Ronit Roy cries as he recalls surviving hunger and poverty, remembers kind dhaba owner who gave him free daal when all he could afford was onions: ‘Aapka daal ka din hai’

Ronit Roy made his acting debut with the 1992 film Jaan Tere Naam, but after the film flopped, he was out of work for years.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | Updated: July 12, 2025 09:40 AM IST

3 min read

Ronit Roy opens up about financial struggles early in his career.

There are many actors who’ve made their careers on the strength of memorable supporting roles that leave an impact on whichever project that they’re a part of. Ronit Roy is that actor, with several iconic roles on his resume, both in films and on television. Even though Roy is an established name now, he experienced terrible struggles while trying to make a name for himself in the ’90s. In a recent interview, the Udaan actor talked about those times.

While appearing on the Hindi Rush podcast, Roy recalled what his life used be like before he made his debut in 1992, with Deepak Balraj Vij’s film Jaan Tere Naam. He admitted that he was a closed-off person, and that led to him being left out of a lot of conversations. “I honestly don’t know why my career didn’t take off in the early days. I used to think about it a lot before, but now I don’t. I stay in my own zone, and I think a lot of it also happened because I stopped going to people for work, and hence, they stopped giving me opportunities.”

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Roy mentioned how, before his debut film, things were in an even more dire situation, as he barely had enough money for one meal a day, and sometimes had to skip that too. When asked about his struggles and whether it was all worth it, he replied by telling a story that made him feel grateful for the position he is now in. He said, “Near Bandra station, there is a very famous dhaba, and every day I used to eat there. I only had one meal, because that is all I could afford, and I used to alternate between kaali daal 2 roti and palak paneer 2 roti. One day, I just asked them for some roti and onions because I was out of money. He gave me 2 rotis and some daal. I told him that I hadn’t asked for the daal, and he said, ‘Koi baat nahi meri taraf se, aaj aapka daal ka din hai (It’s on me, because you always eat daal on this day).'” The actor wiped away tears as he remembered the incident; he said that he could still picture the man’s face.

He went on to add that even after making his debut, he had to spend his money with extreme caution, as he still wasn’t doing well financially. “I earned 50,ooo for my first movie, and they paid it to me in instalments of 4,ooo every month. Back then, that was a huge amount for me. But even after the debut, all the films I did helped me barely manage my expenses. The money never came; it was all still hand to mouth,” added Roy.

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