MY DEBUT WAS MY MISTAKE, I LOOKED UNGROOMED

Since entering showbiz as a star kid, Shadaab Khan has had quite a journey of hits and misses over the years

When you’re the son or daughter of Amjad Khan, the actor who played the iconic villain Gabbar in Sholay (1975), then trying to follow his footsteps might seem like a no-brainer. And, that’s exactly what his son Shadaab Khan had in mind when he made his Bollywood debut in 1997 with Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat. However, after a string of failures, he vanished from the industry for a while, only to make a comeback in 2019 with Romeo Akbar Walter.

Looking back, he admits that his debut film was his “biggest mistake”, which had a ripple effect on his career. “I shouldn’t have made my debut with Raja Ki... I was too young. Before my debut, I weighed about 145kg, and lost all that weight for that film. But that reflected on my face, too. I looked too pinched, scrawny, raw and completely ungroomed. My debut was a mistake from my side. It was nobody’s fault,” Khan tells us.

It was the death of his father, which led to his foray in the film industry, as he wanted to take forward his legacy. “It was only after my father passed away that I understood the true meaning of the song, Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me by Elton John and George Michael, which he kept humming,” shares Khan, adding, “At that time, I didn’t want to study. I just wanted to come into this business somehow. After losing my weight, I got featured in a magazine, which caught the attention of (late actor) Vinod Khanna and he wanted to launch me with Himalay Putra (1997), which didn’t work out. But after that I got my debut film.”

His career is marked by films such as Hey Ram (2000), Refugee (2000), Bharat Bhagya Vidhata (2002) and Highway 203 (2007), all of which failed to garner good response. “Somewhere along the line, I started thinking that this isn’t the right profession for me. I felt I was too young, and that’s why I stepped away from

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showbiz. For about 17 years, I had completely left acting. I had again gained weight, and went back to almost 135kgs. I started writing novels,” the 48-year-old reveals.

It was in 2017 when Khan shed those extra kilos, and decided to give his acting career a second chance. And then Romeo Akbar Walter happened in 2019. “Just before the shoot, I got third-degree burns on my stomach and chest due to some incident, and doctors told me to rest. But I couldn’t afford to lose that film as I wanted to come back so badly. I took painkillers and shot the film,” recalls the actor, who also made a brief appearance as Ajay Kedia in Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story.

The actor, who has multiple auditions and projects lined up, shuns the conception that star kids have it easy. Khan shares, “When your parents are around in the business, then you have all the right people in your corner. [But] when they aren’t there, you’re worse off than the outsiders. I’m on my own completely.”

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PShadaab Khan with co-star Rani Mukerji in a still from

SHADAAB KHAN,

Actor