Sanjay Khan is excited to unveil his autobiography, “The Best Mistakes of My Life,” which will take readers into his world of movies, family, his near-death accident and more. The veteran Bollywood actor says it will be a great book for film adaptation.
The book will be launched on Sunday pre-Diwali in Mumbai.
“I got a call from Penguin (Penguin Random House India) and was asked to write my autobiography. At that moment I had silence in my head and then suddenly memories came to me. I agreed to make the book and that’s how I started,” Sanjay, also a director and producer, told IANS in an interview.
Writing an autobiography is no easy task, he shared.
“Facts speak, but they don’t tell the whole story… What I discovered as I was telling my autobiography was that the writing itself was not only a medium for sharing the facts and the story, but was also a process of self-discovery,” said the actor in his 70s.
“‘The best mistakes of my life’ – isn’t it an intriguing title?” he asked.
“You can’t read and understand the best mistakes of my life in a mundane way. I wrote down experiences of my life and narrated certain sections that are in the 18th chapter of my book. It explains the title and gives the reader complete satisfaction. It’s metaphorical,” he said.
Sanjay shared that he has named all of his heroines including the late actress Nanda who he starred with in the movies “Woh Din Yaad Karo”, “Beti” and “Abhilasha”.
His friends from the industry have also found a place in his book.
“I have written about my dear friends like Raj Kapoor, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Sunil Dutt,” said the “Dosti” actor.
The brother of the late actor-filmmaker Feroz Khan recalled the time he decided to go into filmdom, saying, “I was 11 years old when I saw a movie called ‘Awaara’. It belonged to Raj Kapoor.”
He was so impressed with the film’s direction and story that he decided to take acting as his career. He made his Bollywood debut in 1964.
“My father was strictly against us (he and his siblings) watching movies. He thought it was a bad influence. I came and did movies. It was my own ambition and a need to express myself. I was destined to to work in the film industry. I worked hard for it and achieved my goals,” he said.
Are there any plans to adapt it to a movie?
“It’s got great stuff. There’s so much more that I have that I haven’t included in my book. It’s going to be a great biopic,” he said.
“Let’s take a look at people’s reaction to the book. If I do make it (biopic), I will definitely make it with my son (actor Zayed Khan), ” added Sanjay, who was once considered one of the most handsome men in bollywood.
For now, he is enthusiastic about the way the book has come out.
“I had gone into my past and relived all those glorious times,” said Sanjay, who was last in front of the camera for the historical fiction TV series “The Sword of Tipu Sultan.” It ended in disaster when a major fire accident occurred on the set of the show in 1989 and he survived near fatal burns.
He got nostalgic and also shared, “I remember producers rushing to sign me as the lead man in as many as 100 movies.”
But as an actor, he was very picky.
“I finished acting in about 50 movies. I couldn’t do the rest because my life had become miserable. I was working three shifts a day. I always slept on the sets. It was very heavy.
“I couldn’t see my kids. I would see them sleeping in the morning or at night. So I became my own producer and director. I changed the course of my life,” he said.
The father of four – Farah, Simone, Sussanne and Zayed – said he owed it to his family.
“Family is everything to a man. It is his responsibility to cherish them (relatives), to love them, to protect them. As a man, husband and father I have done my duty.
‘My children have received a good education. They have learned to be generous and kind.”
