Shekhar Suman: ‘Directors Weren’t Noticing Me’

‘Sushma Swarajji confessed that almost the whole Parliament had tried to dissuade her from coming on the show, but her daughter insisted Movers & Shakers was the best show in the country so she accepted our invitation to be on it.’

IMAGE: Madhuri Dixit and Shekhar Suman in Manav Hatya.

Shekhar Suman has so much to say these days.

From his comeback in Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, the stunning scene in that Web series to joining the BJP, to conceding that he won’t mind campaigning for Kangana Ranaut who had a troubled relationship with his son.

“It was during the Dekh Bhai Dekh shoot that I learnt my elder son, Aayush, had a heart ailment and was terminally ill. I was a broken man and since Sameer is a fun-loving character, I was weighed down by guilt and plagued by doubts whenever I had to do a light scene. I would ask myself if I should be doing this instead of sitting by my son’s bed,” Shenkar Suman tells Rediff.com Senior Contributor Roshmila Bhattacharya in the concluding segment of a three part interview.

You have worked with so many of the industry’s most beautiful heroines, from Rekha, Dimple and Manisha Koirala to…

(Cuts in) Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla and Raveena Tandon.

I was very lucky.

 

IMAGE: Shekhar Suman and Rekha in Utsav.

Let’s rewind to Manav Hatya, Madhuri and your second film…

I was on a high after Utsav when I got a call from this director whose name I’d never heard.

I had no phone then, the errand boy from the nearby kirana (grocer) shop would come running, saying, ‘Aap ka phone aaya hai.’

I would follow him to the shop and wait for the person, who had since disconnected, to call back.

Sudarshan Rattan wanted to cast me, but had no money to pay.

I pointed out that after Utsav I was a big star and he admitted that’s why he had called.

The story had me hooked.

When I asked about the leading lady, he informed me that Madhuri Dixit was studying microbiology and had just finished a film, Abodh, with the Rajshris.

We visited Madhuri’s JB Nagar residence (Andheri East, north west Mumbai) together.

Tezaab had not yet happened, but I could see the spark in her.

‘Let’s do it,’ I decided impulsively, and Sudarshan confessed not only could he not pay me cab money, he expected me to pick up Madhuri, bring her to the sets, take her for dance classes and drop her home on my motorcycle.

He also wanted to shoot a major portion of the film in my Mahakali (Andheri East, north west Mumbai) residence, borrow my wife’s clothes and hoped Alka would do Madhuri’s make-up too!

I couldn’t believe my ears!

The man had nothing and still wanted to make the film.

We did make Manav Hatya and Madhuri Dixit did go on to become a huge star!

IMAGE: Shekhar Suman and Sudha Chandran in Nache Mayuri.

There was also Nache Mayuri…

Mr T Rama Rao approached me saying he was making a film on a Bharata Natyam dancer, Sudha Chandran, who had continued dancing with a Jaipur foot after losing her leg in an accident.

The film revolved around the heroine but he said he had an interesting role for me.

I later discovered that another actor, Sumeet Saigal, who had been signed earlier for the same role, had quit after a few days.

I was convinced it was because the character had negative shades; he abandons the girl after she loses her leg.

The director reasoned he was not a villain as he later apologises and asks Mayuri to take him back.

After the film was released, my father, a doctor who hardly watched films, went to see Nache Mayuri at Jaipur’s Kala Mandir theatre.

It was a packed house and when I tell her, ‘Mujhe maaf kar do‘ (Forgive me)’ the whole theatre shouted, ‘Maaro haramzaade ko! (Beat up the bastard)’

Dad went into depression even though I pointed out that the abuses were not aimed at me and was a victory for the character.

T Rama Rao had told me I’d get Rs 15 and I had assumed he meant Rs 1.50 lakh. which was big money then.

(Laughs) It turned out to be Rs 15,000, less than even Utsav for which I got Rs 25,000.

But you did go on to become one of the highest paid actors in the country in the ’90s and early 2000s?

Yes, money was pouring in after Movers & Shakers.

At the turn of the millennium, I was voted one of the top 10 Mumbaikars.

People joked that even when they switched off their TV sets, I was there!

I would ask God if he was compensating me for the loss of Ayush, the greatest tragedy of my life.

My son is an angel now, looking after his younger brother, giving his family the strength to fight the odds and come out smiling.

Fingers crossed, with Heeramandi, a new chapter begins.

IMAGE: Manisha Koirala and Shekhar Suman in Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar.

What was it like working with Manisha Koirala?

Manisha has been through a lot and realised how transient life is, she now lives in the moment.

Once she committed to the series, she gave it her all.

Changing her voice, spending hours in make-up, developing a character like Mallikajaan who while so dark, also had a good side.

While my Nawab Zulfikar only has a few scenes, hers is the author-backed role with the best lines.

Mr Bhansali and she had done Khamoshi: The Musical earlier and owed it to each other to come up with something as memorable 28 years later.

They did.

IMAGE: N K Shivpuri, Bhavana Balsavar, Shekhar Suman and Navin Nischol in Dekh Bhai Dekh.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought your 1993 sitcom Dekh Bhai Dekh, back into our living rooms during the months of lockdown.

Yes, it’s an iconic show. Would you believe, I almost refused it because I did not want to do television at that point.

I would have hung up on Aanand Mahendroo but by mentioning that Jayaji (Bachchan) was producing it, and that there were some good people involved, he convinced me to come for a narration.

Once he sketched out the character of Sameer Diwan to me, I couldn’t say no.

Aanand is a master craftsman who shot with multiple cameras back in the ’90s, worked with a bound script, created a wonderful sense of camaraderie on the sets and imparted great values through his beautiful characters.

It would have been idiotic to turn him down.

Dekh Bhai Dekh brings back some fond memories today.

And some sad ones too.

Sad?

Yes, it was during this shoot that I learnt my elder son, Aayush, had a heart ailment and was terminally ill.

I was a broken man and since Sameer is a fun-loving character, I was weighed down by guilt and plagued by doubts whenever I had to do a light scene.

I would ask myself if I should be doing this instead of sitting by my son’s bed.

Fortunately, my wife, Alka, was a source of great strength, pointing out that she was with Aayush.

I had to work to pay the bills and be strong for our younger son, Adhyayan.

Aanand and my Dekh Bhai Dekh family gave me the courage to carry on.

I miss Aayush, I wish he was here now.

There was another show…

Yes, Reporter, a fiction newsroom drama in which I play an investigative journalist.

It got me plenty of awards and rewards.

IMAGE: Govinda teaches dance to Shekhar Suman in Movers & Shakers.

And Movers & Shakers, a late-night talk show you hosted on Sony TV between 1997 and 2001, had some memorable guests.

Loads of them, like Ustad Amjad Ali Khansahab, Sonu Nigam, Priyanka Chopra, Pramod Mahajan, Chhagan Bhujwal, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushma Swarajji…

Sushma Swarajji confessed that almost the whole Parliament had tried to dissuade her from coming on the show, but her daughter (Bansuri Swaraj, who is contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha election from New Delhi) insisted Movers & Shakers was the best show in the country so she accepted our invitation to be on it.

Shah Rukh (Khan) and Juhi (Chawla) were there to promote Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. He was quick on the uptake and promised to cast me in his next film.

(Chuckles) Bhattsahab (Mahesh Bhatt), who was accused of directing films on the phone, sportingly made an entry rapping out instructions on the phone.

There were 22 shows in a month and I was interviewing two guests in one day which makes it 44 in a month.

Some of them, like the pop singers who kept popping up, I didn’t know well, so I would pull their leg.

One of them confessed he was really excited to be invited, but also told his mother that he’d be back in half-an-hour zaleel ho ke (humiliated).

(Guffaws) But I didn’t tear him to pieces and he wondered if I was angry. It was such an entertaining, irreverent, show.

There were also legends like tabla maestro Ustad Alla Rakhasahab…

I treated him with great reverence.

When asked about Woodstock, he shocked me by recalling a pregnant English lady who, when his performance reached a crescendo, taking his name, went, ‘Allaaaah!’, her excitement triggering off labour pains.

She delivered her baby right there at the concert.

Any chance of bringing the show back?

Everyday I am asked this question by countless people.

I really want to, but I have to be given the liberty to be as outspoken.

God willing, someday.

Meanwhile, something exciting is happening with another iconic show, but don’t ask me which one yet.

IMAGE: Shekhar Suman, Sanjay Dutt and Aditi Rao Hydari on the sets of Bhoomi. Photograph: Kind courtesy Shekhar Suman/X

What about films? Where did you disappear after Bhoomi in 2017?

My wife too has been wondering why I wasn’t getting the kind of work I deserved.

Maybe it was destiny or karma. I couldn’t complain because within 15 days of landing in Bombay, I got a Shashi Kapoor production, Ustav, opposite Rekha.

Yes, I was disappointed that directors were not noticing me when I had so much to give.

Then, Mr Bhansali came along with Zulfikar.