‘Look at Amitabh Bachchan, he was down and out’: Shreyas Talpade opens up about exhausting savings, overcoming financial difficulties

Actor Shreyas Talpade is recovering from a heart attack. In a recent interview, he had spoken about how a regular income is a far-fetched dream for most actors in the film industry.

Shreyas made a mark on the audience with his starring performance in the 2005 film Iqbal, and since then, he has been part of several hit films. In an interview with Bollywood Bubble, he shared how his mother always advised him to take up a salaried job. Shreyas said, “Today, you have different avenues of earning revenue. And it is only for this reason that for the longest time, till the day of Iqbal’s release, my mom continuously kept telling me, ‘Why don’t you look for a steady, constant job that will give you a paycheque at the end of every month? Now you are married, how will you feed your wife?’.”

He added, “And when she saw the film, she said, ‘Ok, now I guess you are going to be doing only this’. Having said that, there are a lot of uncertainties here. Some people make it, most of them don’t.” Shreyas, who has been part of movies such as Golmaal 3, Housefull 2, Wah Taj and Poster Boys, also shed light on the uncertainty that comes with being an actor. He said that actors often don’t know when their next paycheque is going to come from, and it induces self doubt. Many of his projects didn’t see the light of the day but helped him survive in tough times.

He said, “Certain films might work, certain might not, but that is not end of your career. Your work is only part of life, not your life. So, you cannot take it so seriously that it starts affecting your life. You learn these things in your journey, at that point time there are certain rash decisions you had to make or for a rainy day but that’s okay.”

The actor also said that for inspiration, he looks up to superstar Amitabh Bachchan, at one point had gone bankrupt. “That’s the reason I go back to Mr Bachchan. He was technically, or rather whatever stories we heard, he was completely down and out. But he rose back as phoenix, and today look at him. You just have to be patient about certain things and keep working,” he said.

Shreyas will next be seen in the film Emergency, directed by Kangana Ranaut.