From A Cigarette Seller To Making Debut Under Dev Anand, Inspiring Journey Of This Actor Sets An Example

Jackie Shroff has been ruling the hearts of cinemagoers since his debut in the 1982 film Swami Dada directed by Dev Anand and TK Desai. The veteran actor is now at the pinnacle of his acting career but had to face acute poverty at one point in time.

He didn’t have enough funds to pay his school fees and had to sell cigarettes, peanuts, etc to earn his living. However, the 67-year-old actor’s fortunes changed, when late yesteryear superstar Dev Anand spotted him wearing a rugged shirt and torn jeans and selling cigarettes. The late actor immediately offered Jackie Shroff a role in his film Swami Dada. Post that film, there was no looking back for him, and he went on to become one of the most-in-demand Bollywood stars.

Initially, Jaggu Dada as he is fondly called, was offered the second lead role in Swami Dada but he lost it. Jackie Shroff recalled this incident in a conversation with Mukesh Khanna. The 67-year-old actor recalled that 15 days later, Dev Anand informed him that he had lost his role to Mithun Chakraborty. As per the Swami Dada director, Mithun was senior to Jaggu Dada in age and also knows the dance. That’s why Jackie Shroff was demoted from the second lead role and demoted to a henchman’s role in Jaggu (Shakti Kapoor)’s henchman. However, he didn’t have any apprehensions, regarding this change. According to him, he saw Swami Dada as an opportunity to learn from the legendary Dev Anand and continued to work on the project despite the role change.

Swami Dada turned out to be an average grosser at the box office.

After acting in Swami Dada, Jackie Shroff also got an opportunity to act in Hero, directed by Subhash Ghai. Starring an ensemble cast of Meenakshi Sheshadri, Sanjeev Kumar, Shammi Kapoor and other actors, this film proved to be a smashing hit at the box office. Besides Jackie Shroff and Meenakshi Sheshadri’s on-screen chemistry, what worked for this film was the brilliant music. One of the famous chartbusters from this film is Tu Mera Jaanu Hai sung by Anuradha Paudwal and Manhar Udhas.

Laxmikant Pyarelal composed the music while Anand Bakshi penned the lyrics.