When Aasif was told ‘tere jaise bahut aate hain’

Every artist’s career goes through a rough patch; only a few handle it well enough to remain in the race. Actor Aasif Sheikh falls in the latter category. He had a low start, but he feels he is finally getting his dues now, after 20 years of struggle. With no contact in the industry, Aasif took a train to Mumbai only to realise that “it wasn’t going to be easy to survive in the city”. He says, “I had no friends and family in Mumbai and had to take up a place in a dormitory which had five beds in one room. It was like a nightmare.

So I went back to Delhi to continue doing theatre.”

However, his dreams to make it big on the 70mm never faded away and in pursuit of a role in films, Aasif knocked on many doors. “When I came to Mumbai, I was stopped outside Mehboob Studio and when I told the security guard that I’m an actor and I’ve done these things, he said: ‘Tere jaise bahut aate hain yahan par. Chal hat yaha se’,” he recalls.

The actor, who has found tremendous fame with a comedy TV show, says that “there were many others like the security guard...In those days we didn’t have the audition system, so when I used to go to a producer’s office with my pictures, they’d say ‘aap Mumbai aa gaye ho picture karne but apne toh acting kabhi seekhi nahi hai’. I said, ‘theatre kiya hai.’ They’d say, ‘theatre thodi naa acting hoti hai. Chale hain hero banne.’”

But he never gave up. Ask him what’s the secret and the actor, who has many films to his credit such as 1988’s Rama O Rama to Karan Arjun (1995), Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya (1998) and others, says, “If you don’t prove your mettle, you are nothing. Just show how good you are and people will start respecting you.”

Aasif Sheikh was told ‘theatre thodi naa acting hoti hai, chale hain hero banne’