Actor Sanjeev Kumar started his career as a lead actor in 1965 with Nishan. In his film career of almost 25 years, he was seen in many films including Yeh Hai Zindagi, Ram Tere Kitne Naam, Katal, Shikar. Sanjeev won many awards in his life, including two National Film Awards for Best Actor for his 1970 film Dastak and the 1972 film Kashay. He died of a heart attack on 6 November 1985. In the biography titled ‘Sanjeev Kumar: The Actor We All Loved’, the author has spoken about his early struggles in the industry.
This book is written by Rita Ramamurthy Gupta and Uday Jariwala. The book includes stories by Sanjeev Kumar. Who dedicated his entire life to Indian cinema. This story of Sanjeev Kumar’s life tells about his early struggling days in the film industry. In this episode of the journey, he meets a famous filmmaker who wants to make a film about Sanjeev.
How a producer decides his fee after seeing Hari (Sanjeev Kumar) in a bus
An interesting anecdote from those days was narrated by Sanjeev’s closest friend Subhash Indauri in his interview with Anil Chitre in the July 1980 edition of Cineblitz. Sanjeev Kumar used to travel by bus. By then his first film Nishan had already released. On one such day, a producer traveling in the same bus spotted him. He recognized Sanjeev Kumar. As soon as he got off the bus, Sanjeev ran after him and said that he wanted to discuss the film with him. He asked for Sanjeev Kumar’s house address.
The next day, the producer reaches Sanjeev’s chali in one of Bhuleshwar’s rooms and finds Sanjeev sleeping in the kitchen. Sanjeev immediately got up and made tea for his guest. After this the discussion started. The producer asked how much money he got for his film Nishan. Sanjeev replied “₹25,000.”
The producer is shocked and says to Sanjeev but I can offer you only Rs 10,000. On this Sanjeev said, I know. Sanjeev replied, “When you saw me traveling in the bus, you deducted “₹5,000” and when I made the tea myself and gave it to you, you deducted another “₹5,000″. Now you can offer me the remaining amount. But my cost is still ₹25,000.” The deal was done and Sanjeev Kumar was signed for the same price.