Shyam Benegal gave me ‘Nishant’ because of my bad looks, recounted Naseeruddin Shah in a conversation with veteran actor Girish Karnad at the Jaipur Literature Festival.
“I lost a girlfriend because I wasn’t good looking. And, I got a role in ‘Nishant’ because I wasn’t good looking,” said Naseeruddin Shah.
Naseeruddin Shah spoke about his early days in Bollywood when he didn’t get much work even after ‘Nishant’, which was a National award winning movie. He also discussed at length about his experience of teaching acting at various acting schools, disappointment for not being a commercially successful actor and about his close friend and fellow actor Om Puri.
Naseeruddin Shah said he fell short of work after ‘Nishant’ and the roles he was getting were either of a union leader or a police officer who would say ‘tumhe chaaro taraf se gher lia hai’ or of a doctor whose expertise was in saying ‘Maine injection de diya hai’.
The actor expressed his resentment over the fact that he never became a celebrated star.
“I feel disappointed at times that I couldn’t succeed in commercial cinema, but then I have swallowed that like a pinch of salt now,” he added.
