SAFAR ANUPAM KA SADAK SE NAQLI MERCEDES SE ASLI MERCEDES TAK ..... By Ali Peter John

It is almost forty years since a young man who had started balding when he was in his early 20s had landed in Bombay and had started his struggle from a slum and his address was Kher Nagar , Kher Nagar Post Office , Bandra East . The address had nothing to do with his name . He paid a monthly rent of thirteen rupees which was shared by four strugglers - Ali Peter John

It was from Kher Nagar that he started his struggle and walked several hours in the sun to reach Prithvi Theatre in Juhu and the offices of filmmakers .

It was indeed one of the most grim struggles for an actor who knew he was talented and that his talent would shine some day and it was this confidence and conviction in him that ultimately saw his struggle pay off and his ambitions come true .

And today that young man , Anupam Kher is a name to reckon with not only in India, but in Hollywood and other centers of filmmaking . .

But in this piece I only want to talk about the car he changed while driving his way to unprecedented stardom .

Anupam first bought a brand new Fiat ( 5068 was the number of his name plate ) . I remember how he was overjoyed when he had bought his first new car and took it to all those places and offices where he used to walk the distance to reach .

He kept growing from success to more success and his driver Sheikh who was an expert in manipulating matters and specialised in changing the looks of any car gave Anupam an idea by which he could travel in a big car which looked exactly like a Mercedes .

Anupam who could do anything to stand out fell for Sheikh's idea and within days Anupam was traveling in a Mercedes look - alike and even had an emblem on the bonnet of the car with the words " AK " on it .

His "Mercedes" had become the talk of the industry and even on the street of Bombay , the city of a million cars but only one car like the naqli Mercedes of a genuine actor .....

Down the years , Anupam has changed several homes and cars . And today he is the neighbor of Anil Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan and hobnobs with the Prime Minister and other political leaders and even with some of the leading Hollywood stars , some of whom he is even working with in leading roles ....

And in keeping with his new status , he is traveling by a brand new and genuine Mercedes and is still very excited about being the boy from Simla who had never scored more than thirty eight percent marks in school or in college (yes , Anupam Kher did go to college and to several other institutions like the NSD and has besides more than five hundred films , TV shows and a school for acting called "Actor Prepares".

And now when he travels by his new Mercedes sitting in the back seat and looking out of the window , he still looks like that Anupam who looked out of buses and then from his first Fiat car .

It is this innocent blended with infinite confidence that has made him the many splendored chameleon of a human being that he has proved to be after forty long years of striving for excellence and not being satisfied with the success he has met with so far .