‘Wasted half my life waiting for Shatrughan Sinha': When Poonam Dhillon revealed who the tardiest Bollywood star was

Indian Express

22-05-2025

Shatrughan Sinha's tardiness has been well-documented by his co-stars. In fact, the actor has himself admitted that he was purposefully late to work, because he felt that it would add to his aura. In an old appearance on Kapil Sharma's comedy show, his frequent co-star Poonam Dhillon identified him as one of Bollywood's worst offenders on this front. Asked to name the tardiest hero that she has worked with, she said, 'There were two top heroes; Govinda and Shatrughan Sinha. I've worked often with them both. With Shatru ji, I did five or six films. I think I've wasted half my life waiting for him. He would show up at 4 pm for a 9 am shift.'
In a recent interview, Chunky Panday recalled that Shatrughan Sinha advised him never to be on time to work. 'Shatru ji told me something very nice, which I follow to date. He said, 'Son, whatever you do, never arrive on time anywhere. If you are punctual, no one will value you. Even if you happen to be early somehow, stay in the car for 15 minutes or so. Make people wait.' That was the old-school method — people eagerly waiting for a star. Once the star arrives, what's the point,' Chunky shared during a chat with Radio Nasha. He made his acting debut in the film Aag Hi Aag, which also featured the veteran star.
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Describing Shatrughan Sinha as 'overconfident' in an interview with Bollywood Bubble, filmmaker Subhash Ghai echoed everybody else's sentiments. 'His biggest problem was that he would never be on time. For a 9 am shift, he would show up only at 1 pm. For a 1 pm shift, he would come at 4. This used to be a big problem. I once told him that 'Shatrughan, we are friends, we have done a few films together. This is your nature so I won't be able to carry on with this',' he said.
The famously punctual Amitabh Bachchan learned to work around Shatrughan's tardiness. Poking fun at his habit of being late, he once shared at a book launch event, 'Back in those days, we were working together on two films, Shaan and Naseeb. We used to do three different shifts on the same day, but for different movies. We used to shoot for Shaan from 7 in the morning to 2 in the noon. At 2, we both used to leave the set in our respective cars to reach the set of Naseeb. I would reach the set by 2:30 pm, but Shatru used to reach after 5-7 hours. Yeh bhai sahab kaha gayab hojate the, aaj tak humein nahi pata (Till date, we don't have a clue where he used to disappear).'
At a SCREEN Live event, Sharmila Tagore joked that when Bachchan would leave set after having completed his work, Shatrughan would arrive. In an interview with Zoom Entertainment, Shatrughan addressed allegations of being perpetually late, and said, 'They (heroes) would say, 'He comes late'. Arre late bhi aata hun toh tumhare pitaaji ka kya jaata hai (Even if I am late, how does it matter to you?) The work that you finish in 10 hours, everyone praises me that I finish that work in two-three hours. I was a one-take artist. People used to say that I read 10-page dialogues just a couple of times and do direct take. They used to be happy with me.'