Veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty’s rise to fame was no easy feat, despite his eventual recognition as one of the most prominent actors of his time. Gaining recognition in his debut film Mrigyaa, Chakraborty, during an appearance on Zed TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa in 2023, he reflected on the challenges he faced during the late 70s and 80s when climbing the ladder of success in Bollywood.
He recently shared how he is fond of his Kick co-star Salman Khan and shared some fun tidbits about the time they shot for Lucky: No Time for Love (2005) in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Mithun shared that Salman is “very, very naughty” and worked to wake him up in the middle of the night.
Mithun’s struggles
Talking about his struggles, he asked, “How many battles can a person fight?” He was a ‘chota’ actor. No big actress wanted to work with him. The early resistance of A-list actresses to working with Chakraborty hampered his ascent to fame. Opening up about his struggles as a ‘B-grade’ actor, the Disco Dancer star rued that he thought he wouldn’t transition from B-grade films to A-grade films.
The turning point came when director Brij Sadanah approached Zeenat for a film titled Taqdeer, introducing Chakraborty as his hero. To his delight, Zeenat recognised his potential and complimented his good looks, agreeing to work with him on the project. “Zeenat ji said, ‘What a good-looking man he is!’ I will do the film with him.”
Mithun on Salman Khan
When Aditya Narayan, the host of the TV reality show Saregamapa, asked him who among Jackie Shroff, Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt, and Akshay Kumar had troubled him the most, Mithun Chakraborty quipped, “Salman Khan.”.
He then explained how. He said, “He is a bit too much; he has so much love for me that if we both are together, he can’t keep calm for even one minute. He keeps looking for me; if I am asleep, he wakes me up. We were shooting in St. Petersburg at around 2 a.m.; I was sleeping; I had locked my room from inside; how he opened the door and got in, I still don’t know.”