Monday, June 20, 2011

Driver becomes director and actor!


Believe it or not but in a rags to riches story, a poor but talented auto driver from Uttar Pradesh has become a film producer, director and also an actor!

39-year-old Waqqr Khan, who was in Lucknow to promote his film Ishq Na Karna, said that he has produced the film after working as an auto-rickshaw driver in Mumbai for 16 long years.

Critics predict that the film produced by a semi-literate man would do reasonably well. Khan has visited Etah and a few other districts of UP where the film has received an overwhelming response.

Living in abject poverty, Khan left his native Shahjehanpur district in Uttar Pradesh for Mumbai some 20 years ago. After doing odd jobs, he started driving auto rickshaw. Even today he is Vice-President of the Navi Mumbai Auto Drivers' Association. His father is a watchman in a factory in Mumbai.

According to Waqar, more than 150 auto drivers in Mumbai pooled in their financial resources and collected Rs 65 lakh to make a low budget film.

Starring in the movie are Waqar Khan, Urvashi Chowdhury in the lead roles and Milind Gunaji as villain. Other prominent names which are associated with the movie are Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu and playback singer Shreya Ghoshal.

"I had gone to Bombay some 20 years ago with a dream that one day I would be a Bollywood star. People in my native district as well as Mumbai used to make fun of me," reveals Waqqr.

Khan said that he was always very crazy about films and film stars. But whenever he would make attempt to enter a studio to watch shooting he was shooed away by the guards. Some actors even called him a stinking animal.

Khan said as he had no security to offer because of which almost all banks refused to grant him loan. At several banks he was reckoned as a lunatic. By driving rickshaw, he saved a few thousand rupees. Later, he developed good rapport with auto-rickshaw drivers who pooled in their resources to make his dream come true!

Source: hindustantimes.com

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