'Heeramandi' star Taha Shah says casting directors ignored his calls for '6 years'

Heeramandi famed, Taha Shah Badussha disclosed paying Rs 10,000 for auditions before his debut, expressing his desperation.

In an interview with Instant Bollywood, the 36-year-old actor shared that he endured years of hard work before finally securing his big break after 14 years in the industry.

He said, “I have been in the film industry for 14 years and I got nothing. In the last 5-6 years, I was getting 500-600 likes on my Instagram posts but one day, boom… I started getting likes in lakhs and lakhs. My Instagram is buzzing, every 2-3 minutes I am getting a message.”

Discussing his efforts to network within Bollywood in order to secure roles, the actor, who portrayed the character of Tajdar in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Heeramandi divulged, “I accept it on camera I go to parties to make contacts. It didn’t help instantly, but now, everybody will pick up my call."

"I have tried to call casting directors and for six years they didn’t pick up my calls.”

He further revealed, “I live on my calendar. If I had called a person, I would make sure I call him/her again after two weeks. I have thousands of names on my calendar."

"I would make 40 calls each day. Cold calling is the best discipline anybody should go through… I am desperate. You should be desperate. If you are not desperate in life, you will not get anything and I am a live example of the same.”