Hrithik Roshan’s grandfather was discovered on railway platform, sitting with two wives with nowhere to stay, jobless after being fired by AIR

Film director Kidar Sharma, who gave a break to stars such as Raj Kapoor, Madhubala, Geeta Bali, and Mala Sinha, also launched the career of music director Roshan Lal Nagrath, the grandfather of Hrithik Roshan.

Roshan Lal Nagrath, the grandfather of Hrithik Roshan. (Express Archive)

In addition to giving breaks to actors Raj Kapoor, Geeta Bali, and Madhubala, among many others, film director Kidar Sharma also launched the career of music director Roshan Lal Nagrath. Although it is widely believed that Roshan didn’t get the respect he deserved during his lifetime, he is now considered one of Hindi cinema’s foremost composers. His legacy was continued by his sons, Rajesh Roshan and Rakesh Roshan, and his grandson, actor Hrithik Roshan. A recent Netflix documentary series titled The Roshans narrated the epic story of the Roshan family and its impact on Hindi cinema. In an old interview on Prasar Bharti, however, Kidar Sharma recalled his first meeting with Roshan, which took place in the most unusual of circumstances.

He said, “One day, I saw a man sitting at the railway station with two wives. He was there in the morning, and when I was returning home in the evening, he was still there. I asked him who he was, and in return, he asked me who I was. I said, ‘Don’t be upset. This isn’t a junction, and I saw you sitting here in the morning, and you’re still here now. I thought you were in need, and I felt that I could be of some help. My name is Kidar Sharma’. He said, ‘Pranam, my name is Roshan. I used to make music for AIR, but I had a love marriage, and they fired me. Now I don’t have work, nor do I have a place to stay’.”

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Kidar Sharma said that he could offer Roshan both a job and a place to stay. “I took him in my car to an assistant’s house where there was a spare room,” he said, adding that the next day, he went to his regular music composer and asked for his permission to give Roshan a chance. “Ek besahara aadmi aagaya hai, main iski help karna chahta hoon (I want to give work to one helpless man),” he said. But Kidar Sharma was in for disappointment. He said that he left Roshan unsupervised, and as a result, got ‘garbage’ music from him in return. He assumed that experience at AIR was enough, but he was wrong. “It wasn’t filmy music at all,” he said, adding that he decided to get his money’s worth from Roshan with his next film, Bawre Nain, where he would monitor his work closely.

Music director Roshan. Express archive photo

Kidar Sharma then recalled a story that was previously told in The Roshans as well. He said that a couple of his old distributor friends showed up with a special gift for him, a brand-new Buick car. But they had one condition. They didn’t want Roshan to be involved in the project. They offered him Rs 1 lakh in a briefcase, but Kidar Sharma turned it down. When a tearful Roshan told him that he should take the money, he refused. “You fool, this is my test, not yours,” Kidar Sharma told him.

He also recalled when Roshan told him that he wants to jump in the Arabian Sea and die because he was having domestic troubles with his two wives. But this turned out to be a ruse. Roshan went on to compose music for several major films, and reached the peak of his career in the 1960s. But a history of heart trouble got the better of him, and he died at the age of 50. His sons were in their teens, and they suddenly found themselves having to fend for themselves. Rajesh became a music director, while Rakesh tried his hand at acting before becoming a filmmaker.

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