‘My father died doing Amitabh Bachchan’s haircut’: Celebrity hairdresser Aalim Hakim reflects on losing dad at age 9

Celebrity hairdresser Aalim Hakim reflected on losing his father at the tender age of nine. He said that his father was working on the Amitabh Bachchan film Mard when he went into cardiac arrest, and died shortly afterwards. Aalim comes from a long line of barbers, and has worked with some of the biggest names in the film business. In an interview, he spoke about carrying forward his father’s legacy, and said that his dad performed tonsures for the likes of Abhishek Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt. Now, Aalim counts them both as his clients.

In an interview with Galatta India, Aalim said he feels deeply emotional whenever he gets the opportunity to style Amitabh Bachchan, as he was the final star that his late father worked with. “My father, before dying, did his last haircut. My father died doing his haircut. He’d gone to Mysuru to work on the film Mard, and he felt some pain in his chest while working. He died the next day. So, his last haircut was Amitabh Bachchan’s haircut. I feel very emotional when I do Amit ji’s look,” he said. In a previous interview, he’d said that there was only Rs 13 in his account when his father died.

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Aalim added that the legacy goes back five decades. “After Reshma Aur Shera, every film that Amit ji did, my dad was the hairdresser. In Reshma Aur Shera, he was the official hairdresser. He styled everyone, including Vinod Khanna, to Sunil Dutt sahab, to Amit ji. It was actually Sunil Dutt who introduced my father to Vinod Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan… My father did mundans for many actors, Abhishek Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Akshaye Khanna, Rahul Khanna, Zayed Khan…”

Aalim admitted that people could call him a product of nepotism as well, but, he said that only talent and hard work have helped him survive in the industry. Aalim said that he charges Rs 1 lakh per session, regardless of who the client is. Unless the client is a close friend, he said that his price remains fixed. When he’s working on movies, he charges Rs 1 lakh per sitting. In an interview with Maniesh Paul, Aalim had reflected on the ridicule he faced while in college.