Before the fame and global acclaim, Anupam Kher was just another struggling artist in Mumbai—armed with hope, friends, and exactly one rupee.In a candid interview with News18 Showsha, the veteran actor recalled a hilarious incident from his early days. He had gone to a dhaba with his brother and a friend after a play of his aired on Doordarshan. “The owner praised my work and said I’d become a big actor. I got carried away and started ordering chicken and beer,” Anupam Kher shared in the interview.The bill came to Rs 97. But Anupam Kher, with just Rs 1 in his pocket, had a rude awakening. “I told the owner, ‘Main kabhi bada aadmi banunga,’ and he calmly said, ‘Tareef apni jagah hai, business apni jagah hai. Paise toh bharne padenge.’”
‘That’s how I survived’
Realizing he couldn’t pay, Anupam Kher left his brother and friend at the dhaba as “collateral” and rushed to a friend’s house nearby to borrow Rs 100. “I remember that day so vividly. But I wrote about it in a humorous way. That’s how I survived—I saw the comedy in hardship,” he said.
Instead of letting the moment break him, Anupam Kher used it as a life lesson. “You don’t need to feel small just because your bank balance is. It’s your attitude that counts.”
Why ‘Not Okay’ can be powerful
Promoting his new book ‘Different, but No Less’ and his film ‘Tanvi The Great’, Anupam Kher opened up about portraying autism as a superpower. “We are constantly made to feel inadequate—through social media, comparison, and perfection. But it’s okay to be ‘not okay’,” he said.Describing Tanvi, his character, Anupam Kher noted, “She’s pure. No ambition. No manipulation. But because she comes from me, maybe those qualities are somewhere inside me too.” Anupam Kher’s directorial features the actors Shubhangi Dutt, Iain Glen, Boman Irani, and Karan Tacker in important roles.
