Shatrughan honest about 'baharwali' in biography

Kolkata: Known for his candid remarks, actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha has not shied away from talking about his extramarital affair in his biography.

"The book has the summary of my life from how I left home to study films at Pune, the struggle in film industry, and then the girls who came into my life - 'gharwali' (wife) came and then 'baharwali'," Sinha told PTI in an interview here.

He is in the city to participate in Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival (AKLF). His book 'Anything But Khamosh : The Shatrughan Sinha Biography' by Bharathi S Pradhan captures the 70-year-old's life in an honest and unflattering manner.

One of the chapters in the book has 'Shotgun' talking about his off-screen intimacy with co-actor Reena Roy and how the relationship continued for sometime even after his
marriage with Poonam.

When asked to comment on the need to be candid enough in the book, the BJP MP said had he not been honest in the book it would not have made such an interesting and gripping tale. "I have done that without hurting anybody's dignity. There is no vulgarity or voyeurism in the book. I haven't mentioned about many girls in my life. They are settled, have children.

Its not the right thing to identify them," Sinha said. The book, released this month, also has comments from his detractors. 

Sinha said, "Grey areas must be covered. If you don't do that then it becomes sycophancy. If I wanted I could edit comments by people who spoke against me but I didn't. It's a democracy so let them say whatever they have to say."

Biographer Pradhan took seven years and a series of interviews with the actor-turned-MP and the people who have known him to write the book.

"I would say it's a very courageous biography because he has not only been honest about himself but allowed others to scrutinise his life," Pradhan says.

'Shotgun' says he is promoting the book because he thinks it can be an inspiration to the younger lot. "Whatever humble success I have got in my real and reel life, it is absolutely self-made besides God's grace. How a person with an ordinary face like mine could become a hero in films from zero? And then when I was in full glory of my acting career I joined politics and that too in the opposition party," he said.

He describes the book as having bits of everything -struggle, passion, achievement, humour, romance, comedy, tragedy. "It is a lesson on how to become a self-made man." Asked, he said, "I think there will be a sequel. (It will have) Whatever happened after 2014 in my social and political life."