When I bring Anupam Kher to his very first party in Industry

I felt flattered when a newcomer called Anupam Kher said that I was one of the reasons why he came to Bombay to try his luck in Hindi films - Ali Peter John

Then I got my Parsi editor who had not seen Juhu in his entire life to not only see the play for this new actor,

 But also made him put Anupam Kher on the cover of Screen which was the first ever  colour photograph on the cover of Screen .

That marked the beginning of the rise and rise of one of the most popular and chameleon - like actors.

Soon after that first encounter with Anupam Kher , we at Screen had our first ever party for the entire film industry and I had invited some of the leading stars , filmmakers and other  celebrities from the world of Hindi films and even though I was a newcomer as a journalist , all of them had promised to come .

I was a kind of rebel and was called dimaag kharaab by all my seniors and sometimes took my own decisions.

And my company , Indian Express gave me the luxury of taking the decisions I wanted to , especially when it came to newcomers .

One evening , I decided that I would take all the promising male newcomers to the party .

There was an actor called Atlee Brai who was the son of a governor and who was signed by Dev Anand . He had a huge luxury car even though he was a struggler and was jobless.

I asked him if he would take six or seven strugglers in his car to Nariman Point . He hesitated , but when I told him it was to take him and the others to a grand party , he agreed .

On the evening before the party , I got strugglers like Anupam Kher , Satish Kaushik , Karan Razdan , Suhas Khandke and some others into  Atlee's  car and we were all on the way to the Express Towers where the party was been  hosted by Mr Ramnath Goenka, the founder of the Express Group of publications . It was like some boys on a picnic .

Anupam had only two pairs of white Khadi pyjama kurtas

Anupam had only two pairs of white Khadi pyjama kurtas which he wore on alternate days after washing one pair himself in his kholi in Kher Nagar .

He could only afford this outfit and Kolapuri chappals. He had a complex and worried about his being thrown out of the party .

 Anupam and the other boys were dazzled when they saw the biggest lanes moving around at the party .

Among those who made the party one of the most memorable parties were Dilip Kumar Raj Kapoor , V Shantaram ,  B R Chopra , Ashok Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar ,Nadira, Rajesh Khanna and Vinod Khanna among many others .

All the boys looked terribly excited , but the one who just kept staring at all the famous faces was Anupam , the boy from Shimla who had only seen Yash Chopra and Rajesh Khanna during the shooting of "Daag" in Shimla .

There were no drinks or non-veg food at the party and all the big names were extremely unhappy but, Anupam and the other boys were high on what and who they had seen and shook hands with at the party .

 That night Anupam must have made a wish to become as famous as all those he had seen . And what a way his wish must have come true !

 And a time came when Anupam was the head of his own company and acting school and hosted some of the biggest parties which were attended by names which are too many to be mentioned in a short memory like this