PICTURE TALK
Shatrughan Prasad Sinha, better known as ‘Shotgun Sinha’ or ‘Shotgun’, is the youngest of four brothers from Bihar. All four brothers were named after Ramayana characters as Ram, Lakshman, Bharat and Shatrughan.
Shatrughan traversed his way to Bollywood via the Film and Television Institute of India (FTTI).
He was known to be a loudmouth from the very beginning and soon got to named Shotgun. He quickly proved his acting prowess, and it goes to his credit that in a short span of time he started getting leading roles in big-banner movies.
Once, during one of my long stays in Bombay (now Mumbai), Shatrughan reportedly had a run in with the Khan Brothers – Sanjay and Feroze. Hot news those days had it that Shotgun had gone to the residence of the Khan Brothers with a loaded pistol to challenge them and/or shoot them!
As the news of the ‘episode’ – correct or incorrect – made the rounds, I got a frenetic early morning call from the editor of a glossy film monthly, whom I had known vaguely but not worked with nor desired to work with, hurriedly explaining to me that his magazine was doing a cover story on the reported incident, and the shooting with Shatrughan was already fixed that day but his staff cameraman had vanished.
The editor was literally begging me to shoot the cover picture. He offered to pick me up from the Aamdar Niwas immediately. He even offered me double the amount of payment for the cover picture.
However, it was neither the lure of double payment or getting published on his little-known magazine, but realising his frustration and helplessness, that I immediately agreed to help him.
The editor took me to a house in some suburb where Shatrughan was shooting for some film in spotless white dress. A pistol was arranged and Shotgun was pulled out of the shooting by the editor for half an hour, enough for me to shoot the cover pictures of his magazine.
The shoot was over the editor was very happy. He thanked Shatrughan and me profusely and we both started moving out to catch a cab. We were barely halfway through when Shotgun shouted my name apparently calling us back. As we reached close to him, Shotgun mentioned the name of a young female film critic and asked me if I knew her. As I nodded my head in the affirmative, he dropped a ‘bombshell’ right away: ‘Tell her to collect her bra from me which she had left in my hotel room’…!
Since that episode, I have neither had a chance to meet that female reporter nor Shri Shotgun Sinha.
The views expressed here are the author’s own and The News Porter bears no responsibility for the same.
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