Happy Birthday Jai Kishan Kakubhai Shroff (aka Jackie Shroff),

I have to say, whenever I feel extremely nervous in life or feel short of confidence, I just watch one of your interviews and the swag radiates from the screen to my heart. I haven’t even met you, so can only imagine the kind of vibes you’d radiate in person. You’re rough, you’re smooth and you’re just the exact definition of a bhidu who is also philosophically superior than most actors. In times of trouble, I can safely think, “What would Jackie do?” And the response within my heart would be, “Jo hoyega hoyega bhidu. Darne ka nahi.”

My belief and the reason why I am a jabra fan, is not just your acting or films, it’s your attitude. For our readers, I’d like to list some points why I think so.

Taught By The Extremely Stylish Dev Anand

You’ve been taught by Dev Anand himself, who saw your photo and took you under his wing. “I met Dev Anand and he said, ‘Subah subah tumhari tasveer dekhi and sham ko tum samne khade ho. Tumhe ek role doonga. Parallel role hai, main hero hoon, tum second hero.’,” you said in an interview with Bombay Times. Even though that role went to Mithun Chakraborty, you did get your break in a Subhash Ghai film.

“Dev Saab, ne sikhaaya industry kya hai bhidu,” you told Anupam Kher in an interview for his show People on Republic. You have the same swagger, and the ‘devil may care’ attitude that we love so much.

Frank About His Acting Skills From His First Film

“Aap agar le rahe ho toh peeth pe jhaad ugaa rahe ho, sambhal lo,” you told Subhash Ghai before signing Hero, since you had very little acting experience prior to that. The film didn’t work for 3 weeks, but jab chali toh utari nahi. It was a platinum jubilee, and you became a hero just like the title of the film.

What many people don’t know is that you continued staying in your chawl even after the film, and had met with an accident just before shooting it. Also, critics panned you as a wooden actor, but you went on like a true warrior.

You Understand Loss, And Call Yourself A Fakir

In the interview with Anupam Kher, you reveal how your brother died. He was 17 and wanted to remove his pimples by washing his face with salty water. Your father, an astrologer had asked him not to go, but he went and drowned. You saw it, and were traumatised. Even your mother’s death was extremely tragic. “My mom got a stroke and I didn’t know. When we lived in a small room at Teen Batti, if she coughed I could hear and could immediately say, ‘Kya hua mom, kya hua pa?’ When we moved to a bigger house in Bandra, mom had her room, papa had his room and I had mine and so I came to know in the morning that she had died. If I’d come to know in the night I could have taken her to the hospital. Toh kya mila, kya gaya maloom nahin, samjha na baahu? I loved my mom too much. But I always ask myself that if I loved her so much, why didn’t I burn myself with her. I get vivid dreams about my mother thrice a week. I go to my old house in my dreams and go sit with her and press her feet, sitting down besides her. I touch my mother’s photograph every morning after taking a shower and show her picture to the sun as she used to pray to the sun every morning,” you said in an interview with Bombay Times.

Despite all this, you maintain a great attitude towards life and you’ve said that three people have gone from your life, but three people (your wife and two children) have come in as well. You’ve confessed to being a fakir, and that to us is true swagger. Not the type that people have while listening to a Bruno Mars song.