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A hero like no other

Last Updated 19 July 2014, 16:01 IST

Meeting Jackie Shroff is always an ecstatic experience, not just because of the magnetic charm and charisma he exudes, but also because he is humble, rooted and informal beyond imagination.

He laughs out loud when we meet within the portals of a five-star lounge where he has summoned me on phone, simply because my name had not registered when we fixed up the appointment, despite bumping into each other so often after we first met over 12 years ago! The handshake is rock-firm, the hug cordial, as the ‘right’ food is ordered, and we settle down.

“Bring whatever is healthy from these!” he commands smilingly to the waitress, whose day is made by the magical smile and warmth.

Such a long journey

The first topic therefore is the renewed health of his own career, now in its 33rd year since his first blink-and-miss turn in Dev Anand’s Swami Dada, followed a year later by a smash debut as leading man in Subhash Ghai’s Hero. Good roles have begun coming his way again, and so has an international assignment.

At his peak, Jackie has worked with the crème de la crème of the industry — apart from Dev Anand and Subhash Ghai, his directors have included Ramesh Sippy, Chetan Anand, J P Dutta, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, K Vishwanath, Rajiv Rai, Priyadarshan, Rakesh Roshan and Mahesh Bhatt at his starry peak, and later Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Mohit Suri, Madhur Bhandarkar and Farah Khan through almost 200 films.

“Aditya Chopra called me to play Aamir Khan’s father in Dhoom 3,” he says. “He told me that I was needed to provide the emotional flavour in a film that otherwise had everything — big stars, action and grandeur. ‘Without emotions, my film will not work!’ he told me.

And the line, ‘Haath nahin chhodna saath nahin chhodna’ was loved by the audience! Earlier, I had done his Aurangzeb too, in which I was appreciated.

And Jackie smiles and says, “I have just done Kochadaiiyaan and I am now doing Farah Khan’s Happy New Year and a small comic film called Zaalim Dilli, besides some other movies.”

The international film will be confirmed later this month, if his role, as narrated, works out in the final script. “The producer is from UK, a friend of a friend.

But though I would love to be exposed as an actor to more than 100 crore Indians, I cannot do something insignificant there,” he declares firmly.

Which is when we remind him that he shifted to character roles all of 12 years ago, when contemporaries Sunny Deol and Anil Kapoor were still doing heroes’ roles. He laughs and admits, “Look, I was cool about doing any kind of role.

Apun to aaya hi tha yahaan villain banne, aur Subhash Ghai ne bada hero banaa diya (I had come here to become a villain, and Ghai made me a top hero). I came from a home where 30 people shared a washroom and I have two of my own now.

God has been kind. So why should I complain? The best of filmmakers signed me for my height, my voice, my presence and my persona and style.”

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Style, he reminds us, has been his middle name. “I am a big boy — thanks to my height and bone structure. I have a commanding look. Jeans, high boots — without ever going to college, I had lots of style, and that has not left me. And I was also the first superhero, in Hindi cinema’s first 3D film, Shiva Ka Insaaf,” he says.

He also reminds us that he was the first to start a barrage of kissing. “I have kissed my heroines in nine films: Madhuri Dixit in Vardi, wherein I am imagining that she is my love, Kimi Katkar, Juhi Chawla in Aaina, Sonam in Aakhri Adaalat, and six more! Finally I told my filmmakers, ‘Ab bas bhi karo (Enough now)!’” he grins.

His mentor, Dev Anand, is also his main inspiration. “I would like to be like Dev-saab. I am inspired by the way he looked after his health. I want to continue working at 85.”

His other great teacher has been his mother, who hailed from Turkmenistan. “Dekh, bhidu, bacche ka pehla school parents hote hain (A child’s first school are his parents)! The teachers in school come later. Mommy taught me everything about values and how I must help others as much as I can,” he tells you candidly.

Jackie adored his late mother and says, “It is funny, but I never looked at my mother as a foreigner. She was a human. Insaan insaan hai, idhar ka udhar ka kya (A human being is a human being, whatever be his origin). She hailed from a place so cold that in summer she would often sit in my house on slabs of ice covered by a rug. Mother adapted so well to life in an Indian chawl.

What amazing strength of character she must have had, to live happily in a single room with my father, an Indian she loved, after spending her childhood in affluence going to school in a six-horse carriage and living in a neighbourhood where even the shrubs were cherry shrubs.”

And such are the values Jackie and his wife Ayesha have together instilled in son Tiger, the newest star in town, and daughter Krishna. As proud as any father of an achiever can be, Jackie smiles and says, “For me, my boy is a true star who is world-class in real — not VFX-generated-action.

He is also a fabulous dancer, and his acting has that theheraav or solidity. He knows how to modulate his facial expressions and body language.”


He proudly adds that Tiger signed his first film on his own, came home and told him that he was doing Sajid Nadiadwala’s film. “I saw Heropanti only when the film’s team saw it — till then I had not seen even an inch of him on screen,” says Jackie.

“The world has already passed verdict on Tiger, but I am happy that he has absorbed our values. He’s respectful and good to all. We must respect a servant as much as a country’s president. Human beings are human beings,” he repeats.


He chuckles at the fallout of Tiger’s popularity as he adds, “Today, all those who know me as Jaggu Dada, King Uncle and more and have loved my work in Hero, Parinda, Ram Lakhan and other films have forgotten them and refer to me as Tiger Shroff ka baap. It is as if I am the new arrival! But who will not like his son becoming bigger than him?”

So, is stardom worth everything in the final analysis? “It is fantastic, bhidu! And I will give you an example why. Dr Narendra Pandya is a top plastic surgeon here.

Many years ago, I called him up, introduced myself, and told him that I would like him to do reconstructive surgery on the burnt face of a poor boy from Bihar. Not only did he oblige, but the doctor did not charge the boy’s family a goddamn penny. And it’s all because a star called Jackie Shroff spoke to him on the phone!”

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(Published 19 July 2014, 16:01 IST)

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