Kamal Ghorui
Anupam Kher began his film journey in the 1980s with Mahesh Bhatt’s ‘Saaransh’ and it remains one of his most memorable roles. Thus, to express gratitude to Bhatt who he considers ‘guru’ he still follows a ritual. In a recent interview, Anupam revealed that after every film, he gives Bhatt Rs 25,000 to Bhatt, a tradition that began with just Rs 500 and gradually increased over the years.Kher was also asked if he would like to revisit any of his 550 films in a remake. He shared that he would love to reimagine ‘Saaransh’ as an action film. “I want to do Saaransh 2 as an action actor. I spoke to Mahesh Bhatt a month ago. I told him Bhatt saab, ‘I really want to do action because I am working on myself’. I do display my body at the risk of being laughed at. I feel very happy about it. I would want my character to save people via action. Like in Taken, so I want to do something like that,” he said in an interview with Pinkvilla.
Recalling how the ritual of paying his “guru” began, Anupam shared, “He gave me my first break so back then I would give him Rs 250 for every film. Now it’s Rs 25,000. He says this is the result of inflation. It went from Rs 250 to Rs 500 to Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 and now is Rs 25,000. I just gave him an envelope last week. Now he just holds the envelope and he knows how much is in it. But I really like it. It’s more of a ritual than anything else. It’s a comedy.”The actor had earlier opened up about a dramatic moment during the making of Saaransh, when Bhatt briefly replaced him with Sanjeev Kumar. In an interview with ANI, Anupam revealed that he had spent months preparing for the role before learning, just days before filming, that he was being dropped. Devastated, he decided to leave Mumbai, but not before confronting Bhatt.“I took the cab to his house, and I walked up the stairs. He praised me for taking the news sportingly, but I told him to look out of his window and see the car that was standing there. It had all my belongings, and I told him that before leaving, I wanted to tell him what a fraud he is… I wanted to make final climactic statement, and I told him that as a Brahmin man, I was cursing him,” he recalled.With Kher’s passion and determination, Bhatt ultimately changed his decision and took him in his film.
