Naseeruddin Shah also said how his looks were a curse and boon, in equal measures, for him as he lost a girlfriend but gained a movie because of them. Naseeruddin Shah also said how his looks were a curse and boon, in equal measures, for him as he lost a girlfriend but gained a movie because of them.

‘And then one day’ Naseeruddin Shah, a refined actor in the world of cinema and theatre, bagged his debut for his bad looks, the reason behind facing various rejections by directors and also by his girlfriend.

Shyam Benegal gave me ‘Nishant’ because of my bad looks, recounted Naseeruddin Shah in a conversation with veteran actor Girish Karnad at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Wednesday (January 21).

“I lost a girlfriend because I wasn’t good looking. And, I got a role in ‘Nishant’ because I wasn’t good looking,” said Naseeruddin Shah.

Naseeruddin Shah spoke about his early days in Bollywood when he didn’t get much work even after ‘Nishant’, which was a National award winning movie. He also discussed at length about his experience of teaching acting at various acting schools, disappointment for not being a commercially successful actor and about his close friend and fellow actor Om Puri.

Naseeruddin Shah said he fell short of work after ‘Nishant’ and the roles he was getting were either of a union leader or a police officer who would say ‘tumhe chaaro taraf se gher lia hai’ or of a doctor whose expertise was in saying ‘Maine injection de diya hai’.

The actor expressed his resentment over the fact that he never became a celebrated star.

This trend of giving importance to a good face over acting also affected his fellow actor Om Puri as well who was rejected by a jury for his not-so-good looks.

“I feel dissapointed at times that I couldn’t succeed in commercial cinema, but then I have swallowed that like a pinch of salt now,” he added.

The actor who has been teaching acting in various film and acting institutes admitted that Film institutes have a tendency to admit good looking people and then work on their skills. He said that he has learned more than he could teach his students as acting is something that is learnt, not taught.

Naseeruddin Shah concluded the session by reading brief paragraphs from his autobiography titled ‘And then one day’.

Naseeruddin Shah has featured in various different kinds of movies like ‘Bazaar’, ‘Katha’, ‘Masoom’, ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’, ‘Woh Saat Din’ and ‘Sarfarosh’ among others and has won numerous awards in his career, including three National Film Awards, three Filmfare Awards and an award at the Venice Film Festival.

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