Many people believe that winning a national acting award and starring in an Oscar-nominated film can boost an actor’s career. But that didn’t happen Shafiq Sayed. He was picked on the streets of Mumbai by an actor and played a child actor Mira Nair‘s ‘Salaam Bombay!’. However, his film career ended sooner than he expected. With no other offers coming in, Shafiq had to start driving a motorcycle to earn money.
Shafiq Syed’s flight to Mumbai
According to an Indian Express report, Shafiq left his home in Bangalore in the 1980s and traveled to Mumbai without buying a ticket, hoping to see if the city really matched his Bollywood image. While living on the streets near Churchgate station at the time, one day he was approached by a woman who offered him and other street children 20 bucks to join the theater. Many other children ran away, thinking of cheating, but Shafiq, due to hunger, decided to go with them. Out of the many children present, he was chosen as the lead in Mira Nair’s ‘Salaam Bombay!’, a film that went on to become one of the three Indian films nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
Shafiq Syed’s dream that vanished
After the film became a big hit, Shafiq decided to make acting his career. Respected by President of India and winning the National Film Award was the happiest moment of his life. But soon, he quit acting. Feeling inferior, she left Mumbai and returned to her home town of Bangalore. When he reached home, he stopped thinking about acting and instead became a rickshaw driver. He had five relatives who depended on him, and he only got Rs 150 a day.
Shafiq Syed why it doesn’t feel like doing
In an interview with Open Magazine in 2010, Shafiq shared, “When I was painting, I felt that I didn’t have to ‘do’ anything. It had a language, a story and a scene that I had lived in before. People called Salaam Bombay! and ‘art film’. But the truth is, it was not like that. It was like my own story. It was Indian life on the streets. It was a life that was not different from death, and I lived in it. Supporting me were co-actors Raghuvir Yadav, Nana Patekar, Anita Kanwar. I learned that being proactive means someone who is genuinely ‘doing something’ about a problem. Another person’s movement is a sign of what I should do. I had to learn all these little things. Even being alone in front of the camera was a great learning experience for me. “He added, “When I returned to Bombay, the news of Salaam Bombay! was in several newspapers. It went on to be nominated for one award or the other, and won other international awards. Nobody invited me to accept the awards. The only time I went to act was when I was invited to receive the National Award in Delhi. I went in and out of countless studios, but did not work in Bombay. I used to go with newspaper clippings where I was mentioned. Many times, the senior assistant saw the papers, saw my photo and asked: “Aaj khana khaya kya?”.
Shafiq Syed on a dream that ended suddenly
When he spoke to us earlier, he said, “We shot for 52 days and they agreed to pay me Rs 15,000. I was very happy. After filming, I went to watch movies and enjoyed street food in Mumbai. The movie was very popular and when the President took pictures with me, it was all a dream. But the dream ended suddenly, and the film got messed up. He knocked on the doors of the producers for about eight months, but luck did not smile.“
Shafiq Syed’s last film
Following ‘Salaam Bombay!’, Shafiq Syed went on to appear in yet another film, Goutam Ghose‘s ‘Patang’, but did not take up any other projects after that.