Jackie Shroff Says ‘Everything Was Normal’ Even After Hero: ‘I Was Staying In The Same Chawl’ | Exclusive

While things changed professionally for Shroff, he also recalls that on the personal front it was all the same. “I was still staying in the same chawl, almost four to five years after Hero released. The day after the premiere of Hero, I was still standing in the same queue to go to the common washroom for my morning call. I was a hero but I was still standing in the queue to go to the bathroom (laughs). Everything was normal for me it’s just that I had become a hero. I was still sitting down in our house and eating dal chawal prepared by my mother. As a person nothing has changed for me. I still have the same respect and regard for the entire film fraternity,” he added.

The Mast Mein Rehne Ka actor recalled how the people of the chawl gave him a washroom as gift after the release of Hero, “Kya mast gift diya tha sab doston ne mil ke (laughs). We had seven houses in our chawl and there were approximately 30 people staying in them. We would share 3 common washrooms amongst all of us. But all those people were really sweet and they would always give me preference whenever I was stand in the queue.”

Shroff, whose recent release Mast Mein Rehne Ka again won him praise for his acting also revealed he was dazed on the day of the premiere, “There was a huge premiere at Ganga-Jamuna cinemas (in Mumbai). I don’t know what was happening at all. For the first time I was wearing a suit and I was constantly nervous and sweating. The entire film fraternity had turned up and I was just walking behind Subhash Ghaiji who was introducing me to everyone. I remember at the end of the movie, people loved it and that made me really happy.”

Shroff also said that it was Ghai’s stubbornness that got him the lead role in Hero, “Subhashji had taken the script of Hero to many actors but everyone had refused. He was really angry and that’s when he decided that I will cast a newcomer and make him into a huge star. My friend Ashok Khanna, who would teach me Hindi fiction had passed my photograph to Subhashji. Ashok Khanna fixed up a meeting and Subhashji asked me whether I knew acting and my answer was no. He asked me whether I knew Hindi and I said that I had very Bambiya language which was very informal. He then told me whether I had got into any brawls in real life and I said yes.”