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Bombay, bas

The Shahrukh Khan of Marine Drive

The city is home to several film ‘strugglers’ – while most simply fail, one became a star on the street.
by Nidhi Qazi

After a weekend well spent at the NCPA, spending time at Marine Drive seemed to be the obvious next choice. I couldn’t have gone there at a better time, for I saw a crowd of about 30 men huddled to watch someone perform. That someone was a man with long hair, lovingly called ‘Shahrukh’ by the crowd. He was enacting a Shahrukh Khan dialogue from the movie Mohabbatein, adding his bit of humour. “Woh mere ghar ke saamne se nikalti thi, thoda sharmati thi, lajaati thi. Kuch kehna tha usko magar keh nahi paati thi. Baad mein pata chala, woh gutka chabaati thi.” The audience applauded and whistled.

He started on another one from an Ajay Devgan movie – “Mujhe apno ne loota, gairon mein kahaan dum tha. Meri haddi vahaan tooti, jahan hospital band tha.” The crowd roared again.

Who is he? I wondered. Catching up with him later, I learnt that ‘Shahrukh’s’ real name was Gabbar Singh. Confused? Wait, let’s start this story from the beginning.

The star of Marine Drive

Gabbar Singh Chauhan (25) has been a star entertainer at Marine Drive for almost a decade now. The crowds simply love his acting of the famous movie scenes and stunts and dialogues with his touch of humour thrown in.

Gabbar Singh has been there, done that in Mumbai. Part of a dozen reality shows like India’s Got Talent and Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega, he is a sought-after entertainer in family functions and a regular face at the endless auditions of the reality shows that have mushroomed in the electronic media. He carries a portfolio full of newspaper cuttings featuring him wherever he goes.

Watch a clip of Gabbar performing in Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega:

 

He has long straight hair, inspired by Hrithik Roshan’s Krrish, a heart tattoo on the right arm and a petite frame, and comes across as another wannabe actor who is in this dream city for his big dream – Bollywood. But that is until you actually hear his story.

A têteàtête with Gabbar:

Gabbar Singh ChauhanI sat him down for tea at an eatery in Churchgate, and he proceeded to tell me his story. His conversation was liberally peppered with anecdotes illustrating how he is a people’s star. As if on cue, a waiter comes to the table and says, “Aap media se lagte ho. Yeh Gabbar Singh hain. Khayaal rakhiye inka. Yeh bahut achche actor hain. Maine inko Girgaon chowpatty mein dekha tha perform karte hue. Jamm ke likhiye inke baare mein (You must be from the media. This is Gabbar Singh. Take note of him, he’s a very good actor. I’d seen him perform at Girgaon chowpatty. Write a nice big piece on him.)”

The small display of his fan following aside, Gabbar proceeded with his story. An SSC passout, he is a resident of Mathura, UP and acting was not what he wanted to do. His parents named him Gabbar because he was “stubborn like Gabbar Singh”. He said, “I didn’t want to want to become an actor. Desh ki janta ne mujhe actor banaya hai (The people of the country made me an actor).” He added, “I saw a Shahrukh film on TV, then enacted the scene in front of a mirror and thought I was a very good actor.”

Mathura gave him a platform to perform at local events and his fan following increased. People started calling him ‘Mathura ka Shah Rukh’. Eventually, he got coverage in the local media and all this attention led him to come to Mumbai, only to get rejected.

“I came to Mumbai in 2002. People made fun of me when I asked them about Shahrukh’s and Amitabh Bachchan’s address. Nobody guided me. I didn’t know anyone in the film industry.” He then went back to Mathura. At that time, he was spotted by a director, and eventually got a role in Ravi Kissen starrer Dharam Shakti. Though the film did not release, it motivated Gabbar to chase his Bollywood dream and he came back in 2004.

Not a struggler

Speaking about his ‘public demand’, Gabbar says, “Aaj kal ke strugglers ki koi demand nahin hai. Main hoon asli zindagi ka hero. Public kehti ki aisa actor unhone zindagi mein pehli Gabbar Singh Chauhan baar dekha hai (No strugglers are in demand these days. I am a real-life actor. People say they have never seen an actor like me in their lives.”) But the passion with which he says this doesn’t really come across as boastful.

He then shows me a few mobile clippings featuring him. I see the judges laughing at him and point it out to him, but he says, “Judges hans rahein hain kyunki woh mujhe pasand karte hain, mujhe talented maante hain. Farah Khan ne toh mujhe apni film Happy New Year mein ek role bhi offer kiya hai (The judges are laughing because they like me, they think I’m talented. Farah Khan has even offered me a role in her film Happy New Year).”

In one clip, Anu Malik goes a few words further in his appreciation for Gabbar, “Gabbar Singh, tu filmi nahi hai; tu toh apne mein ek poori film hai (You are not just filmi, you are an entire film).” And he believes them all because, “Judges don’t lie.”

Gabbar’s source of income is the performances he gives at birthday parties, orchestras and the stage, and he makes about Rs.10,000 per month. As for Marine Drive, he performs on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9 pm till about midnight.

Aiming for the stars

Gabbar in the newsAfter almost a decade of entertaining people by enacting famous scenes from films with his touch of humour, mimicking and performing several antics, what does he think he has achieved? “Name, popularity and respect,” he says. “Public ek star ko jitna pyaar deti hai, mujhe bhi utna deti hai. People ask me for autographs, photographs and wherever I go, people recognise me. Even media asks me for bytes on various incidents.”

Having “trained at Prithvi Theatre for three months”, Gabbar feels he doesn’t lack in talent but the only shortcoming is his improper Hindi and English diction. “Meri angrezi mein shehri touch nahi hai (My English is not very posh),” he rues.

With Bollywood as his “asli maksad”, doesn’t he feel his chances are reduced due to his non-filmy background? “Background doesn’t matter. Yes, the struggle is less but ultimately, public is the real judge. Take Sonu Sood, Shahrukh Khan, Mithun. None of them had a filmy background. Background ka achaar dalenge agar janta pasand nahi karegi!””

When fans follow

Gabbar Singh ChauhanAfter an hour of talking, we go back to Marine Drive, only to witness the much talked-about fan following. The first in line is a driver who calls out “Namaste, Shahrukhji.” Next, a couple of drivers say, “Kya haal Gabbar?” Two men on a motorbike at the signal shout across the road, “Hi, Gabbar!” Finally, at the stretch from Pizza by the Bay to the Air India building, chaiwallahas and local vendors greet Gabbar. There is a group of teenage boys who want to get a picture clicked with their Shahrukh.

We also chance upon the waiter who is done for the day and is relaxing by the seaside. He is Aditya, a huge fan of Gabbar. He says, “So many people like him, watch him. His acting style is fun but he should concentrate more on comedy.” He adds, “If big newspapers write about him, he would be instantly noticed by the industry bigwigs.”

Meanwhile, Gabbar Singh dials “Farah Khan’s number” only to find it “switched off”. And we call it a day.

(Pictures courtesy afternoondc.com and Nidhi Qazi) 

Categories
Cinema@100

The boy who couldn’t dance

Everybody on the sets, including Hrithik Roshan, thought he couldn’t dance at all. Guess who turned that idea upside down?
by Jatin Sharma

Hrithik Roshan

We all have our insecurities. Hrithik Roshan, the man now synonymous with breathtaking dance moves, had his own insecurities, too – he couldn’t dance!

From the age of 9 or 10, Hrithik Roshan believed that all the fathers in the world are actors. “I thought every person grows up and becomes an actor,” he says. “My father was one, everyone around me was one. I thought this was something you did, that you didn’t have a choice.”

But as he grew up, his dreams of becoming an actor were also supplemented with the long hours he put in helping his father, Rakesh Roshan, as an assistant on his shoots. He assisted during Karan Arjun and other films. Then, quite literally, a shower changed his life.

“My father’s best ideas have come to him while he was having a bath,” Hrithik laughs. “He was once having a shower. He was suddenly very excited and started talking about the central idea of Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai. I was hooked, but I said, ‘Shahrukh, Salman and others have done these things before. Why would they do it again?”

“And he said, ‘They won’t. But you will.’ And he gave me exactly two months to get ready for the role.”

Training days

Though he prepared meticulously for the role, he says he felt the pressure so much that he couldn’t sleep the night before the first shoot. “I got up and listened to music on my walkman till I calmed down,” he remembers.

He was soon to become known as a dancing sensation second only to the legendary Michael Jackson, but his first dance shoot made it clear to everyone – including Hrithik – that he had two left feet. “The first song we shot for Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai was ‘Pyaar ki kashti mein’ and Farah Khan was furious with me for not getting it kaho naa pyaar hairight. Everybody thought dancing and Hrithik were two separate things,” he chuckles.

Horribly embarassed, Hrithik took Rishi, the assistant on the shoot, aside and practiced one dance step for about an hour. Then he came back and gave the shot. Suddenly, there was silence on the sets. “Then they all started laughing because they thought I was playing a prank on them earlier. Somebody even said, ‘Humko ulloo bana rahe the, ki aap naach nahin sakte!'”

Hrithik just nodded and the shoot continued. “I figured at that moment that dance did not come naturally to me, but it was something I could do if I worked very hard on it,” he reasons. Even today, he is known to rehearse a single step for about an hour or two and does not let the camera roll till he feels he is ready.

He still grins at the memory of how he was compared to Michael Jackson for his dancing after Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai became a blockbuster. “When I first read the news in a newspaper, I remember, Suzanne (his wife) and I were laughing!”

Jatin Sharma works in radio. 

(Pictures courtesy mvmsit.blogspot.com, www.myindia.raafatrola.com, www.suvarnaa.net)

Categories
M

Naach na jaane

Most Bollywood actors can’t dance. Meanwhile, the girls are dancing their way into roles that require little else from them.
by M | M@themetrognome.in

Bollywood is synonymous with naach gaana. It is what defines Hindi cinema, and when done in foreign locales with local residents gaping in astonishment, it truly embarrasses us (the audience, not the filmmakers). In recent times, the gaana bit (read ‘lyrics’) has been reduced to a mockery, with popular numbers having words like ‘Po, Po’ (pronounced ‘Paw, Paw’) in them. Meanwhile, the naach hasn’t been doing too well, either.

Choreographer Remo D’Souza’s upcoming flim ABCD promises some good dance moves, at least in the trailers. Which makes me wonder: in a country of dancers, why has it taken so long for anyone to make a good dance film?

If Judson Laipply (of the The Evolution of Dance stand up act) were to do a piece on Bollywood dance, it would be called the Degradation of Bollywood Dance. And why not? In this particular sphere, comedians around the world have so much material to choose from. From Salman’s inexplicable moves to Sanjay Dutt’s (supposed) pelvic thrusts, there’s enough and more to make one shut their eyes and never watch another Hindi film ever.

I was astounded at the dance steps assigned to a certain Ms Sharma in her last release, Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, which required a vigorous butt jiggle. I was even more astounded when the same steps were re-assigned to Pankaj Kapur. Anybody else in his place, veteran actor or not, would have been reduced to a caricature of himself with that dance, but to his credit, he can dance.

Which brings me to the many actors in the industry who hate to dance. I understand that they hate it, what I don’t get is that they make no effort to learn dancing while being in a profession that requires them to move their feet. Some specimens that belong to this category are Ajay Devgn, Himesh Reshamiya and Saif Ali Khan and more. This bunch was highly active last year, and there will be a reprise in the near future.

The other interesting category of actors are the once who could dance, once upon a time, but now can’t dance to save their lives. Some of them are now too beefy or too old to do anything more than a cursory hip shake. Salman Khan is the King of this club. It is painful to watch him dance these days. Equally painful to watch is Sanjubaba. He was no match for Madhuri in ‘Tamma Tamma’ (Thanedar), but he didn’t have two left feet back then. Salman in Dabangg  with his ridiculous moves involving the belt is beyond rubbish. His attempts to keep up with the lissom Katrina Kaif in Ek Tha Tiger were actually funny.

Fortunately, the actresses these days can shake a leg. Well, they have to, or they wouldn’t qualify for several roles if they didn’t know how to move that waist and look pretty while doing so. But I won’t lay blame only on the actors; choreographers need to work harder, too. Kareena Kapoor’s latest item number ‘Fevicol Se’ in Dabangg 2 was a disaster. Farah Khan is one of the few dance directors who has consistently delivered. Among the men, Prabhudeva is reliable. We’ll see him soon in ABCD. But can he save the last (good) dance for Bollywood?

Sharp as a tack and sitting on more hot scoops than she knows what to do with, M is a media professional with an eye on entertainment.

(Picture courtesy fillum.com)

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