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‘Stupid, friendless city’: Bollywood’s greatest actor-singer hated acting and Mumbai, felt he was ‘conned’ because of his famous older brother

In an old interview, the legendary singer Kishore Kumar said that he never wanted to become an actor, and tried his best to avoid it.

Kishore Kumar never wanted to become an actor. (Photo: Express Archive)

In the history of Indian music, there are few singers which had absolute mastery of the skill of singing and could mold themselves into a baritone or soprano, and everything in between. In the upper most category of that storied list, lies the name of Kishore Kumar, who memerised the Indian audience with his voice for more almost 4 decades, while dealing with allegations of being eccentric and tough to work with. The vocalist followed in the footsteps of his brother Ashok Kumar, and also tried his hand at acting. Even though Kishore delivered some iconic performance over the years, he never wanted to leave the singing booth and get in front of the camera. In an old interview with The Illustrated Weekly of India, Kishore talked about how he was pushed by the industry towards acting, and how despite it being the family trade, he never truly took to it.

Kishore said that the entire practice of acting in front of the camera seemed pointless to him and said that he was roped into this business, presumably, because his brother, Ashok Kumar, was a well known actor and because by that time, he was one of the most famous actors in India. “I was conned into doing this. All I wanted was to sing, and yet due to peculiar circumstances, I was persuaded to act in the movies. The directors don’t give a da*n about me, they just need me because I sell,” he said. Kishore went on to the list the kinds of stunts he would pull, just to get out acting gigs, which included shaving his head, shuffling his lines, just so he could get out of acting.

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Film star Kishore Kumar. (Photo: Express archive)

“I have tried every trick in the book to get out of acting. I muffed my lines, pretended to be crazy, shaved my head off, played difficult, began yodelling in the midst of tragic scenes, told Meena Kumari what I was supposed to tell Bina Rai in some other film. They still wouldn’t let me go, and I hated every second of it,” he said. When Pritish asked him about Mumbai and the industry in general, he admitted that he only came to the city because he hoped his brother Ashok would introduce him to composer KL Saigal. Kishore added that the industry was determined to make a star out of him because he was dadamoni’s (Ashok) brother.

He added that even though he managed to achieve some success as an actor, it still never gave him any joy. He compared film directors to teachers, and admitted that filming would bring back nightmares from his schooling days. He said that even though he despised acting, he was working in multiple films at the same time, and would be running from one set to another. “Very often I would mix up my lines and look angry in a romantic scene or romantic in the midst of a fierce battle. It was terrible and I hated it. It evoked nightmares of school. Directors were like school teachers. Do this. Do that. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. I dreaded it. That’s why I would often escape,” he said.

Kishore Kumar with his elder brother Ashok Kumar. (Photo: Express Archive)

The ‘Kehna Hai’ singer said that he wanted to move to Khandwa and get out of Mumbai. Kishore said, “Who can live in this stupid, friendless city where everyone seeks to exploit you every moment of the day? Can you trust anyone out here? Is anyone trustworthy? Is anyone a friend you can count on? I am determined to get out of this futile rat race and live as I’ve always wanted to. In my native Khandwa, the land of my forefathers. Who wants to die in this ugly city?”

Even though Kishore had decided to move back to his birthplace Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh, it took him two more years to sort everything out in Mumbai. But before he could move to Khandwa, Kishore suddenly passed away due to a heart attack on his brother Ashok’s 76th birthday.

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