Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; March 31, 2019)

Irreverence is his middle name. There’s nothing stereotypical about his looks, filmography or his approach to life and work. A man who flaunts his heart on his sleeves, Jackie Shroff is every interviewer’s delight. In a conversation with BT, the actor, who will be seen in RAW (Romeo Akbar Walter), divulges the reason behind his erratic professional choices, why his son Tiger keeps him charged and what makes him sexy at 62. Excerpts...

Glancing through your 250-films-long filmography, it’s very difficult to assess what goes through your mind while selecting a project. Why are your choices so erratic?
My reasons for doing a film are very simple — your need should blend with mine. If someone approaches me saying, ‘I will get money for this film if you do it’, I do that film. There are times when I have taken up projects for the money. Sometimes, I found a role hard to decline or I found collaborators I didn’t want to say no to. Aur kuch kuch kaam toh sirf Madhuri Dixit ke liye kiya. I never put thought into my career graph. If I had done that, game hi alag hota. Until recently, I didn’t even realise that I had sailed through some 250 films in my career. When my body and bones hurt, I am reminded of everything I did. I sustained so many injuries while doing action scenes because they used to be asli fights. I’ve done three shifts a day. Haddiyan somehow bach gayi meri. Just about every film had five fights and five songs, which took a toll on actors those days.

Robbie Grewal, the writer-director of RAW, had told us that he cast you as the first chief of army intelligence because he felt that you could command attention in a room without screaming for it. What drove you to accept the role?
First and foremost, I want to apologise to the family of R N Kao saab (the first chief of RAW, who has inspired Jackie’s character), in case they feel I haven’t done justice to the role. He was a sincere worker, who tried to give India an edge on the war field. I have just tried to emulate that aspect of his life. I didn’t select the role, it came to me. Robbie baba approached me and said, ‘Aap haan bol do, main sambhal loonga’. I trusted his vision and his research, and gave the nod. Maybe, in me, he did see the thehrav that he was looking for.

Recently, memes and comical videos featuring you at a wedding surfaced on social media. Your sense of clothing and the bindaas bhidu attitude are hard to miss. Why have you never tried to blend in with the industry’s norms?
I am a simple man. I was always one and will perish as one. Of course, you can be glamorous while being simple, but you don’t need to be scandalous. People from the industry are soft targets. We are always in the public eye. Janta apne ko dekhti hai. So, while doing what one’s heart says, one has to stay within the limits. The bindasiyat you talk about is a part of my DNA. I’ve come from Teen Batti and I am a proud chaali boy, till date. I take pride in the kholi I lived in. Mujh mein chaal bhi hai aur chawl bhi. Udhar ka toh hawa bhi apne haddiyon mein hai. Even at 62 today, it’s what makes me who I am. And I don’t know another way to be.

But you have ensured that your son Tiger (Shroff) meets all industry norms...
It’s all his doing. Ayesha (wife) and my mother raised him well. He remembers everything his granny taught him. Today, I feel proud to walk into a room and be called Tiger ka baap. He keeps my batteries charged and going. My boy has given me a lot.

He’s finally in a relationship. As a parent, how do you deal with that aspect of his life?
I don’t deal with it. Main khaali dheel de deta hoon. Tiger has spent 25 years of his life without a girlfriend. Abhi ek hai to usko rehne do na… he’s found a girlfriend and I am very happy about it. Lekin usko ek tichki diya hai maine. He understands the meaning of life, and how it’s led within a social framework. He knows that he can never cross that line of decency and he never does.

He recently did a body-baring photo shoot for a celebrity calendar. It reminded people of your photo shoot in an underwear, done sometime in the 80s...
Yeah! It was for some magazine which ran it on the cover. Do you know that I borrowed that underwear from Ayesha? She was my girlfriend then. I was a gareeb from Teen Batti, I didn’t have the swimming trunks I was required to wear for the shoot. So, Ayesha gave me a part of her two-piece bikini, and it fit me well. I am not ashamed of it, I never was. People talk about feminism and choices, and the shift in the man woman equation today. I wore a woman’s bikini for my shoot back in the 1980s. I am proud of it.

Lastly, apart from RAW, you’re also collaborating with Salman Khan in Bharat and Sanjay Dutt in Prasthaanam...
Yeah, and I am enjoying it. It’s been a while since I worked with both of them. This is my first film with Sanju after Kartoos (1999). He’s not changed as a person, he’s still funny and cracks jokes. The thing is, we can’t change. Yeh sab apni haddi mein hota hai.