Naseeruddin Shah reveals he turned down numerous songs after ‘Oye Oye’ became a blockbuster hit: ‘I’m a terrible dancer…’

Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah may be one of India’s most revered performers, but his sudden surge to mass popularity came from an unexpected place, an iconic song-and-dance number in the 1989 hit Tridev. The track “Oye Oye” became a national sensation, and along with it, Naseeruddin found himself in the middle of mainstream adulation. In an old interview with Lehren Retro, the actor candidly spoke about the ironic nature of his overnight fame following the film. Despite becoming the face of the wildly popular song, Naseeruddin revealed that he never saw himself as a dancer—or even a singer, for that matter.

He said, “Infact after song Oye Oye, I was flooded with only offers like that. People wanted me to do the same thing. But I didn’t fall into that trap because I’m a terrible dancer. Oye Oye worked because they didn’t expect that I would be even able to do one step right. And that’s why they were shocked and it worked. Anyways, there is no dearth of people praising you in this industry.” Reflecting on the period when lip-syncing to playback songs was the norm, Naseeruddin shared how uncomfortable the experience was for him. “Now it has stopped happening, but there was a time when it used to happen a lot. I was asked to sing, and that was equivalent to hundred deaths. I’m really bad at singing, among the worst singers of song in Hindi. Perhaps because I never thought that I would have to play hero in films, or sing songs or worse, romance actresses younger than my daughter’s age.”

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For Naseeruddin Shah, the world of commercial Hindi cinema was never the end goal. His aspirations had always been grounded in realism, in character roles—something that didn’t involve elaborate dance routines or lip-synced songs. “I had thought I would end up becoming a character actor. Will play the role of a lawyer, doctor, cop or an elder brother. And that’s why I’m terrible at commercial acting, because I never trained for it.” The actor, known for his brutally honest take on the film industry, went on to admit that he’s never been fond of his performances in the commercial space. He has often expressed his disconnect with the formulaic aspects of mainstream cinema.

In the same interview, Naseeruddin added that filmmakers began typecasting him into intense, often melodramatic roles. They only imagined him as the actor who could perhaps scream and cry on screen and he was fed up by that and didn’t know how to bring novelty to such mediocrity.