Bimal Roy’s statement that turned Gulzar from a motor mechanic to an artist: ‘I burst out crying’

Soon after the song was done, Gulzar was ready to go back to his old life but one heartfelt statement by Bimal da stopped him. In a conversation on The Anupam Kher Show, Gulzar recalled Bimal Roy’s words, “Don’t go back to that motor garage. Don’t waste your life.” These words touched Gulzar in a way that he couldn’t hold back his tears. “I just burst out crying. Nobody had told me with that affection that you should do this,” he said. Bimal da understood Gulzar’s passion and offered him an assistant’s job on his next production Kabuliwala. “It’s a director’s medium, you will like it,” he recalled Bimal da’s words. And so, Gulzar became a part of the movies.

Gulzar had longed for this kind of support from his family but never got it. After meeting Bimal da, he found an anchor who would shape his life, support his dreams and encourage his writing. While Bimal da was a great boss at work, he was also a father figure to Gulzar. When the writer’s sister was getting married, he sent him to Delhi on a flight so that he could be there on time. Gulzar was enjoying his work as an assistant. He started with Kabuliwala and rose to become the chief assistant director. Gulzar’s passion for writing had finally found an outlet but before he knew it, this relationship came to an end.

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Bimal Roy was diagnosed with cancer and in his last days, Gulzar stuck by him. “He seemed to have shrunk, gotten smaller, like a cushion on the sofa,” he wrote in his memoir. A few years before this, Gulzar had lost his father and he could not participate in the last rites. By the time he reached home, the funeral was over so he never got a chance to bid adieu to his father. Bimal da’s cancer diagnosis was an emotional experience for his mentee Gulzar. “Every night I used to cry as cancer consumed Bimal da, bit by bit. All along, I was there beside him, reading his favourite script – ‘Amrit Kumbh’. On January 8, 1966, when he died, we cremated him, and with him, I cremated my father,” he shared in the book Housefull: The Golden Years of Bollywood.

Gulzar went on to become one of the most respected directors and lyric writers in Indian cinema but he never forgot to acknowledge the impact that Bimal Roy had on his life.