Bad Man an Autobiography

Growing up on the fringes of our capital city. Gulshan Grover moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in acting in the 1970s. At a time when most wannabe actors held out for the lead, he made a conscious choice to opt for villainous roles. He went on to portray many memorable characters, with a career-defining role in the 1989 blockbuster, Ram Lakhan, that established him firmly as the 'Bad Man' of Bollywood.

Many a mainstream potboiler of the era rode to success on his trademark one-liners and grotesque get-ups that have become part of Bollywood folklore. He subsequently moved on to the international arena, among the first actors from Mumbai to do so, in the process becoming one of India's more recognizable faces in international cinema.

In this autobiography, Grover tells his storythe films, the journey, the psychological and personal toll of sustaining the 'bad man' image, the competition among Bollywood's villains, the move to playing more rounded characters, and the challenge of doing international films without relocating to another country or opting out of mainstream Hindi cinema.

GULSHAN GROVER has acted in over 400 films in India and around the world. He was one of the first mainstream actors to bridge the divide between Bollywood and Hollywood and went on to experiment with films of different countries from across the world.

ROSHMILA BHATTACHARYA is a senior journalist who in a career spanning three decades has worked with all the leading media houses, including the Times of India, Hindustan Times and the Indian Express. For the last five years she has been heading the entertainment section of Mumbai Mirror.

It is Ravan and not Ram who makes the Ramayana so very exciting.

It was way back in my childhood, in the dark hush of a cinema hall, that I first heard these words of wisdom. I woke up to their full implication much later. My mother pronounced this ageless truth as we sat crunching wafers, enthralled, watching Ravan, played by B.M. Vyas, the top villain of those times in the film Sampoorna Ramayan.

Heroes are heroic, but aren't they so very predictable? They save the world and win hearts with their noble deeds. You always know they will triumph in the end. But it's the villain who brings conflict into your story.

Your hero is not the most important character in your movie, your villain is. Stop swooning over your hero's character and his love interest. Give your heart to crafting a great villain, because, like the cliché goes, behind every successful film is a great bad man,' said the writer Salim Khan to me once.

The Bad Man whose life we are going to get a front-row view of in this book is a Good Man.

Gulshan Grover began his career performing in the Ramlila in humble surroundings on the outskirts of Delhi. He was just five years old, when, using his mother's chunni as a costume, he played the part of a monkey in Hanuman-ji's force, and for which he got a glass of milk and bananas to eat as salary! His performance was so good he progressed slowly to bigger and better roles, and look where he has reached today!

Gulshan has done close to five hundred films out of which thirty-one are international films. Apart from doing British, Canadian, French, German and Italian films, he also has the rare distinction of being the first Indian actor to act in a Polish, Malaysian and Iranian film.

The ability to deconstruct and reinvent one's persona is the lifeblood of all successful durable entertainers all through history. The reason Gulshan Grover has been able to survive in this novelty-seeking business, where the audience is continuously asking for a new, fresh experience, is because he manages to do just that. Gulshan is a shapeshifter. He's like a snake. A snake, because of its ability to shed its old skin and grow a new one, is seen as a symbol of rejuvenation and everlasting youth. In Hinduism, Shiva worship and the worship of a snake go hand in hand.

‘Call him Chhappan Tikli,' said Gopal Anna, the reformed gangster who had made a foray into the world of movies as an actor with my musical hit Sir. He was referring to Gulshan who had just walked out of the make-up room with his stunning get-up’ and a face full of pockmarks. Something told me that if Gulshan had succeeded in invoking this response from a real-life gangster-turned-actor, his character would certainly work with the people of this country. And boy, was I right!