Words behind the Khamosh!

The Bihari Babu of Bollywood, Shatrughan Sinha, was in Hyderabad recently to launch his biography, ‘Anything But Khamosh: The Shatrughan Sinha Biography’, which is penned by Bharati S Pradhan. The memoir of the actor-turned-politician was written over a period of seven years. Shatrughan Sinha, who also acted in a few Telugu feature films said, “I love Tollywood and the Telugu people.

I would love to work here again someday. Hyderabad has a magical quality and it is a part of my life as I come here so often.” Speaking about his family he said, “Everyone in my family are doctors (my three brothers) and I was not even eligible to become a compounder. So what? Later I became a Health Minister.” (Laughs)

Shatrughan reminisced how he met his wife and that he never imagined that he will tie the knot with her one day. “I was on my way to FTII (Film and Television Institute of India), Pune and I saw this very pretty girl sitting opposite to me. I kept wondering about her and little did I know that we’d end up getting married!”

The actor said that he always considered himself as tall, dark and handsome. When his brother went to talk about his marriage with Poonam to his late mother-in-law, she almost rejected him. “My mother-in-law said my daughter is milky-white. Why should I give her in marriage to someone, who is so dark that even if his picture is taken in colour the print will be in black and white? This left me ‘Khamosh’!” he quipped.

Talking about his stint in acting he said, “A boy who was a pampering kid of a mother, who never crossed Patna or Bihar, came to a city and struggled a lot and became an actor, who is not from the film industry.”Shatrughan said that when he joined politics everyone was upset. “Director Subhash Ghai, who is also my wife’s brother, was not happy and said you are joining politics for money.

However, I embarked on a political career to bring smiles on people’s faces.” Talking about his famous one-word dialogue “Khamosh”, which was used in more than one film because of the popularity and later which, became his unofficial middle-name, he said, “When I visited Pakistan, little kids there were requesting me to recite the dialogue by saying, ‘Uncle please say “Khamosh” once’.”