Birthday Special: KOSHISH KARNE WAALON KI HAAR NAHI HOTI, JACKIE SHROFF NE USS DIN SAABIT KAR DIYA

Those were the early days of Jackie Shroff as a star . But he was still to be recognized or appreciated for his talent  - Ali Peter John

It was Mahesh Bhatt who took on the challenge of proving to the industry and the world that Jackie could act if given the challenge and the circumstances , in other words a good script with a good role for him.

It was this challenge that made Mahesh start a film called "Kaash" which was the story of marital discord and divorce with Jackie and Dimple Kapadia playing the couple who were madly in love with each other and got married after which they developed serious differences and decided to separate and file for divorce .

The film was to be launched at the Mehboob Studio which was home for Mahesh , Jackie and Dimple .

A set of a court room was erected and the first shot which was also the muhurat shot was to be taken on Jackie .

Jackie looked almost scared when he entered the studio and when he walked into the set and got into the witness box .

Mahesh knew about Jackie's difficulty in delivering long dialogues and so had given him his dialogues a week in advance .

But Jackie was still nervous and just couldn't speak his lines which were almost alien to Jackie who was only used to speaking romantic lines or angry lines he spoke to the villain , but these lines were very emotional and difficult to speak for an actor who was not taken seriously as an actor who could genuinely act , like his best friend Anil Kapoor who he called " "acting ka baap". There were several takes of Jackie's dialogue, but Mahesh Bhatt kept calling " cut "

A time came when Jackei had given sixty one takes of the same shot and he was disgusted and frustrated and joined his hands before Mahesh and begged of him to drop him from the film, but Mahesh kept asking him to try and try again .

Jackie , the Jaggu Dada from Teen Batti started screaming , calling out in god's name and shouting " oh maa " and when nothing worked , he even started abusing and cursing himself for being an actor when he didn't know what acting really was .

And I heard an old spot boy saying , " ye director isko actor banaakar rahega " . And that is what Mahesh did when that first shot was okayed only after 4 pm.

Jackie still wanted to opt out of " Kaash" and Mahesh kept on encouraging him and the result was Jackie Shroff giving one of his finest performances and won appreciation even from the most hardened critics and film experts.

Jackie followed his victory as an actor in "Kaash" with two other outstanding performances in "Parinda" and "Gardish" for which he won the Filmfare Award for best actor.

And now more than forty years later, Jackie is still going strong because of his willingness to learn and to work hard .

DR HARIVANSHRAI BACHCHAN NE KAHA THA KI KOSHISH KARNE WAALON KI HAAR NAHI HOTI AUR AGAR WOH AAJ HOTE TOH JAGGU DAADA KO SHABAASHKI DETE AUR AAGE BADNE KE LIYE AASHIRWAAD DETE