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News18
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Lucky my hobby became my profession: Pavan Malhotra on 40 years in film industry
Mumbai, Aug 17 (PTI) Actor Pavan Malhotra, best known for 'Black Friday", 'Jab We Met" and 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag", said he has managed to attain success through hard work and passion for cinema. 'I'm very lucky that something which started as a hobby became my profession, you can't be luckier than this, and I've survived for 40 plus years. In 1982, I came to Bombay on the 15th of March, at 4 o'clock, I landed here, with the idea that I'll stay here," Malhotra told PTI in an interview. The 67-year-old actor said he had no idea while joining the theatre that he would end up in the film industry. 'When I started doing theatre, I didn't know that one day I'll land up in film industry in Bombay and I'll be working in films and I'll get main lead roles, wherein I'll be there from the first to last scene," he said adding that moving to a new city and profession, isn't easy and that there's nobody 'waiting at the airport or railway station to offer you work." Malhotra's first-hand experience in movies was as an assistant in the costume department of Richard Attenborough's 'Gandhi". Thereafter, he served as a production assistant on films and TV shows like 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro", 'Khamosh" and 'Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho!" before venturing into acting. He made his acting debut with Pankaj Parashar's 1984 film, 'Ab Ayega Mazaa", and went on to feature in films like 'Anantyatra" and 'Khamosh", but it was Saeed Akhtar's 'Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro", in which he played the titular role, that emerged as a career changer for him. Reflecting on his career, Malhotra expressed gratitude for the accolades he has received, including two National Awards, for films 'Fakir" (1998) and 'Fouja" (2023). 'I decided irrespective of whether it is good, bad, ugly, I'm going to be here. If I'm not getting work as an actor, I will get into production, I will become an assistant, or do some odd job. When you come to the city, sometimes you don't have money to eat, but you forget all that, as all that is a part of life. 'I'm thankful to God but at the same time I'm amazed, 'This happened to me'. When I look back, I didn't expect that I'll get two national awards and be part of films where I'll be in a title role, or that I'll do an English film. Destiny plays a big role, but you have to work so that you can get the results." Despite his huge body of diverse work, Malhotra is largely remembered for his roles in films 'Jab We Met" and 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag". The actor said past successes are not a crutch to rely on and instead, they are stepping stones toward new opportunities, waiting to be explored. 'Past laurels, you don't want to repeat that because I want to work more; however, it feels good. Some films come and make lots of money, and go and people forget about them. You just try to be honest towards your work and do your best," Malhotra said, adding that some people talk about his work in 'Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro", 'Black Friday", 'Mubarakan", and the TV show, 'Nukkad". 'I can't live on that (past work), you've more stories to tell. For me every film and character is different. Even today, I get nervous before any project, your body language, your look, voice quality changes with the character, it can't be the same with every character," he said. Malhotra's latest work is the SonyLIV OTT show, 'Court Kacheri", which revolves around a reluctant young man (Ashish Verma), burdened by his father's (Malhotra) towering legacy, who finds himself thrust into the legal world he never wanted. And as a case tests his ideals, he must decide whether to flee the path laid out for him or reshape it on his own terms. The veteran actor, who has previously acted on OTT shows like 'Tabbar" and 'Grahan", said he chooses his projects purely based on instinct. He shared that one of the reasons to do 'Court Kacheri" was to work with the production house, TVF, known for creating notable series like 'Panchayat" and 'Gullak". 'Besides, there are so many layers in this show, there's the courtroom, their elections, their relationship with cops, all that is happening, politics, their unions, etc. In all of this it (show) talks about the father-son relationship. So, any story, character which is with layers, it's always interesting for an actor (to do)." PTI KKP ATR (This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI) view comments First Published: August 17, 2025, 14:00 IST News agency-feeds Lucky my hobby became my profession: Pavan Malhotra on 40 years in film industry Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
The Hindu
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Dead in the streets: Watching ‘Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro' with Saeed Akhtar Mirza
For a film that unfolds as a chronicle of a death foretold, Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro opens in resplendent liveliness. A young, brash man struts down (or up?) a Mumbai street, seems to 'own the street', according to the film's director, Saeed Akhtar Mirza. 'My name is Salim Pasha, the public calls me Salim Langda,' announces Pavan Malhotra, then a young man of 30, in insolent voiceover. He walks with movie-star assurance, proudly massaging his wrist, dark birds gliding in the dawn sky. A BEST bus pulls up behind him, and Salim, ever the punk, makes way. He will die a dog's death by the film's end, but there's time. The 1980s are popularly viewed as an era of unmitigated trash in Hindi film, yet out of the muck bloomed such incendiary works as Ardh Satya, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro. For Mirza, one of the boldest (and coolest) exponents of the Parallel Cinema movement, the film rounded out a loose quartet of films with playfully elongated titles: the previous entries were Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan (1978), Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai (1980) and Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho (1984). All four films were set in Mumbai; each homed in on a protagonist representing a certain social class, and each distilled, in its own way, the moral, political and existential collapse of its time. Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro was recently screened in Mumbai, as part of the Versova Homage Screenings (VHS) initiative. It was my first trip to a VHS screening; they've shown 21 films so far, small, curated gatherings at assorted venues, typically ending with a conversation with the filmmaker. Mirza, now 80 and residing in Goa, turned up for the screening, and was in conversation with Sudhir Mishra, who assisted the director on multiple films, including Salim Langde Pe... Mirza shared a lovely origin story for his penultimate film. While shooting Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho in Do-Tanki, a lower-middle class Muslim neighbourhood in South Mumbai, his set was intercepted by a young hoodlum of 23; though Mirza, shooting on limited film stock and a paltry budget, was incensed by the interruption, he was duly advised by his local 'protector' not to react. The trespasser, he was later told, was a shooter for the D-gang. 'He owned the street, he owned the neighbourhood,' the director recalled observing. Mirza described Salim Langde... as an 'essay' film mapping the anxieties and aspirations of a 'ghettoised mind'. The film, he emphasised, was made in a specific social and historical context: the textile mill strikes that disenfranchised Mumbai's working class, the 1984 Bhiwandi riots, the trouble in Kashmir and the buildup to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Salim, a low-level enforcer for a local 'seth', gets by thieving and extorting and hanging around street corners with his two buddies. He has a rascally laugh that Malhotra makes oddly endearing, and he professes a weary, street-toughened philosophy. 'Ek pai ki mistake nahi bardaast karti yeh duniya (this world is unforgiving),' he says, a coarse poetry in his agitated tones: Salim's language, per Mirza, is influenced by his Deccani roots. The film's best scenes unfold inside Salim's home. With simple pans and tilts, cinematographer Virendra Saini evokes a world. Salim's father, we learn, lost his job in the mill strikes, and his elder brother, Javed, an electrician who worked at a factory, died in a mishap. His mother toils at the sewing machine, while his sister—so the family concludes—has come of marriageable age. Salim feels the weight and humiliation of his circumstances, though he is not, as yet, fully equipped to investigate its true origins. Like many of the director's heroes, his consciousness is raised by degrees, through conversations and late-night reflection. 'It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness,' wrote a certain German philosopher from the 19th century (quote that to Salim and he will likely reach for his rampuri.) ALSO READ:I see my films as essays, which you can accept or reject: Saeed Mirza Much like his late contemporary, Shyam Benegal, who passed away last year, Mirza's reputation as a 'serious' social thinker obscures his yen for humour. Even as bleak and pessimistic a work like Salim Langde Pe... packs a barrel of laughs, with zingers and quips as serrated as knives. 'This country has a long queue of patriots,' spits a character at one point. 'Don't add to the traffic jam.' There are also the countless cameos that make you pleasantly misty-eyed: Tom Alter as a sweet-natured hippie, singing 'Mera Joota Hai Japani' for street urchins in a slum, Neeraj Vora hawking digestive herbs with a long blowhorn, and, my favourite, Ajit Vachani as the venerated Rafiq bhai, a calm, cautious equanimity in his eyes. After the screening, an audience member told Mirza, in a matter-of-fact way, 'thank you for reflecting our times.' Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro does that to you. The communal tensions that simmer throughout the film are now the bland order of things. The fringe is the mainstream. Mirza, as ever, was even-toned in his self-assessment. 'I'm not an oracle,' he said, adding a little later, 'but I had my ear pretty close to the ground.'
