"My Bollywood honeymoon ended very soon, because Amir Khan, the boy next door arrived", laughs Chunky as he reminisces his vast Bollywood career in the 80's and 90's. Watch the podcast episode on Brut's YouTube.
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00:00I was doing multiple hero films and like you see na, the musical chairs are on and suddenly the music stopped and there was no chair for me to sit.
00:07Even Ananya must have been conceived in Bangladesh.
00:10Joking!
00:15Our generation knows you only as Akhri Pasta.
00:18Mamma Mia! Allora!
00:20Does that make you okay with that or does that make you boxed in?
00:27I'll take you back to where I started in the 80s.
00:30In like 1987 is when I arrived and 1988, so this whole one and a half years was my honeymoon.
00:37I had five releases and if you had to take them in today's day what kind of business those films did,
00:44I think between those five films they would have done about 1,500 crores business.
00:48Wow!
00:49I mean that's net corrected today.
00:51I'm just showing off.
00:53Like Aap Ki Duniya was my first film, there was Paap Ki Duniya with Sunny after that.
00:57Exactly.
00:58There was Khatron Ke Khiladi with Sanju and then came Tezaab in 1988.
01:02But the honeymoon ended very soon because Aamir Khan, the boy next to him arrived on the scene.
01:07And then there was this galaxy of stars exploring.
01:10The very next year there was Salma and then came Shah Rukh, then came Ajay, then came Akshay.
01:15But then came a time where after giving all these big hits, I suddenly found myself without work.
01:23I was doing multiple hero films and like you see now the musical chairs are on and suddenly the music stopped
01:28and there was no chair for me to sit.
01:30Absolutely.
01:31But that didn't frustrate me.
01:34I was confused what has happened here.
01:38So I decided to go and work in Bangladesh.
01:41Yeah.
01:42And I had a damn good run there for five years, it was fantastic.
01:45I had films releasing on Eid and it was really, really great.
01:50Couldn't be better.
01:51And then I got married in 1998.
01:53Yeah.
01:54In fact, I took Bhavna for half a honeymoon to Bangladesh because I had to complete a film at that time.
01:59Yeah.
02:00And I feel somewhere even Ananya must have been conceived in Bangladesh.
02:05So then Bhavna tells me like, see Chunky, you're here, you're enjoying yourself in Bangladesh, it's great.
02:09But you know, you're known because of Chunky Party from Bollywood.
02:12Yeah.
02:13You need to come back.
02:14Yeah.
02:15That is your real pehchaan, as you say.
02:17Yeah.
02:18So she convinced me to come back and started working here.
02:20But when I came back, it was difficult because there was a whole generation that had forgotten me.
02:25I'd been away for five, six years.
02:26Correct.
02:27I remember I was at a wedding and this small kid comes up, a five-year-old kid comes up and says,
02:32Uncle, uncle, I believe you're a hero.
02:34What's your name?
02:35So I said, yeah, go ask your mother who I am.
02:40I'm joking.
02:42But kind of that started making me think.
02:44I said, yeah, there is this generation that's forgotten me.
02:47It doesn't have a clue who I am.
02:49And I felt I really missed out on something out here.
02:53And I decided to come back and I said, now I will only do films for these five-year-olds.
02:58Because that's a fabulous fan base to have.
03:01They make the most noise and they're loyal fellows until they grow old and they remember you.