Taha Shah Badusshah has been the talk of the town since he played Tajdar in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar. His story arc with Alamzeb (played by Sharmin Segal) is being greatly appreciated by the audience. Taha is also being lauded for his powerful screen presence and acting prowess. However, the actor went through a lot of hard work to get his big break after 14 years in the industry.
Speaking to Instant Bollywood about life before and after Heeramandi, Taha said, “I have been in the film industry for 14 years and I got nothing. In the last 5-6 years, I was getting 500-600 likes on my Instagram posts but one day, boom… I started getting likes in lakhs and lakhs. My Instagram is buzzing, every 2-3 minutes I am getting a message.”
The actor also opened up about how he tried to build connections in Bollywood to get roles. Taha said, “I accept it on camera I go to parties to make contacts. It didn’t help instantly, but now, everybody will pick up my call. I have tried to call casting directors and for six years they didn’t pick up my calls.”
He said, “I live on my calendar. If I had called a person, I would make sure I call him/her again after two weeks. I have thousands of names on my calendar. I would make 40 calls each day. Cold calling is the best discipline anybody should go through… I am desperate. You should be desperate. If you are not desperate in life, you will not get anything and I am a live example of the same.”
Taha recalled a time when he would pay for auditions and even get scammed. He said, “Before I got Yash Raj, I used to go for eight auditions a day. Many times I used to give money for auditions, something around Rs 4000-10,000. I even got scammed 3-4 times when they would take money from me and the whole office would disappear the next day.”
He continued about not getting films and said that his looks have also often come in the way. Taha said, “I have gotten so many rejections because they said ‘You are too good-looking.’ They have said ‘If you are too good looking then what will happen to the lead’. I have not gotten films and auditions because of that. The other belief is that since you too good-looking, you can’t act.”
Although Heeramandi is Taha’s big break, he made his debut with the 2011 film Luv Ka The End. He was also seen in the 2013 film Gippi.
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