Shatrughan Sinha would show up 4 hours late on set, told him I can’t carry on with this: Subhash Ghai

Actor Shatrughan Sinha and film director Subhash Ghai tasted success in the movies right around the same time and while their jodi delivered some successful films, Ghai soon realised that he would not be able to work around Sinha’s tardiness. In a recent interview, Ghai recalled that Sinha would always be at least 3-4 hours late on set and this caused a lot of problems. He also shared that he would rather work with a less talented actor who is more professional than someone who appears more talented.

Describing Shatrughan as “overconfident” in a chat with Bollywood Bubble, Subhash said that when he narrated the script of his first film Kalicharan to Shatrughan, the actor said that he was already playing a cop in four films and did not seem interested in taking up this role. “He said I am playing a cop in four films. Why would I do this film? So I understood what he was saying. It is very important to understand how the actor is perceiving the story He is only paying 25-30 percent attention to your narration. Unless you are a star director and he is already convinced and has made up his mind that he would do it anyway, then he would say yes to anything,” he shared.

Subhash said that he and Shatrughan had been friends since their FTII days and would often hang out together. In fact, when the director got producer NN Sippy on board, he shared with him that Shatrughan Sinha had already rejected the film. But, a few days later, when Sippy met Sinha, he said exactly the opposite thing. “In front of the producer he said ‘Kalicharan? I have heard that. It will be a superhit’,” Ghai recalled with a laugh.

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Ghai then said that Sinha was always late on set. “His biggest problem was that he would never be on time. For a 9 am shift, he would show up only at 1 pm. For a 1 pm shift, he would come at 4. This used to be a big problem. I once told him that ‘Shatrughan, we are friends, we have done a few films together. This is your nature so I won’t be able to carry on with this’. It just so happened that we never got a chance to work together again,” he shared.

They last worked together in Vishwanath in 1978.