I haven’t got my best role yet, though I have completed 50 years of Bollywood

Is it true that you left the film for Shahenshah starring Aamir even though he was a new guy in the scene?

Tinu Anand did not let me take a day off and hence I chose Aamir Khan’s film and walked out of Shahenshah. I have no regrets because I was seen as an actor in the movie Qayamat Se Qayamat and Ram Gopal Varma saw me in the climax of QSQT and called me from Naseerab’s office to offer me a role in his film Shiva was. Ramu told me that he needed an actor with emotion. Other films including Maine Kiya and Indra Kumar’s Beta, Devsaab’s Pyaar Ka Tarana, Hum Naujawan and Love at Times Square, for which Devsaab took me on my first flight to Denmark, came after that.

You’ve never resorted to chamchagiri, although the characters often have to use chamchagiri to survive. How?

This is because the word Chamchagiri is not there in my dictionary. I have respected everyone in the industry. My brother is a lawyer. I had also assisted a senior lawyer, but I was desperate to quit and leave that job. My father wanted me to become a doctor and even build a hospital in Lucknow

What are your five best films of all time as an actor?

A disabled child will always be dear to the father. My favorite movies are Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Shiva, Beta, Tariq Shah’s Janam Kundli, Koylanchal and Gangaajal.