Jackie Shroff’s iconic film Hero, which catapulted him into a star completes 40 years today. Directed by iconic filmmaker Subhash Ghai, the film featured several veteran stars including late Shammi Kapoor, late Amrish Puri, late Sanjeev Kumar, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Shakti Kapoor among others.
In an exclusive conversation with News18 Showsha, Jackie Shroff got nostalgic about the film when he said, “I was unaware of any kind of stardom and that is how I am even today. Aisa koi jhatka nahi laga tha zindagi main. Even my parents reacted normally. For them, it was like their child had got some work as they were unaware of anything related to this industry. I was working in a travel agency before I became a model and then an actor but for my parents the biggest feeling was that I had got some work and I would be able to survive. They were oblivious to any kind of stardom. For them it was like Jackie ko hero ka role mila hai (laughs).”
While things changed professionally for Shroff, he also recalls that on the personal front it was all the same. “I was still staying in the same chawl, almost four to five years after Hero released. The day after the premiere of Hero, I was still standing in the same queue to go to the common washroom for my morning call. I was a hero but I was still standing in the queue to go to the bathroom (laughs). Everything was normal for me it’s just that I had become a hero. I was still sitting down in our house and eating dal chawal prepared by my mother. As a person nothing has changed for me. I still have the same respect and regard for the entire film fraternity,” he added.
The Mast Mein Rehne Ka actor recalled how the people of the chawl gave him a washroom as gift after the release of Hero, “Kya mast gift diya tha sab doston ne mil ke (laughs). We had seven houses in our chawl and there were approximately 30 people staying in them. We would share 3 common washrooms amongst all of us. But all those people were really sweet and they would always give me preference whenever I was stand in the queue.”
Shroff, whose recent release Mast Mein Rehne Ka again won him praise for his acting also revealed he was dazed on the day of the premiere, “There was a huge premiere at Ganga-Jamuna cinemas (in Mumbai). I don’t know what was happening at all. For the first time I was wearing a suit and I was constantly nervous and sweating. The entire film fraternity had turned up and I was just walking behind Subhash Ghaiji who was introducing me to everyone. I remember at the end of the movie, people loved it and that made me really happy.”
Shroff also said that it was Ghai’s stubbornness that got him the lead role in Hero, “Subhashji had taken the script of Hero to many actors but everyone had refused. He was really angry and that’s when he decided that I will cast a newcomer and make him into a huge star. My friend Ashok Khanna, who would teach me Hindi fiction had passed my photograph to Subhashji. Ashok Khanna fixed up a meeting and Subhashji asked me whether I knew acting and my answer was no. He asked me whether I knew Hindi and I said that I had very Bambiya language which was very informal. He then told me whether I had got into any brawls in real life and I said yes.”
“Thats when I thought that he wanted to cast me for the role of a villain but I ended up becoming a hero (laughs). His criteria for making an actor was totally out of the box,” the actor added.
The actor concluded that he is indebted to the Taal filmmaker for his life, “Whatever I am today is because of Subhashji. He is one man who trusted me then and still trusts me and I have the same feeling for him. In fact he is like my father in law because when I got married to Ayesha, Subhashji had done the kanyadaan. He is a gem of person.”
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