Bad Man by Gulshan Grover & Roshmila Bhattacharya

Author:Gulshan Grover & Roshmila Bhattacharya [Grover, Gulshan & Bhattacharya, Roshmila]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789353055936
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2019-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

10

I AM A BAD MAN

I owe the defining role of my life and career to Subhash Ghai.

One day, Subhash-ji met me and asked casually, ‘What are you doing tomorrow?’ With a string of hits—such as Kalicharan, Vishwanath, Karz, Vidhaata, Hero, Meri Jung and Karma—to his credit, which had earned him the tag of ‘showman’, his interest in me had my heartbeat accelerating with excitement. I told him I was shooting.

‘What time do you have to be at the studio?’ he asked.

‘At ten in the morning, sir,’ I replied, hoping I wasn’t missing out on anything.

‘Come home at 8 a.m. We will have breakfast together,’ he instructed, before walking away.

Those days, if a film-maker invited you to breakfast, lunch, dinner, or even a drink it was understood that he had a role for you. In my hurry to grab it, I arrived at Subhash-ji’s apartment on Bandra’s Pali Hill, close to Mount Mary Church, half an hour early. He is a gracious host and his wife, Rehana bhabhi, offered me a variety of dishes, but food was the last thing on my mind. All I could think of was when Subhash-ji would broach the subject of the film. We chatted on many topics and as the time for my shoot neared, I began to panic. Finally, I got to my feet and told him I would have to leave for work. He escorted me to the door, opened it and walked me to the elevator.

I couldn’t believe that he was going to send me away without making me an offer. I waited, one eye on the elevator which was on its way up. 1 . . . 3 . . . 5 . . . 7 . . . 10 . . . 12 . . . 13 . . . 15 . . . 17 . . . Since he lived on the twentieth floor, we still had time, I reassured myself. He remained stubbornly silent and as the elevator drew closer, I finally burst out in desperation, ‘Sir, what is my role? Or did you not call me for one?’

He smiled and replied, ‘Your role is that you hate anyone who is good and every time you are onscreen, you announce your presence by saying, “I am a bad man.”’ I waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t. Meanwhile, the elevator arrived.

I got in, exclaiming incredulously, ‘That’s it, sir?’

He nodded, and with a twinkle in his eyes, quipped, ‘Yes, that’s it, Bad Man.’

The elevator whisked me away.

Subhash-ji is known to be cagey about his films, never giving out too much information to his actors or his protégés. He only revealed what was necessary for the actors to understand their characters. Being a writer himself, he always started out with the big picture in his mind and tweaked it as he went along. Sometimes he would write scenes on the morning of the shoot and on occasions, even rewrote them during the lunch break. This never hampered the filming.

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