He may be one of the most gifted actors in Bollywood but Naseeruddin Shah regrets not having the best of looks in Bollywood or not experiencing success in mainstream cinema. “When Shyam Benegal was making Nishant, Film and Television Institute of India led by Girish Karnad sent many good-looking actors for auditions. I was not chosen by the institute. My girlfriend thought I was not good looking and she immediately dumped me. I used to envy Girish Karnad who was a ladies’ man. Women used to swoon over him, his body language and way of speaking,” he said at the Jaipur Literature Festival. However, it was his acting abilities that impressed Benegal who cast him in Nishant.
On young actors, he said that they are even better than his generation because they were handed down a new tradition where looks didn’t matter. “Irrfan Khan, Manoj Bajpai, Arshad Warsi, Vijay Raaz and others are fabulous actors,” he said.
