Raju Kher on losing his home after a show fell through, and feeling Anupam Kher didn't help: ‘Had no one else’

Raju Kher once had a 4-BHK home, a family settled in comfort, and a new television show ready to go. Then the channel that was supposed to air it vanished overnight. In a candid conversation with Siddharth Kannan, the actor-director looked back on the financial blow that followed, and on the brother he believed would rescue him.

A show made, a channel gone

The trouble began with what looked like an opportunity. A new channel was preparing to launch, contracts were in place, and several producers were busy shooting pilots. Raju sold his flat to fund his own programme, Life Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega. Before it could see the light of day, the channel was gone.

"There was a time when I was going through a bad phase. I had sold my house because a new channel was coming, so I had bought a flat elsewhere. A new channel was going to launch and many people were making pilots, agreements were already signed. I also made a programme Life Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega. Suddenly, I got to know that the channel has disappeared. I had invested the money that I got from selling the flat in that programme. I thought that I had a first-class life, a 4-BHK house, everything set for the family. And then, the channel disappeared and no one knew what happened.. there was just a lock on their door."

Waiting on a brother who was waiting too

With no work coming in and rent to pay, Raju turned to the one person he felt he could lean on: Anupam Kher, by then a well-established actor. The help he hoped for did not come. Anupam, as it happened, was in a lull of his own. He had stepped away from work, holding out for substantial roles rather than taking whatever was offered.

"I also felt the pressure to pay the rent. I had no one else, I could only talk to my brother, and I thought he will help me. But at that time, he had also stopped working. The reason was that he didn't want to do any of those weird films, he wanted substantial roles. So, I felt that my brother did not help me out. 'He could have done so,' that was my thought at that time."

The interview that changed his mind

Raju's view of that period shifted years later, when he read an interview in which Anupam spoke about wishing he had a child of his own. Anupam is married to actor Kirron Kher, who already had a son, Sikander Kher, from her first marriage. Anupam has often described Sikander as his own child.

Hearing his brother voice that regret, Raju said, made him see that he had taken Anupam 'for granted'. He had assumed that financial success meant his brother had no troubles of his own. In time, he came to understand that Anupam had been fighting his own battles all along.

About Raju Kher

Raju Kher is an actor and director with a long body of work across Hindi films and television. He started acting in the 1990s, and his film credits include Ghulam, Jungle, Om Jai Jagadish, Shootout at Wadala, Krrish 3, Main Tera Hero, Uunchai and Patna Shuklla.