ANUPAM KHER KI EK AJEEB SI NAV RAATI AHMEDABAD MEIN

Anupam had just started knowing the value of money and had started being paid in lakhs for a film - ALI  PETER JOHN

He had still to buy his own house and lived in small rooms and flats in societies in areas in almost unknown suburbs of Mumbai.

I had started following him in journeys of success which was one of the strangest journeys of a star I have seen...

He had seen big time success after films like Saransh, Karma , Daddy and Ram laxman but still was being paid few lakhs of rupees.

It was at this time that a group of young men from Ahmedabad came to me and said that they wanted Anupam to dance at a Dandiya function in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

I knew Anupam couldn't dance or even shake a leg even though he was a very good actor, but I also knew he needed money desperately.

I went to meet him at the Filmistaan studio and told him about the offer made by the man from Ahmedabad and he jumped at the offer and said he didn't want to lose the opportunity of making lakhs of rupees in just one evening.

He took a break from his shooting with me and planned out his schedule and within minutes he decided he would take the offer and take a flight from Bombay to Ahmedabad at 8 pm the same evening and he immediately called all his friends to inform his home that he wouldn't be coming home that night as he was shooting overnight in Panvel and we (Anupam and me ) took an Indian Airlines flight to Ahmedabad and we were received with all the respect and Anupam realised what a big star he had become when he saw the crowd at the airport.

We were led to a decent hotel and given two different rooms and by 9.30 there was a huge crowd below the hotel and they all wanted to see Anupam and Anupam felt very important and started behaving like a star for the first time since I knew him.

Anupam Kher at the launch of Lessons Life Taught me Unknowingly at Crossword Mumbai_

At 11 in the night, we were driven to the grounds where Navrati was being celebrated and Anupam was to dance in the dandiya that night and he had never participated in dandiya in his life but when he thought of the lakh of rupees he was to be paid at the end of the show he danced as if his life is depended on how he dance that night.

He behaved like a star again at midnight and got out of the ground where the show was being held and got into a car provided to him by the organizers and literally dragged me into the car and within minutes we were in the hotel with a group of men following him in a car of their own .

They wanted Anupam to dance for some more time because they said they had paid him a lot of money but Anupam refused to go back to the ground.

He made a compromise by asking the organizer to send up as many autograph books as they could and told them that he would sign them all and he fulfilled his promise.

Anupam Kher

We finally went to bed at around 3 in the night and the organizer gave us our tickets for the return flight in the morning at 7.20 and we were on our way back home with Anupam smiling his way to glory when he saw his pocket bulging with currency notes which were equivalent to a lakh of rupees. He had earned that kind of easy money for the first time in his career.

He called me to the same Filmistan Studio the next afternoon and offered me 10,000 rupees as my fees for fixing up the dandiya deal but I refused to accept that kind of money and that was the beginning of many such 'Deals' I fixed up for Anupam in our 44 year old friendship and I believe that is the reason why our friendship has been so strong in spite of all the ups and downs .