Remember Chapu from Salaam Bombay? His film was once nominated for an Oscar, won a National Award for…, now struggles to make ends meet, works as a…, his name is…

Cinema has change into no longer moral a medium of entertainment but additionally a technique of emotional bonding internationally. Yearly, countless movies of assorted genres are released, as soon as shortly romantic, as soon as shortly movement, and as soon as shortly in accordance to appropriate events. Some movies enact wonders on the field feature of job, while some are remembered even after years as a consequence of their depth and sensitivity. One such film is ‘Salaam Bombay’, released in 1988. Directed by Mira Nair, this film did no longer get worthy discussion at that time, but with time it started being counted amongst the cult movies of Indian cinema. After all, Bollywood’s passe actor Irrfan Khan obtained recognition in the cinema world thru this film.

May maybe no longer get recognition even after becoming a hero

Though Irrfan became no longer the lead actor on this film but a supporting actor, the soul of this film became a 12-year-outmoded boy, performed by Shafiq Syed. He had entered the hearts of the target market as the predominant character of the film ‘Chapu’. Even if the film had the make stronger of extensive stars Nana Patekar, Raghuveer Yadav, Irrfan Khan, Anita Kanwar, however the final epic of the film revolves round Chapu i.e. Shafiq Syed. Shafiq became awarded the National Film Award for Best Child Artist for this film, which showed the bitter truth of Mumbai’s streets thru an innocent miniature one’s eyes. People belief that Shafiq’s success had shone, and he would emerge as a necessary title in the cinema world and change into the brand new megastar of Bollywood.

A ways from the glamour, against the struggles

However the unhappy thing is that without reference to the success of this film, Shafiq Syed’s existence became no longer what it would deserve to were for a miniature of one artist. Neither did he taste financial snarl nor did he get many movies. Even this day he's travelling a scamper stout of strive against far from glamour. Shafiq became born and brought up in the slums of Bangalore. As a miniature of one, he ran away with his buddies to Mumbai, the set up he spent his days on the footpath shut to the railway feature. Mira Nair noticed him then and he became solid in ‘Salaam Bombay’. For the film, he became paid 20 rupees everyday and a vada as lunch.

Now he's driving dwelling by auto

After ‘Salaam Bombay’, Shafiq labored in one other Mira Nair film ‘Patang’ in 1994, but after that he disappeared from the film world. He returned to Bangalore to his family, the set up he started residing a now not novel existence. Recently Shafiq Syed drives an auto rickshaw. To feed his family and fulfill their wants, he also works like a flash with small production houses, severely in the Kannada TV industry. In an outmoded interview to the Telegraph, he had talked about, ‘I needed to elevate responsibility of my family. There became no such responsibility in 1987. Now I if truth be told possess the burden of many of us on my shoulders.’

The battle between family and desires

Shafiq is the high of a family this day. He lives with his necessary other, mother, three sons and a daughter in a small metropolis 30 km from Bengaluru. He is prone to be remembered for ‘Salaam Bombay’, however the glamour of films is now far far from his existence. In 2008, when ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ won worldwide recognition, of us remembered ‘Salaam Bombay’ and Chapu, but by then Shafiq had returned to a now not novel existence, the set up each day is a strive against for him. Shafiq Syed’s epic highlights the truth of Indian cinema, the set up art gets recognition, however the vogue forward for an artist is basically lost in the fog. This miniature one who as soon as won hundreds of hundreds of hearts as Chapu is mute in the hunt for a better existence.