Meet actor who was beaten by sadhu, bullied in school, removed from films; now gives Rs 100-crore blockbusters

It is often said that strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle and we see many examples. Today, we will talk about one such star who went against all odds to become one of the actors who gave Rs 100 crore films.

We are talking about Govind Namdev who starred in blockbusters including OMG 2, and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. But did you know that his journey from a non-filmy background to become one of the most popular stars in the country? In one of the interviews, the actor had revealed he was once beaten up by a sadhu.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by GOVVIND NAMDEV (@realgovindnamdev)

Beaten up by a sadhu

In an interview with Hindustan Times, the actor, while talking about his OMG character, shared a story from his childhood and said, "The character I have played in OMG - I had seen such a person when I was 10-11 years old. We were a group of friends and would visit the banks of a river in Sagar (a town in Madhya Pradesh) on Sundays. I studied till class 7 in Sagar. We used to spend our Sunday plucking guavas, groundnuts and grams and would enjoy it on the banks of the river. We would burn some grass and roast grams and groundnuts and enjoy ourselves during the picnic.”

He added, “There was a water body and we would sit on its stairs to drink water or just play among ourselves. One day, a sadhu scolded us, saying, ‘I use this water to bathe my shivling. How dare you make this water dirty?’ He asked us never to do that again. We would sneak in there on a few more Sundays and would enjoy ourselves in the water. One day, when I was drinking water from there, a hand held my neck and pulled me back. Aur uske baad jo sutaai ki unhone meri (he beat me up with a stick). His eyes were red and he was burning with rage. I remembered that rage and when I got the character, I immediately connected it with that baba.”

Bullied in school

While speaking to ETimes, Namdev revealed he felt bullied during his days at NSD. He said, “I did not have it easy during my initial days at the NSD. All the students and the faculties were all English educated and had a western approach. While I, on the other hand, had completed my studies at a Government school. I found the environment extremely uncomfortable. I got bullied a lot for my tone and language. I used to feel inferior to Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Satish Kaushik and others who were there with me at NSD at the time. I was on the verge of quitting but then better sense prevailed in me and I continued with it after Alkazi sir spoke to me and motivated me to go on.”

When removed from film

While speaking to Bollywood Hungama, the actor revealed that he was left shattered when he was told that his role had been removed from the film that starred Dilip Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Amrish Puri, Manisha Koirala, and Jackie Shroff.

He said, “I shot for 5-6 days. After the shooting was completed, I was informed that that the film was running at over four hours. Now, during the editing, it was brought down to under four hours. Then someone suggested that if they remove my track, another 15 minutes could be saved. This is how my entire character was removed.”

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