhalia (1973)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Nanda, Navin Nischol
Director: Mukul Dutt
Producer: Sudesh Gupta
Music Director: RD Burman

Chori Chori (1973)

Cast: Jeetendra, Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Bhagwan, Sanjay Khan, Dhumal, Jagdeep, Bindu
Director: Kewal P Kashyap
Producer: Kewal P Kashyap
Music Directors: Shankar-Jaikishan
Lyrics: Gulshan Bawra
Story: Brij Katyal
Screenplay: David Jefferies Dialogue: Brij Katyal
Cinematographer: Pravin Bhatt

Ek Nari Do Roop (1973)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Reshmi
Director: Madhusudhan
Producer: S Srivastava
Music Director: Ganesh

Gaai Aur Gori (1973)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Jaya Bachchan
Director: MA Thirumugam
Producer: MMA Chinnapa Devar
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

Ghulam Begum Baadshah (1973)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Moushumi Chatterjee, Anil Dhawan
Director: Jamboo
Producers: Govindram Ahuja, Soodesh Kumar
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Rajendra Krishan

Heera (1973)
Cast: Sunil Dutt, Shatrughan Sinha, Asha Parekh, Mac Mohan
Director: Sultan Ahmed
Producer: Sultan Ahmed
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji

Jheel Ke Us Paar (1973)

Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Mumtaz, Prem Chopra, Jr Mehmood, Yogita Bali
Director: Bhappi Sonie
Producer: Bhappi Sonie
Music Director: RD Burman
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Story: Gulshan Nanda
Screenplay: Nabendu Ghosh, Gulshan Nanda
Dialogue: Ramesh Pant
Cinematographer: Jal Mistry

Kashmakash (1973)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Rekha, Feroz Khan, IS Johar, Achala Sachdev, Ranjeet
Director: Feroz Chinoy
Producer: Seeroo Daryanani
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Indeevar, Verma Malik
Story: Ram Kamalani
Screenplay: Satish Bhatnagar, Suhrid Kar
Dialogue: Satish Bhatnagar, Suhrid Kar

Paanch Dushman (1973)

Cast: Manu Narang, Rajee, Pran, Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Khanna, Mehmood
Director: Bimal Rawal
Producer: Manu Narang
Music Director: RD Burman

Pyar Ka Rishta (1973)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha,Vinod Khanna, Mumtaz
Director: Sultan Ahmed
Producer: Tony Walker
Music Directors: Shankar-Jaikishan

Sabak (1973)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Poonam
Director: Jugal Kishore
Producer: Jugal Kishore
Music Director: Usha Khanna

Samjhauta (1973)
Cast: Anil Dhawan, Shatrughan Sinha, Ajitesh
Director: Ajoy Biswas
Producer: Sundeep Sethi
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji

Shareef Badmaash (1973)

Cast: Dev Anand, Hema Malini, Asrani, Trilok Kapoor, Bhagwan, Helen, Shatrughan Sinha
Director: Raj Khosla
Producer: Dev Anand
Music Director: RD Burman
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Executive Producer: Amit Khanna

Dost (1974)
Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Rehman, Raj Mehra
Director: Dulal Guha
Producer: Premji
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Story: Sachin Bhowmik
Screenplay: Sachin Bhowmik
Dialogue: Shafiq Ansari
Executive Producer: JN Manchanda
Cinematographer: M Rajaram

Badla (1974)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Moushumi Chatterjee, Mac Mohan
Director: Vijay
Producer: RC Kumar
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Shaitaan (1974)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Sharmila Tagore, Anil Dhawan
Director: Feroz Chinoy
Producer: AA Nadiadwala
Music Director: RD Burman
Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri

Anokha (1975)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Imtiaz Khan, AK Hangal, Kanhaiyalal, Zarina Wahab
Director: Jugal Kishore
Producer: Jugal Kishore
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Indeevar, Sawan Kumar
Screenplay: Bobby Katyal
Dialogue: Bobby Katyal
Cinematographer: Kiran Roy

Do Thug (1975)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Durga Khote, Sarika, Ajit, Keshto Mukherjee
Director: SD Narang
Producer: SD Narang
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Rajendra Krishan
Story: SD Kashyap
Screenplay: Mahesh Shandilya, Ram Kelkar
Dialogue: Ahsan Rizvi
Executive Producer: BD Narang
Cinematographer: K Dutta

Jaggu (1975)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Leena Chandavarkar, Bhagwan, Imtiaz Khan, Anwar Hussain, Jagdeep, Aruna
Irani, Bindu
Director: Samir Ganguly
Producer: Ratan Mohan
Music Directors: Sonik-Omi
Lyrics: Pt Vishveswar Sharma, Kulwant Jani, SH Bihari
Cinematographer: VN Reddy
Kehte Hain Mujko Raaja (1975)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Biswajit, Rekha, Hema Malini
Director: Biswajit
Producer: Biswajit
Music Director: RD Burman

Khaan Dost (1976)

Cast: Raj Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Yogita Bali, Jagdeep
Director: Dulal Guha
Producer: Pawan Kumar
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Anjaan, Indeevar
Screenplay: Nabendu Ghosh
Dialogue: Jayendra Jain
Cinematographer: M Raja Ram

Kalicharan (1976)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Reena Roy, Ajit, Danny Denzongpa, Premnath
Director: Subhash Ghai
Producer: NN Sippy
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Indrajit Singh Tulsi, Ravindra Jain
Cinematographer: KK Mahajan

Sangram (1976)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Reena Roy
Director: Harmesh Malhotra
Producer: Ratan Mohan
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Gauhar Kanpuri

Gyaniji (1977) Punjabi

Cast: Sunil Dutt, Kamini Kaushal, Premnath, Reena Roy, Shatrughan Sinha
Director: Chaman Nillay
Producer: PN Films
Music Director: Sardar Malik

Naami Chor (1977)

Cast: Biswajeet, Leena Chandavarkar, Shatrughan Sinha
Director: Kamal Mehra
Producer: Pride of Asia Films
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji

Safed Haathi (1977)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Ashwani, Gayatri Debi, Mala Jaggi, Vijay Arora
Director: Tapan Sinha
Producers: Pratap Agarwal, RA Jalan
Music Director: Ravindra Jain
Lyrics: Ravindra Jain

Shirdi Ke Sai Baba (1977)

Cast: Rajendra Kumar, Hema Malini, Manoj Kumar, Madan Puri, Shatrughan Sinha, Dheeraj Kumar
Director: Ashok Bhushan
Lyrics: Manoj Kumar, Dev Kishan
Story: Dev Kishan
Screenplay: Manoj Kumar
Dialogue: Manoj Kumar
Cinematographers: Kantibhai Thakkar, MW Mukadam

Thief of Baghdad (1977)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Kabir Bedi, Bindu, Prem Chopra, Helen, Mehmood, Prema Narayan,
Sulakshana Pandit
Director: Ravikant Nagaich
Producer: Ram Kumar Bohra
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

Yaarron Ka Yaar (1977)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Leena Chandavarkar
Director: A Bhim Singh
Producer: KB Chopra
Music Director: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Verma Malik

Aadmi Sadak Ka (1977)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Deven Verma, Asit Sen, Dina Pathak
Director: Devendra Goel
Producer: Devendra Goel
Music Director: Ravi
Lyrics: Varma Malik

Ab Kya Hoga (1977)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Neetu Singh, Asrani, Bindu, Moushumi Chatterjee
Director: Sawan Kumar
Producer: Sawan Kumar
Music Director: Usha Khanna
Lyrics: Sawan Kumar
Story: Sawan Kumar
Screenplay: Sawan Kumar
Dialogue: Sawan Kumar
Cinematographer: KH Kapadia

Kotwal Saab (1977)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Aparna Sen, Raza Murad, Asrani, Om Shivpuri
Director: Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Producer: Pawan Kumar
Music Director: Ravindra Jain
Lyrics: Hasrat Jaipuri, Ravindra Jain
Story: Bimal Dutta
Screenplay: Bimal Dutta
Dialogue: Rahi Masoom Reza
Cinematographer: Jaywant Pathare

Amar Shakti (1978)

Cast: Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Pradip Kumar, Om Shivpuri
Director: Harmesh Malhotra
Producer: AK Nadiadwala
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Story: Dani Masood
Screenplay: Dani Masood
Dialogue: Dani Masood
Cinematographers: Shyam Shilposkar, V Durga Prasad

Atithee (1978)
Cast: Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Utpal Dutta, Shabana Azmi, Vidya Sinha
Director: Arbind Sen
Producers: Anita Sen Roy, Arbind Sen
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Anjaan, Varma Malik
Story: Prafulla Roy
Screenplay: Prafulla Roy
Dialogue: Pt Mukhram Sharma
Cinematographer: Marshall Barganza

Bhagyalaxmi (1978) Gujarati

Cast: Rita Bhaduri, Amjad Khan, Shatrughan Sinha, Premnath
Producer: Bipin Upadhyay

Bhookh (1978)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Reena Roy, Amjad Khan, Nazir Hussain, Om Shivpuri, Achala Sachdev,
Aruna Irani, Dina Pathak
Director: Dinesh Ramnesh
Producer: SI Shivdasani
Music Directors: Sonik-Omi
Lyrics: Verma Malik
Story: Veena Sevakram
Screenplay: Shaukat Jamali
Dialogue: Bhushan Banmali
Executive Producer: Channi Baweja
Cinematographer: H Laxmi Narayan

Chor Ho To Aisa (1978)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Pran, Reena Roy, Anwar Hussain, Bindu, Mac Mohan
Director: Ravi Tandon
Producer: NP Singh
Music Director: RD Burman
Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri

Dillagi (1978)
Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha (guest appearance), Hema Malini, Asrani, Deven Verma, Keshto
Mukherjee
Director: Basu Chatterjee
Producers: Ajit Singh, Bikram, Bikram Singh Dehal
Music Director: Rajesh Roshan
Lyrics: Yogesh Gaud
Screenplay: Basu Chatterjee, Keka Chatterjee
Dialogue: Basu Chatterjee
Executive Producer: KK Nayyar
Cinematographer: KK Mahajan

Parmatma (1978)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Rekha, Pradip Kumar, Imtiaz Khan, Aruna Irani, Dev Kumar, Jagdish Raj,
Helen, Ranjeet
Director: Chand
Producer: Kuljit Pal
Music Director: K Babuji
Lyrics: Indeevar, Verma Malik
Story: Kuljeet Pal
Dialogue: Anand Romani

Vishwanath (1978)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Reena Roy
Director: Subhash Ghai
Producer: Pawan Kumar
Writer: Subhash Ghai
Music Director: Rajesh Roshan
Lyrics: Anjaan, MG Hashmat, Vithalbhai Patel

Atmaram (1979)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Pran, Amjad Khan, Sulochana Latkar, Aruna Irani, Vidya Sinha, Bindiya
Goswami
Director: Sohanlal Kanwar
Producer: Sohanlal Kanwar
Music Directors: Shankar-Jaikishan
Lyrics: MG Hashmat, Prabha Thakur, Vishveswar Sharma

Kaala Patthar (1979)

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Sanjeev Kumar, Neetu Singh, Parveen
Babi, Rakhee
Director: Yash Chopra
Producer: Yash Chopra
Music Director: Rajesh Roshan
Lyrics: Khayyam, Sahir Ludhianvi
Story: Salim Merchant
Executive Producer: RL Bajaj
Cinematographers: Kay Gee, Romesh Bhalla

Magroor (1979)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Narendra Nath, Premnath, Shreeram Lagoo, Nadira, Vidya Sinha, Deven
Verma, Jagdish Raj, Helen
Director: Brij
Producer: RC Kumar
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

Gautam Govinda (1979)

Cast: Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Moushumi Chatterjee, Nirupa Roy, Madan Puri, Om Shivpuri,
Aruna Irani
Director: Subhash Ghai
Producer: Shyam Sunder Shivdasani
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Hasrat Jaipuri, Tabish Sultan Puri, Anand Bakshi
Story: Mukta Ghai, Subhash Ghai
Dialogue: MG Hashmat
Cinematographer: Pramod Mital

Bagula Bhagat (1979)

Cast: Ashok Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Kamini Kaushal, Shabana Azmi, Jr Mehmood, Padma Khanna
Director: Harmesh Malhotra
Producer: Gulu Sippy
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Anjaan

Heera Moti (1979)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Reena Roy
Director: Chand
Producer: Ratan Mohan
Music Director: OP Nayyar
Lyrics: Ahmed Wasi

Muqabla (1979)
Cast: Balraj Sahni, Shatrughan Sinha, Sunil Dutt, Rekha, Reena Roy
Director: Raj Kumar Kohli
Producer: Raja Desai
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Verma Malik
Story: Faiz Saleem
Cinematographer: Baldev Singh

Jaani Dushman (1979)

Cast: Sunil Dutt, Sanjeev Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Jeetendra, Vinod Mehra, Madan Puri
Director: Raj Kumar Kohli
Producer: Raj Kumar Kohli
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Verma Malik
Story: Hakim Riaz Latta
Screenplay: Jaggi Rampal, Charandas Shokh
Dialogue: Inder Raj Anand
Executive Producer: Gulshan Anand
Cinematographer: Baldev Singh

Santo Banto (1979) Punjabi

Cast: Dharmendra, Aruna, Virendra, Shatrughan Sinha (guest appearance)
Director: Ajit Singh Deol
Producer: Ajit Arts

Shaan (1980)
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Rakhee Gulzar, Parveen Babi, Bindiya
Goswami, Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Director: Ramesh Sippy
Producer: GP Sippy
Music Director: RD Burman
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Story: Javed Akhtar, Salim Khan
Cinematographer: SM Anwar

Dostana (1980)
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Zeenat Aman, Prem Chopra, Pran, Amrish Puri, Helen
Director: Raj Khosla
Producer: Yash Johar
Co-Producer: Hiroo Johar
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Story: Salim Merchant
Cinematographer: Nariman A Irani

Chambal Ki Kasam (1980)

Cast: Raaj Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Moushumi Chatterjee
Director: Ram Maheshwari
Producer: VL Murlidharan
Music Director: Khayyam
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
Story: MK Tamanna
Screenplay: Benoy Chatterjee, Binoy Chattopadhyay
Dialogue: Sagar Sarhadi
Executive Producer: VL Tikamdas
Cinematographers: DK Prabhakar, MN Malhotra, Pappu

Jwalamukhi (1980)
Cast: Waheeda Rehman, Shatrughan Sinha, Reena Roy, Vinod Mehra, Shabana Azmi, Kader Khan,
Pran, Bindu
Director: Prakash Mehra
Producer: Babboo Mehra
Music Directors: Anandji-Kalyanji
Writer: Kader Khan, Suraj Sanim

Bombay 405 Miles (1980)

Cast: Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Zeenat Aman
Director: Brij
Producer: Brij
Music Directors: Babla, Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Indeevar
Story: KA Narayan
Screenplay: KA Narayan
Dialogue: Kader Khan

Be-Reham (1980)
Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Mala Sinha, Moushumi Chatterjee, Reena Roy, IS Johar,
Johnny Walker, Kader Khan, CS Dubey, Gurbachchan Singh, Viju Khote, Keshto Mukherjee,
Helen
Director: Raghunath Jhalani
Producer: KD Shorey
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Verma Malik
Story: KD Shorey

Chehre Pe Chehra (1980)

Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Rekha, Amol Palekar, Amjad Khan
Director: Raj Tilak
Producer: Raj Tilak
Music Director: N Dutta
Cinematographer: KK Mahajan

Choron Ki Baaraat (1980)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Neetu Singh, Ranjeet
Director: Harmesh Malhotra
Producer: Salim A Calcutta Walla
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Do Shatru (1980)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Sharmila Tagore
Director: Kewal Mishra
Producer: Kewal Mishra
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji

Naram Garam (1981)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Swaroop Sampath, Dina Pathak, Amol Palekar, Utpal Dutta, Om Prakash, AK
Hangal
Director: Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Producers: Subhash Gupta, Uday Narayan Singh
Music Director: RD Burman
Lyrics: Gulzar
Story: Manoj Basu
Screenplay: Shanu Banerjee
Dialogue: Rahi Masoom Reza
Executive Producer: Bharat Rangachari
Cinematographer: Jaywant Pathare, Kiran Arts

Kranti (1981)
Cast: Dilip Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha, Parveen Babi
Director: Manoj Kumar
Producer: Manoj Kumar
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Manoj Kumar, Santosh Anand, Shyam Anuragi
Story: Javed Akhtar, Salim Khan
Screenplay: Javed Akhtar, Salim Khan
Dialogue: Manoj Kumar
Cinematographer: Joe D’Souza

Naseeb (1981)
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Rishi Kapoor, Reena Roy, Amjad Khan
Director: Manmohan Desai
Producer: Manmohan Desai
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Story: Prayag Raj
Screenplay: KK Shukla, Kader Khan
Cinematographer: Jal Mistry

Do Ustad (1982)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Reena Roy, Danny Denzongpa, Nazneen, Vikram
Director: SD Narang
Producer: SD Narang
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Verma Malik
Story: Khalid, Narvi
Dialogue: Tabish Sultan Puri
Cinematographer: Sudhir Phatke

Teesri Aankh (1982)

Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Zeenat Aman, Neetu Singh, Rakesh Roshan, Sarika
Director: Subodh Mukerji
Producer: Subir Mukherjee
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Story: KA Narayan
Screenplay: KA Narayan
Dialogue: Dinesh Thakker, Ashok Sharma

Hathkadi (1982)
Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Rakesh Roshan, Ranjeeta, Reena Roy, Madan Puri, Mazhar
Khan, Prem Chopra
Director: Surendra Mohan
Producer: Pahlaj Nihalani
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri

Adhura Aadmi (1982)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Vidya Sinha, Kalpana Iyer, Amjad Khan
Director: Amjad Khan
Music Director: RD Burman

Dil-E-Nadaan (1982)
Cast: Rajesh Khanna, Jaya Prada, Shatrughan Sinha, Smita Patil, Om Prakash, Dina Pathak
Director: CV Sridhar
Producer: SM Sundaram
Music Director: Khayyam
Lyrics: Naqsh Lyallpuri

Ganga Meri Maa (1982)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Neetu Singh, Nirupa Roy, Danny Denzongpa
Director: Shyam Ralhan
Producer: Joginder Singh Luthra
Music Director: RD Burman
Lyrics: Gulshan Bawra
Story: KA Narayan
Screenplay: KA Narayan
Cinematographers: KK Jaiswal, Sudershan Nag

Mangal Pandey (1982)

Cast: Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Parveen Babi
Director : Harmesh Malhotra
Producer: Harmesh Malhotra
Music Director: Anu Malik
Lyrics: Hasrat Jaipuri

Putt Jattan De (1983) Punjabi

Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Gugu Gill, Baldev Khosa
Director: Jagjit Singh Gill
Producer: Davinder Singh Gill & Gill Arts

Qayamat (1983)
Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Jaya Prada, Poonam Dhillon, Smita Patil, Narendra Nath, Bindu
Director: Raj N Sippy
Producers: Salim Akhtar, Salim Merchant
Music Director: RD Burman
Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri
Story: Mohan Kaul, Ravi Kapoor, Satyanand
Dialogue: Kader Khan, NS Bedi
Cinematographers: Anwar Siraj, Mohan

Chor Police (1983)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Parveen Babi, Amjad Khan, Ashok Kumar, Zarina
Wahab, Nirupa Roy, Shakti Kapoor
Director: Amjad Khan
Producer: Shehla Khan, Vinay Sinha
Music Director: RD Burman
Lyrics: Nida Fazli
Dialogue: Akhtar Ul Imman

Taqdeer (1983)
Cast: Mithun Chakraborty, Zeenat Aman, Shatrughan Sinha, Bob Christo, Hema Malini
Director: Brij
Producer: Brij
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji

Kalka (1983)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Raj Babbar, Amjad Khan, Arun Govil, Rameshwari, Sarika, Dinesh Hingoo
Director: Loksen Lalvani
Producer: Shatrughan Sinha
Music Directors: Chitra Singh, Jagjit Singh
Story: Dinesh Rai
Screenplay: Dinesh Rai
Dialogue: Dinesh Rai
Executive Producers: Lakhan Sinha, Poonam Sinha
Cinematographer: Arun Nigam

Log Kya Kahenge (1983)

Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Shabana Azmi, Navin Nischol
Director: BR Ishara
Producer: BR Ishara
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji

Bheema (1984)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Jaya Pradha, Ranjit
Director: Dinesh Saxena
Producer: NP Singh
Music Director: RD Burman

Maati Maange Khoon (1984)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Reena Roy, Raj Babbar, Rekha, Tanuja, Amjad Khan
Director: Raj Khosla
Producer: Lakhan Sinha, Pawan Kumar
Music Director: RD Burman

Maqsad (1984)
Cast: Jeetendra, Rajesh Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Sridevi, Waheeda Rehman, Jaya Prada, Amjad
Khan, Asrani, Kader Khan, Om Shivpuri, Prem Chopra, Shreeram Lagoo, Shakti Kapoor
Directors: K Bapaiah
Producers: D Rama Naidu
Music Directors: Bappi Lahiri, Hemanta Mukherjee
Lyrics: Gouri Prasanna Majumdar
Screenplay: Nilima Mukhopadhyay
Cinematographer: Bijoy Ghosh

Paapi Pet Ka Sawaal Hai (1984)

Cast: Rajesh Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Rati Agnihotri, Tina Munim
Director: Sohanlal Kanwar
Producer: Sohanlal Kanwar
Music Directors: Shankar-Jaikishan

Aaj Ka M.L.A. Ramavtar (1984)

Cast: Rajesh Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Shabana Azmi, AK Hangal, Asrani, Madan Puri, Om
Shivpuri, Shobha Khote, Deven Verma, Mehmood, Mohan Choti, Ram Mohan, Satyen Kappu
Director: Dasari Narayan Rao
Producer: T Kranthikumar
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Indeevar
Dialogue: Rahi Masoom Reza
Executive Producers: Bharat Bharadwaj, Kumarjee, Sarika Ramchandra Murthy, Srinivas
Sharara (1984)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Tina Munim, Shakti Kapoor, Ranjeet, Raj Kumar
Director: SV Rajendra Singh
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Cinematographer: Kamalakar Rao

Dhokebaaz (1984)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, DS Obhan, Vidya Sinha, Ranjeeta Kaur, Amjad Khan, Prema Narayan
Director: Chand
Producer: Jarnail Singh
Music Director: Ravindra Jain

Jeene Nahi Doonga (1984)

Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Mehra, Raj Babbar, Anita Raaj, Jagdeep, Raza Murad,
Shakti Kapoor
Director: Raj Kumar Kohli
Producer: Raj Kumar Kohli
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

Mera Dost Mera Dushman (1984)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Smita Patil
Director: Raj Khosla
Producer: Johnny Bakshi
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal

The Gold Medal (1984)

Cast: Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Rakhee
Director: Ravikant Nagaich
Producer: Shyam Behl
Music Director: Shankar Kawal

Qaidi (1984)
Cast: Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Asrani, Bharat Bhushan, Kader Khan, Madhavi,
Shakti Kapoor, Urmila Bhatt, Ranjeet
Director: SS Ravichandran
Producers: GA Sheshagiri Rao, G Hanumantha Rao
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Indeevar
Dialogue: Kader Khan
Cinematographer: VSR Swami

Bhowani Junction (1985)

Cast: Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Zeenat Aman, Rati Agnihotri, Mazhar Khan, Prem Chopra,
Sharat Saxena, Deven Kumar, Mahesh Anand
Director: Dinesh
Producer: Deepak Shivdasani
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Farooq Kaiser
Story: Jayendra Jain
Cinematographer: Lawrence D’Souza

Yudh (1985)
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Tina Munim, Deven Verma, Nutan, Jackie Shroff, Danny Denzongpa, Shatrughan
Sinha
Director: Rajiv Rai
Producer: Gulshan Rai
Music Directors: Kalayanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

Aandhi Toofan (1985)

Cast: Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Mithun Chakraborty, Hema Malini, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Om
Shivpuri, Danny Denzongpa
Director: B Subhash
Producer: Pahlaj Nihalani
Co-Producers: Mahesh Nihalani, Mukesh Nihalani
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Anjaan
Story: Ram Kelkar
Screenplay: Ram Kelkar
Dialogue: Rahi Masoom Reza
Cinematographer: Nadeem Khan

Phaansi Ke Baad (1985)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Amrish Puri, Bharat Bhushan, Jagdeep
Director: Harmesh Malhotra
Producer: Harmesh Malhotra
Co-Producer: Inder Malhotra
Music Director: Anu Malik
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Story: Kumar Kiran
Screenplay: Ravi Kapoor
Dialogue: Rahi Masoom Reza
Cinematographer: V Durga Prasad

Hoshiyar (1985)
Cast: Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Pran, Jaya Prada, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Tanuja, Asrani, Kader
Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Ranjeet
Director: K Raghavendra Rao
Producer: GA Sheshagiri Rao
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri

Ameer Aadmi Gharib Aadmi (1985)

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Zeenat Aman, Parveen Babi, Amjad Khan, Kader Khan,
Mazhar Khan, Birbal, Shakti Kapoor, Kalpana Iyer
Director: Amjad Khan
Producer: Shehla Khan, Vinay Sinha
Music Director: RD Burman
Lyrics: Nida Fazli

Bad Aur Badnam (1985)

Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Parveen Babi, Jagdeep, Shreeram Lagoo, Anita Raaj
Director: Feroz Chinoy
Producer: KD Shorey
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Kali Basti (1985)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Reena Roy, Vijayendra Ghatge
Director: Sudesh Issar
Producer: Satish Khanna
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Ramkali (1985)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Jagdeep, Kader Khan, Narendra Nath, Nirupa Roy, Sudhir,
Suresh Oberoi
Director: Shyam Ralhan
Producer: Ashok
Music Directors: Sonik-Omi
Lyrics: Verma Malik
Story: PD Mehra
Screenplay: Laxmikant Sharma
Dialogue: Kader Khan
Cinematographer: Sudershan Nag

Telephone (1985)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Parveen Babi, Jagdeep, Prem Chopra, Deepti Naval, Marc Zuber
Directors: Tulsi Ramsay, Shyam Ramsay
Producer: Kumar Ramsay
Music Director: Rajesh Roshan
Lyrics: Rajesh Roshan
Dialogue: BR Ishara
Cinematographer: Gangu Ramsay

Samay Ki Dhara (1986)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Mehra, Shabana Azmi, Tina Munim, Shreeram Lagoo, Leela Mishra,
Asit Sen
Director: Sisir Mishra
Producer: Dharmendra Goyal
Music Directors: Jugal Kishore, Tilak Raj
Lyrics: MG Hashmat
Screenplay: Sisir Mishra
Dialogue: MG Hashmat
Cinematographer: S Mohanpatra

Asli Naqli (1986)

Cast: Ashok Kumar, Rajinikanth, Shatrughan Sinha, Amrish Puri, Bharat Bhushan, Anita Raaj, Satyen
Kappu, Shakti Kapoor, Goga Kapoor, Rakesh Bedi
Director: Sudershan Nag
Producer: AK Hilal
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Jwala (1986)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Narendra Nath, Anita Raaj, Kamal Kapoor, Puneet Issar, Ram Mohan, Suresh
Oberoi, Geeta Siddharth, Goga Kapoor
Director: Sudesh Issar
Producer: Ratan Mohan
Music Director: Jagjit Singh
Ilzaam (1986)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Govinda, Neelam Kothari, Shashi Kapoor, Anita Raaj, Raj Kiran
Director: Shibu Mitra
Producer: Pahlaj Nihalani
Co-Producer: Nita Nihalani
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Ghanashyam, Anjaan, Lalu Prasad
Story: Ram Helhar
Screenplay: Ram Helhar
Dialogue: Rahi Masoom Reza
Cinematographer: Nadeem Khan

Kaala Sooraj (1986)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Rakesh Roshan, Amjad Khan, Sulakshana Pandit
Director: Desh Gautam
Producer: Mohan Khanna
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Kulwant Jani, Naqsh Lyallpuri, Shailendra
Story: Rahi Masoom Reza
Screenplay: Rahi Masoom Reza
Dialogue: Rahi Masoom Reza
Cinematographers: Anil Dhanda, Hemant Pandey

Qatl (1986)
Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Sarika, Marc Zuber, Ranjeeta, Saeed Jaffrey
Director: RK Nayyar
Producer: RK Nayyar

Khudgarz (1987)
Cast: Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Bhanu Priya, Amrita Singh, Neelam Kothari, Kiran Kumar
Director: Rakesh Roshan
Producers: Rakesh Roshan, Hrithik Roshan
Music Director: Rajesh Roshan
Lyrics: Indeevar

Hiraasat (1987)
Cast: Mithun Chakraborty, Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Dalip Tahil,
Prem Chopra, Anita Raaj, Shakti Kapoor, Jayshree T, Poonam Dasgupta, Huma Khan, Kalpana Iyer
Director: Surendra Mohan
Producer: Sunil Sharma
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Anjaan, Vishveswar Sharma
Story: Shridhar Prasad
Dialogue: Rahi Masoom Reza

Hawalaat (1987)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Rishi Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty, Padmini Kolhapure, Amrish Puri, Dalip
Tahil, Mazhar Khan, Prem Chopra, Anita Raaj, Mandakini
Director: Surendra Mohan
Producer: Surendra Mohan
Music Director: Anu Malik

Raahee (1987)
Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Smita Patil
Director: Pawan Kumar
Producer: Lakhan Sinha
Music Director: Jagjit Singh

Aag Hi Aag (1987)

Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Moushumi Chatterjee, Chunky Panday, Gulshan Grover, Shakti
Kapoor
Director: Shibu Mitra
Producer: Pahlaj Nihalani
Co-Producer: Neeta Nihalani
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Anjaan
Story: Ram Kelkar
Screenplay: Ram Kelkar
Dialogue: Faiz Saleem
Cinematographer: Nadeem Khan

Loha (1987)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Dharmendra, Madhavi, Ramesh Goyal, Vikas Anand, Mandakini, Jugal
Hansraj
Director: Raj N Sippy
Producer: Salim Akhtar
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Story: Ravi Kapoor, Mohan Kaul
Dialogue: Kader Khan
Cinematographer: Anwar Siraj

Insaniyat Ke Dushman (1987)

Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Anita Raaj, Dimple Kapadia, Raj Babbar
Director: Raj Kumar Kohli
Producer: Raj Kumar Kohli
Music Director: Anu Malik

Jawab Hum Denge (1987)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Jackie Shroff, Sridevi, Mac Mohan
Director: Vijay Reddy
Producer: KC Bokadia
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Mohabbat Ki Aag (1987)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Govinda, Poonam Dhillon
Director: KR Reddy
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Dharamyudh (1988)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Sunil Dutt, Kimi Katkar, Ranjeet
Director: Sudershan Nag
Producer: Pawan Kumar
Music Director: Rajesh Roshan

Ganga Tere Desh Mein (1988)

Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Dimple Kapadia, Jaya Prada, Kader Khan, Nirupa Roy, Kiran
Kumar, Mac Mohan
Director: B Vijay Reddy
Producer: KC Bokadia
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Story: S Sundaram
Screenplay: S Sundaram
Dialogue: Shabad Kumar
Cinematographer: Shyam Rao

Gunahon Ka Faisla (1988)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Pran, Dimple Kapadia, Chunky Panday, Om Shivpuri, Prem Chopra, Aruna
 Irani, Annu Kapoor, Danny Denzongpa,
Gulshan Grover, Shakti Kapoor, Anjana Mumtaz, Ranjeet
Director: Shibu Mitra
Producer: Pahlaj Nihalani
Co-Producer: Neeta Nihalani
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Anjaan
Story: Ram Kelkar
Screenplay: Ram Kelkar
Dialogue: Faiz Saleem
Cinematographer: Siba Mishra

Mahaveera (1988)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Raj Kumar, Dharmendra
Director: Naresh Saigal
Producer: Ashok
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji

Zalzala (1988)
Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Anita Raaj, Rajeev Kapoor, Danny Denzongpa, Vijayta Pandit
Director: Harish Shah
Producer: Vinod Shah
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri, RD Burman
Lyrics: Indeevar

Sherni (1988)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Sridevi, Pran, Kader Khan, Ranjeet, Jagdeep
Director: Harmesh Malhotra
Producer: Pawan Kumar
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Anjaan, Indeevar, Nida Fazli, Verma Malik

Mulzim (1988)
Cast: Jeetendra, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha, Amrita Singh, Kader Khan, Kimi Katkar
Director: KSR Das
Producer: G Hanumantha Rao
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri

Shiv Shakti (1988)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Anita Raj, Govinda, Kimi Katkar, Gulshan Grover
Director: Anand Chitragupt
Producer: Anand Chitragupt
Music Directors: Anand-Milind
Lyrics: Sameer, Shailendra
Story: Mukesh Bakshi
Cinematographer: Sunil Sharma

Dharam Shatru (1988)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Pran, Reena Roy, Amjad Khan, Nirupa Roy, Iftekhar
Director: Harmesh Malhotra
Producer: AV Mohan
Music Director: Hemant Bhonsle
Lyrics: Anjaan
Story: BK Rao
Screenplay: Ravi Kapoor
Dialogue: Rahi Masoom Reza
Cinematographer: V Durga Prasad

Sagar Sangam (1988)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Mithun Chakraborty, Nana Patekar, Utpal Dutta, Asha Parekh, Padmini
Kolhapure, Rakhee, Johnny Walker, Prem Chopra, Vijay Arora, Anita Raaj, Bramhachari,
Satyen Kappu
Director: Dulal Guha
Producer: Dulal Guha
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Anjaan
Story: Dulal Guha
Dialogue: Kamleshwar

Khoon Bhari Maang (1988)

Cast: Rekha, Kabir Bedi, Shatrughan Sinha (guest appearance), Sonu Walia, Kader Khan
Director: Rakesh Roshan
Producer: Rakesh Roshan
Writer: Mohan Kaul, Ravi Kapoor
Music Director: Rajesh Roshan
Lyrics: Indeevar
Story: Mohan Kaul
Dialogue: Kader Khan
Cinematographer: Nirmal Jani

Jurrat (1989)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Kumar Gaurav, Ranjeeta, Aakash Khurana, Amala, Amrish Puri, Om
Shivpuri, Anita Raaj, Aruna Irani, Arun Bakshi, Bharat Kapoor, Kiran Kumar, Raj Kiran,
Roopesh Kumar
Director: David Dhawan
Producer: Rajendra Kumar
Music Director: RD Burman
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Story: KK Singh
Screenplay: Rajendra Kumar
Cinematographer: WB Rao

Zakham (1989)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Chunky Panday, Neelam, Madhavi, Rubia
Director: Irfaan Khan
Producers: Irfaan Khan, T Manoj
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri

Gola Barood (1989)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Chunky Panday, Sonam, Kimi Katkar, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Gulshan Grover
Director: David Dhawan
Producer: Ravindra Dhanoa
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Anjaan, Kulwant Jani
Story: Anwar Khan
Screenplay: PD Mehra
Dialogue: Anwar Khan
Cinematographer: Suresh Singh

Shehzaade (1989)
Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Dimple Kapadia, Danny Denzongpa, Moushumi Chatterjee,
Kimi Katkar
Director: Raj N Sippy
Producer: Rajan Sippy
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Screenplay: PD Mehra
Dialogue: Anwar Khan
Cinematographers: Anwar Siraj, Pramod Bhandari

Na-Insaafi (1989)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Sonam, Chunky Panday, Mandakini, Mac Mohan
Director: Mahul Kumar
Producer: Arjun Moolchandani
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri

Billoo Badshah (1989)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Anita Raaj, Govinda, Neelam Kothari, Sumeet Sehgal, Kader Khan
Director: Sisir Mishra
Producer: Suresh Sinha
Music Director: Jagjit Singh
Lyrics: Nida Fazli

Aakhri Baazi (1989)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Moushumi Chatterjee, Govinda, Sonam, Pradip Kumar, Kunal Goswami,
Mandakini, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Sujit Kumar
Director: Ashim Samanta
Producer: Shakti Samanta
Music Director: Anu Malik
Lyrics: Indeevar
Dialogue: Iqbal Durrani
Cinematographer: Alok Dasgupta

Antarjali Jatra (1989) Bengali

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Robi Ghosh, Basanta Chowdhury, Kalyan Chattopadhyay, Mohan Agashe,
Pramod Gangopadhyay, Gobinda Gangopadhyay, Sajal Roychoudhury, Shampa Ghosh
Director: Goutam Ghose
Music Director: Goutam Ghose

Mastan (1989) Bengali

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Moushumi Chatterjee, Sonam, Chunky Panday, Kunal Goswami, Pradip
Kumar, Mandakini, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Dinesh Thakur, Govinda
Director: Ashim Samanta
Producer: Shakti Samanta
Music Director: Anu Malik

Santosh (1989)
Cast: Manoj Kumar, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha, Rakhee, Sarika, Amjad Khan
Director: Balbir Wadhawan
Producer: Balbir Wadhawan
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Santosh Anand, Manoj Kumar, Santosh Anand
Story: Kaushal Bharti
Cinematographer: Rajan Kinagi

Aandhiyan (1990)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Mumtaz, Prasanjit, Anil Dhawan, Saeed Jaffrey, Satyen Kappu, Madhushree,
Om Shivpuri, Pratibha Sinha
Director: David Dhawan
Producer: Pahlaj Nihalani
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Anjaan

Atishbaaz (1990)
Cast: Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Aditya Pancholi, Prem Chopra, Anita Raaj, Kiran Kumar, Shashi
Kiran, Tom Alter, Anjan Srivastava
Director: Mukhtar Ahmed
Producer: Mushtaq Ahmed
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Sameer
Story: KK Shukla
Screenplay: Mukhtar Ahmed
Dialogue: Madan Joshi
Cinematographer: Sunil Sharma

Hum Se Na Takrana (1990)

Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Mithun Chakraborty, Anita Raaj, Kimi Katkar, Ranjeet
Director: Deepak Bahri
Producer: Deepak Bahri
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

Karishma Kali Kaa (1990)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Anil Dhawan, Amrita Singh, Raza Murad, Urmila Bhatt, Ranjeet
Director: Ashok Punjabi
Producer: Ashok Punjabi
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics: Indeevar, Roopesh Kumar, Anjaan
Dialogue: Rahi Masoom Reza
Cinematographers: Jal Mistry, Zubin Mistry

Vidrohi (1990)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Poonam Dhillon
Director: Harmesh Malhotra
Producers: Senger, Vijay Singh
Music Director: Ravindra Jain

Ranbhoomi (1991)
Cast: Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, Neelam Kothari, Shekhar Suman
Director: Deepak Sareen
Producer: Vijay Sinha
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Lyrics: KK Singh, Asad Bhopali, Santosh Anand
Story: KK Singh
Cinematographer: Romesh Bhalla Costumes
Designer: Bhanu Athaiya

Kasba (1991)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Meeta Vasisht, Alok Nath, Manohar Singh, Raghuveer Yadav
Director: Kumar Shahani
Producer: Ravi Malik
Music Director: Vanraj Bhatia
Story: Kumar Shahani, Fareeda Mehta
Cinematographer: KK Mahajan

Iraada (1991)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Amrish Puri, Moon Moon Sen, Om Puri, Iftekhar, Sudhir Dalvi, Suresh
Oberoi, Prema Narayan
Director: Inderjeet Singh
Producer: Ranjeet, Inderjeet Singh
Music Directors: Kalyanji-Anandji
Lyrics: Anjaan
Cinematographers: Kamlakar Rao, Najeeb Khan

Saaya (1991)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Poonam Dhillon
Director: Keshu Ramsay
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri

Adharm (1992)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Shabana Azmi, Joginder, Sanjay Dutt, Anita Raaj, Gulshan Grover
Director: Aziz Sejawal
Producer: Nitin Manmohan
Music Directors: Anand-Milind
Lyrics: Sameer
Story: Talukdar
Dialogue: Javed Siddiqui
Cinematographer: Arvind Laad

Aulad Ke Dushman (1993)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Raj Babbar, Armaan Kohli, Ayesha Jhulka, Kiran Kumar, Shakti Kapoor
Director: Raj Kumar Kohli
Producer: Raj Kumar Kohli
Music Director: Shyam Surendar
Lyrics: Satish Sharma
Story: Lalit Mahajan
Cinematographer: Thomas A Xavier

Chaand Kaa Tukdaa (1994)

Cast: Salman Khan, Sridevi, Shatrughan Sinha, Anupam Kher
Director: Sawan Kumar
Producer: Sawan Kumar
Music Director: Mahesh Kishore
Lyrics: Sawan Kumar
Story: Sawan Kumar
Screenplay: Sachin Bhowmik
Dialogue: Anwar Khan
Cinematographer: G Shyam Kumar

Betaaj Badshah (1994)

Cast: Raj Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Mamta Kulkarni, Jay Mehta, Mukesh Khanna, Prem Chopra
Director: Iqbal Durrani
Producers: Pranlal Mehta, Vijay Mehta
Music Directors: Anand-Milind
Lyrics: Sameer
Story: Iqbal Durrani
Cinematographer: SM Anwar

Insaaf Apne Lahoo Se (1994)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Sanjay Dutt, Farah, Sonam
Director: Latif Khan
Producer: Latif Khan
Music Directors: Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Zamaana Deewana (1995)

Cast: Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Shahrukh Khan, Raveena Tandon, Anupam Kher, Prem Chopra
Director: Ramesh Sippy
Producer: GP Sippy
Music Directors: Nadeem-Shravan
Lyrics: Sameer

Taaqat (1995)
Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Farha, Kajol, Vikas Bhalla, Kader Khan
Director: Talat Jani
Producer: Mansoor Ahmad Siddiqui
Screenplay: Talat Jani
Dialogue: Shahnawaz Ahmed Kenny
Music Directors: Anand-Milind, Shyam-Surender

Dil Tera Diwana (1996)

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Twinkle Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Dalip Tahil, Shakti Kapoor, Harish Patel
Directors: Lawrence D’Souza
Producers: Pahlaj Nihalani
Music Director: Aadesh Shrivastava
Lyrics: S Ram, Lubna Khan, Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra
Story: Dada Mirasee
Dialogue: Raj Baldev Raj
Cinematographer: V Ramamurthy

Jagannath (1996)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Mukesh Khanna, Rohit Roy, Pental, Reema Lagoo, Sangeeta Bijlani, Beena,
Puneet Issar, Satyen Kappu
Director: Shibu Mitra
Producer: Akram Shaikh
Music Director: Arpita Raaj
Lyrics: KK Varma, MG Hashmat
Story: Sutanu Gupta
Screenplay: Sutanu Gupta
Dialogue: Monesh Prem
Cinematographer: Siba Mishra

Agnee Prem (1996)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Tinnu Anand, Farheen, Aasif Sheikh, Subhash Ghai
Director: S Rukun
Music Director: Bappi Lahiri

Zulm-O-Sitam (1998)
Cast: Dharmendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Jaya Prada, Mac Mohan, Madhu
Director: KC Bokadia
Producer: MC Bokadia
Music Director: Aadesh Shrivastava

Deewana Hoon Pagal Nahi (1998)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Vikas Bhalla, Ayesha Jhulka, Dalip Tahil, Rakesh Bedi, Laxmikant Berde
Director: Mohanji Prasad
Producers: Ambika Prasad, Iftikar Ahmed
Music Director: Aadesh Shrivastava
Lyrics: Anwar Sagar

Papa - The Great (2000)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Kishan Kumar, Nagma
Director: K Bhagyaraj
Producer: Gulshan Kumar
Music Directors: Surendra Sodhi
Lyrics: Faiz Anwar
Screenplay: K Bhagyaraj
Dialogue: Nawab Arzoo

Bharat Bhagya Vidhata (2002)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Tom Alter, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Laxmikant Berde, Mahima Choudhary
Director: Osho Raja
Producer: TP Aggarwal
Writer: Osho Raja
Music Director: Hirju Roy

Aan (2004)
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Sunil Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Irfan Khan, Jackie Shroff
Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Producer: Firoz A Nadiadwala
Music Director: Anu Malik
Lyrics: Sameer, Dev Kholi, Tejpal Kaur
Story: Manoj Tyagi, Sanjeev Puri
Cinematographer: Madhu Rao

Raja Thakur (Bhojpuri) 2006

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Manoj Tiwari, Nagma
Director: Tinnu Verma
Music Director: Lal Sinha

Rakht Charitra 1 (2010)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Vivek Oberoi, Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh, Sushant Singh, Zarina Wahab,
Aashish Vidyarthi
Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Producers: Sheetal Vinod Talwar, Madhu Mantena
Music Directors: Dharam & Sandeep, Imran-Vikram, Sukhwinder Singh
Lyrics: Sukhwinder Singh, Bapi, Tutul

Rakht Charitra 2 (2010)

Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Shatrughan Sinha, Suriya, Priyamani, Zarina Wahab, Anupam Shyam
Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Producer: Ram Gopal Varma
Music Directors: Dharam Sandeep, Kohinoor Mukherji, Imran-Vikram, Sukhwinder Singh, Amar
Desai
Lyrics: Roop, Shabbir Ahmed, Vayu, Abhishek Chatterjee, Sarim Momin

Do Chehre (2013)
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Krushna Abhishek, Monalisa, Sunil S
Director: Ashok Gaikwad
Producers: Manoj Nandwana
Music Directors: Anand-Milind
Unreleased

Aap Jaisa Koi Nahin (2013)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Puru Raj Kumar, Sharbani Mukherjee, Aushim Khetrapal, Raj Babbar, Reena
Roy, Suresh Oberoi, Ronit Roy, Shakti Kapoor, Prem Chopra
Director: Saleem Ali Khan

Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai (2013)

Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Rekha, Hrishita Bhatt, Satish Shah
Director: Ramesh Talwar
Producer: Poonam Sinha
Co-Producer: Kamia Malhotra

Under Production

Woh Aadmi Bahut Kuch Janta Tha

Producer

Kalka (1983)
Bihari Babu (1985) Bhojpuri

Narrator

Dashavatar (2008)
Mahabharat (2013)

Compiled by Ipshita Mitra & Pawan Kumar

 Awards & Honours
1973 Bengal Film Journalists’ Association Awards – Best Supporting Actor
for Tanhai (1972)
2003 Stardust Award – ‘Pride of the Film Industry’
2003 Stardust Award for Lifetime Achievement
2007 National Kishore Kumar Samman
2011 Zee Cine Award for Lifetime Achievement
2011 Indian Television Academy Award – Scroll of Honour
2014 IIFA Award for Outstanding Contribution to Indian Cinema

Nominated
Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor – Paras (1971)
Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor – Dost (1974)
Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor – Kaala Patthar (1979)
Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Dostana (1980)