When Sridevi’s humour saved Farhan Akhtar from almost losing his first job

Farhan Akhtar was recently in the news as he officially got divorced from his ex-wife Adhuna Bhabani. The talented actor-filmmaker had made his Bollywood debut (as a director) with ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ (2001) which is now considered a cult for starting the genre of bromance and giving a new lease to movies that dealt with urban youth and their lives. However, not many know that Farhan did not taste success in one go. He had, in fact started his career as an assistant cinematographer to Manmohan Singh at the age of 17. And his first project was late filmmaker Yash Chopra’s iconic film ‘Lamhe’ (1991) which starred Anil Kapoor and Sridevi in lead roles. This was also the first movie written by Farhan’s real mother Honey Irani.

It so happened that when the film was being shot in London, one day, Sridevi had to shoot for an instrumental dance number. It was the same number wherein she had to vent out her character’s rage through her dance, and was choreographed by the legendary Saroj Khan. But, this was the particular day when Farhan, who was an assistant on the sets, thought that he would lose his first job. The reason behind it was that actress Sridevi had fallen on the sets of the film because of him.

Farhan had revealed about this scary moment of his life during his appearance as a guest on TV chat show ‘Up Close & Personal with PZ’, hosted by actress Preity Zinta. He said, “Sridevi and Saroj Khan were practicing a dance step. Manmohanji, the cinematographer spotted a black patch on the floor and instructed me to polish it. I was the closest to the spot and quickly took the polish and started polishing the floor. As they were practising, Sridevi slipped because of the polish and fell on her back. There was pin drop silence on the set, as you would imagine.” [sic]

“I thought to myself ‘there goes my job’. But, Sridevi herself started laughing and then slowly even the others found the courage to laugh. I am seriously eternally greatful to her for laughing it off or else my film career would have been cut very short!” added the actor-filmmaker. [sic]

Must have been one scary moment for Farhan. The mere mention of losing your job sends chills down our spines, and this was one of his first, so we do get it.

This was indeed one story to remember.

Amod Pandit

Quiet, resonant, and creative, he can be seen immersed in his own world, and puts in his heart and soul into the one passion that he has, Bollywood. His line for survival? Feel happy to be a part of it.