Dev Anand stopped me from getting plastic surgery, says Shatrughan Sinha: ‘Those cuts will become your…’

After Dev Anand’s death in 2011, Shatrughan wrote a tribute to him which was published in India Today. Shatrughan recalled how he played a small role in Dev Anand’s film Prem Pujari (1970) and the superstar was very welcoming towards him and even praised his performance.

Dev Anand predicted Shatrughan’s rise

He wrote, “I was first introduced to Dev saab in the 1960s by his assistant director Gogi Anand. At Mumbai’s Mehboob studio, I had to audition for the role of a Pakistan Army officer in Prem Pujari (1970). I was nervous through this whole meeting not knowing what he would say or would even consider casting me. But he was impressed with my style of holding the cigarette and also liked my voice. He said, “This boy has lot of confidence.” Hearing that from a superstar I worshipped was the defining moment at the very beginning of my career.”

Shatrughan played a lot of side character roles when he entered the film industry before he got his big break in Kalicharan in 1976. When he was trying to make it big in films and dreaming of bagging lead roles, he was conscious of his face and worried that no one would cast him due to the cuts on his face. It was during this time that Dev Anand gave him confidence.

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Shatrughan feared his facial scars would hold him back

Recalling the same, he told Curly Tales, “I had big dreams of becoming an actor, but I was also scared because I had cuts on my face. And I would doubt how will I become an actor? People would even tell me to get some treatment for my face.”

Shatrughan even went to a plastic surgeon and decided to get surgery done on his face, but it was Dev Anand who motivated him to feel confident in his skin.

Dev Anand stopped him from getting plastic surgery

“I even went to a plastic surgeon, and I was ready to do surgery to correct my face. But I used to regard Dev Anand highly and I went to him and he told me not to get surgery done. He told me, ‘When you will become successful, these cuts on your face will become your signature style. People will like this face only. Never get surgery done.’”

Shatrughan added, “He gave me his own example, and said that I have a hole in my teeth, but I have not filled it up till today. People see this as my adah (unique manner). The things that you see as a minus point in yourself will be your plus points in future.”