Shakti Kapoor recalls Mithun Chakraborty cut his hair, locked him up in a hostel room after ragging him at FTII

Shakti Kapoor has revealed that Mithun Chakraborty locked him up in a room, after hours of ragging him, when they first met at Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune. In his recent interview with DD Urdu, Shakti Kapoor also recalled that Mithun was his senior at the institute and one of the first ones, who ragged him there. (Also read: Shakti Kapoor recalls being called ‘Jeejs’ by Padmini even before marriage)

Shakti and Mithun

Shakti and Mithun went on to work in several films together, including Gunda, Guru, Kranti Kshetra, Baadal, Pyaar Ka Karz and Dalaal. Shakti also said in the recent interview that he was already feeling like a star, even before he entered the premises of FTII.

He befriended Ravi Varman and Anil Varman on their way from Delhi to Pune and had a few meals in five star hotels with Vinod Khanna, Rakesh Roshan and Rajesh Roshan. Ravi’s sister was married in Vinod’s family and since they stayed at her house in Khandala, they happened to meet their family friends from the film industry as well.

Having started his Bollywood journey in 1977, Shakti bagged his famous roles in with Sanjay Dutt’s Rocky and Feroz Khan’s Qurbaani in 1981. He went on to create a place for himself with his comic as well as villainous roles during the 80s and the 90s. He was most recently seen in Prime Video’s Guilty Minds and will now be seen in Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal.

When Mithun ragged Shakti

“By the time we reached Pune, I had a beer in my hand and felt like a star. We reached the hostel, Rakesh Roshan was there to see me off. I saw that there was a guy standing at the gate, he was wearing a dhoti and had a rippling muscular body. His dhoti had so many holes you could not even count. He was dusky. He saw Rakesh Roshan and touched his feet. I had a beer in my hand and I asked him, ‘You wanna have some beer?’ He refused and said it is anyway not allowed in the institute and then introduced himself – he was Mithun Chakraborty... Cut to, they (Rakesh and other) left and a hand held me by my leg. He dragged me to a room, threw me on the floor and questioned ‘You asked a senior – you wanna have some beer?’ (How dare you)?”

Shakti said that Vijayendra Ghatge joined Mithun and soon, the entire room was dark, except for a spotlight on Shakti. “These are all my seniors, and there I am sitting on the floor. Mithun then told his friends about me and then they joked about my hair – tere zulf jo hai, raat ka andhera, tu jo sir mudwae savera ho jae. Unhone kainchi nikali aur savera kar diya (They made fun of my hair and then cut it off with scissors). I felt bad, and I regretted doing what I did. I realised I was wrong.”

Mithun also saved Shakti from ragging

Shakti further recalled being told to swim for 20 minutes in a cold night and he urged them to let him simply return to Delhi. Mithun then came to his rescue. He took Shakti aside and told him to always remember how to behave with seniors, before locking him inside a room so everyone else thought he was not there in the hostel, otherwise he would have been ‘paraded till morning’.

Shakti also revealed that he had never even thought about acting till the time he received a letter from FTII, Pune, for a written test. His friend had filled up a form, after which he was invited for the test.