Fate of a Star

I did not have any great plans for the new year. Plan was to go back to the house, have a sober evening with ma family with good sea food-home cooked. I was dropped near Jayanagar Complex from my colleague that day. As usual having the panipuri that I always gobble up, I moved on to catch a rickshaw back to my place. Well recession did have effect upon me (less of rickshaws and more of Volvo busses these days… every rupee saved is a rupee gained) well they say when you cannot increase your income reduce costs… wud love to deliberate upon the same some day on to ma philosophy on spendings..

Well lemme get back to the stuff that I wanted to talk about…I stopped a rick to my place the driver as usual demanded 10 Rs above the meter. The idea was reach early to the house and I agreed… People are always interesting to me.. the way they think, the way they react or respond…. I struck a conversation with the rick guy (I do virtually with every driver usually may be it makes me understand about being humble)… he was basically a sound technician working in TV serials on daily wages .. it seemed he didn’t have any work for ten days and he was back on to the rick… The wages were decent enough to run his house along with his wife and three children… He told he was making his ends meet in these days.. and the business of auto whenever he runs on spare time is dull…..and he suddenly opened up stating that it was his “FATE” that brought him here… otherwise he would have been some where else…

Inquisitive about people as always… (my friends say that’s bad..) I probed him more… and you know he asked me how many movies from India has been nominated for Oscars and I said handful like Mother India, Salam Bombay and Lagaan… ( I felt like I was being questioned in a quiz show..hosted by a rick driver ) and he asked whether I saw the movie Salaam Bombay that released in 1988…well I was 13 or so then I told him.. but I have seen some snippets in the tv then..

“Shafiq Sayed” he said.. the child actor did I know him.. I said I have faint memories… he grinned and said.. I am him… I was dumbstruck…. He says doesn’t it look funny…. He is driving the rick now…he continued.. its impossible to believe.. but I acted in one more movie called “patang” in 1994….. I was intrigued… directed by Gautham Ghosh.. with Ompuri, Shabana azmi….Shatrughan Sinha were his co stars..

I asked him .. what r u doing here.. He just smiled…. And said ‘Fate’… he was telling about the time when he got his national award for Best Child Actor for Salam Bombay…the accolades.. the hotel he stayed for three days in the Capital…. The times when he did not know the etiquette of how to eat in the hotel.. the days of press conferences….

He said that I have seen worser days.. where he tried to end his life couple of times… I asked what about the people who took him up like Mira Nair.. isn’t he in touch with them.. he tells that they don’t remember… he told about the Salaam Balak trust..that was set up for the street children after Salaam Bombay.. the money of around 5-6 million USD (his figures) Mira Nair earned… the remuneration of Rs 15,000 he earned where he got around 12,500 at the end of the movie.. net of advance payments he had taken over the period of movie.. couldn’t deliberate much with him.. but still he wanted to script a movie.. he told he has studied only till third standard.. his english was good when he was talking … he told ‘I cannot write much though in English…but I want to direct movies… or script for the movies.. my life story itself is a story by itself…. ‘ he had given his script to some writer from Gujarath a bob cut lady.. he didn’t seem to remember her name… I told him.. please make it a point to record his own story in a Dictaphone or such recording device over a period of his time.. and then go to a author.. hope he does that.. he may do well for himself with his story.. might be a interesting look into those child stars who faded…. People might really want to know the other side of the silver screen of these stars.. and know why they fade.. might be the filmmakers who make money may think of these people in a different vien…

The only luck factor he said is that he is staying in a small house with a hall and kitchen owned by his mother … and one of his brother was a cameraman.. in employment on monthly rolls…..

He told that I had taught in NSD for some time on acting too..

At the end he didn’t want to take that 10 Rs over and above the meter that he had asked for when we reached near our house.. it was around 20-25 mins that we spoke from the time I got on to the rick including the time I spent after alighting from the rick…I checked on the net his pic as a child star in Salam Bombay… The smile he had was the same…. I couldn’t take the snap since it was dark and I had a very basic phone with not good picture quality that I purchased recently….

I only hope that he gets his due soon.. and I wished him happiness…and a eventful and happening new year….

Well it was some evening for me… ‘Evening with a Star’…. with a person like you and me known by millions of people at one point of time…

(PS: Well for those who have not heard about that movie.. you will get a details of the plot in this link http://www.bhattivideo.se/filmer/salambombay.htm )