Mahesh Kothare recalls selling house after his film with Govinda’s nephew tanked: Had no roof over my head

Last week director, actor- director Mahesh Kothare released his memoir Damn It Aani Barach Kahi. He admits that post the launch – which was quite an extravagant affair – he is “a bit relaxed”.

Mahesh reveals that while the thought of writing a memoir was on his mind, it was his son, actor Addinath Kothare and others who convinced him “write down the journey of 60 years”. “It has been quite a journey. I entered the film industry in 1962. I have seen the black and white cinema, the colour one, and now the digital one. So, it was very necessary that there’s some kind of documentation of that,” he adds.

While writing a memoir, the one often raised concern is about the sanitization of the story. Over the release of several memoirs the choice of picking and choosing certain events of one’s lives have been often pointed as a concern by readers. Point this out to Kothare and he nonchalantly replies that he has “gone all out” with this one. “I have not drawn any line, I have not hidden anything, I’ve spoken extensively about every situation, every film of mine, every internal difficulties in our family,” the Zapatlela 2 director shares.

The most difficult part of penning down an autobiography has to be the ride that one has to take to the hard knocks of life. During the conversation, the 69-year-old opens up about one such phase. “I have seen lots of ups and downs. But, there was a phase when I crashed down to the bottom and to crawl back was difficult. When this part was written, I wanted my exact emotions to come out, as at that time I faced immense insult and defamation. I had decided that I would not react back then. This was in 1999. I made a Hindi film Lo Main Aagaya – that was a big mistake, a big disaster. That period lasted for a long time, almost 15 years,” Mahesh mentions.

Elaborating a bit more about the phase, he shares, “That period was tough for me. When I was writing about it I wondered how I went through that period and survived it. There was a time when I had no roof over my head. We sold our house to get over the liabilities. So, it had to be penned the way it was. My son was in his college days and we even had to get his admission in MBA. That was a very tough situation. But my son, he was so understanding, he never demanded anything. I tried my best not to have any kind of effect on him and the family.”