Rohit Shetty with Ajay Devgn. (courtesy: disneyplushotstar)
On Karan Johar's chat show Koffee With Karan 8, Ajay Devgn and Rohit Shetty talked about their fathers and their respective film journeys. Ajay Devgn shared how his late father and action director Veeru Devgan came to Mumbai and how he got into films. "He ran away when he was 13. He came to Mumbai without a train ticket. He was taken behind bars. He had no work so no food. Somebody helped him, said that you wash my cab every day and I will let you sleep in it. So, he started from there," Ajay Devgn said. He recalled, "He started from there and eventually became a carpenter. Then he became one of the gangsters in Sion-Koliwada area. He was a carpenter also and there were gang wars. One day a very senior action director, Mr Ravi Khanna, was passing by and there was this street fight going on. So, he stopped the car and called my dad after the fight and asked, what do you do? And he said I'm a carpenter here. So, he said one very good line, Tu ladta achha hai, come and meet me tomorrow and made him a fighter. So that's where he started from".
Rohit Shetty's father MB Shetty was a stuntman and action choreographer as well. The filmmaker revealed that he lost his father at a very early stage in his life. "Things were difficult. Till the age of 16, we had a lot of struggles. When I was 17, I joined him (Ajay)," he said. Speaking of his mom Ratna Shetty, the filmmaker added, "She was a stunt artist. That's how my dad and mom met. After he passed away, there was financial crisis. So she worked as a junior artist and after that when I grew up, it is a proper blockbuster story."
Recalling his father's journey, Rohit Shetty said, "He was in Udupi. He was 13 when he came to Mumbai. He was a waiter in Cotton Green, in a restaurant and from there he started. Then he started boxing and bodybuilding, and then obviously, because he was well-built, 6'3, someone gave him an idea why don't you try in movies. And then he joined...Senior to Ravi Khanna Sir was one action director of black and white movies called Azim Bhai, so he joined him and gradually he became fight choreographer."
Ajay Devgn added to this, "Today you go on social media, read so many things like nepotism etc but people don't realise that the generations have worked very, very hard to reach till here. It's not an easy story."
To this KJo added, "I laugh Ajay. My father (Yash Johar), who is no more, would have had the biggest laugh if he read that they call me the flag bearer of nepotism. My father had such a tough time to be where he was. He was a production controller. And then he became a producer and so many of his films failed one after the other. He mounted films that failed. I remember my mother selling her jewelry and my nani's apartment. And I am like now we don't talk about this because it seems, right now everyone is looking at the person today."
Speaking of the harshness of the industry towards failure, Ajay added, "We have seen people getting ruined." He added, "30-40 saal nikal jate hain. Chahe aap industry ke ho ya na ho, struggle sabke liye barabar hai, hard work toh karna hi padta hai (30-40 years pass by in this struggle. You belong to the industry or not, the struggle is similar for everyone, you have to work hard). We are still working hard. Both my ankles are broken, people don't see that hard work. When Rohit (Shetty) came as an assistant, he literally didn't have proper money to have food."