Shakti Kapoor Recalls When Mithun Chakraborty Shaved His Head: 'He Dragged Me To A Room, I Started Crying'

Shakti Kapoor recently opened up about an incident from his days at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, where he crossed paths with Mithun Chakraborty.

Shakti Kapoor recently opened up about an incident from his days at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, where he crossed paths with Mithun Chakraborty. While both actors went on to star together in multiple films and have developed a strong friendship, there was a time when Mithun, his senior at FTII, taught Shakti a lesson that left him in tears. 

Shakti Kapoor recalls meeting Mithun Chakraborty for the first time

In an interview with DD Urdu, Shakti recalled his first meeting with Mithun and the events that followed. He said, “By the time we reached Pune, I had a beer in my hand and felt like a star. We reached the (FTII) 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 not allowed in the institute. He then introduced himself – he was Mithun Chakraborty… Cut to, they (Rakesh and other) left and a hand held me by my leg.” 

When Mithin shaved Shakti Kapoor's head

He further said, “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?”  The situation escalated further when Mithun, along with his friends, mocked Shakti’s hair. They then took a pair of scissors and cut his hair. 

“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.” 

Shakti was then asked to swim

Shakti was then ordered to swim for 20 minutes in cold water as a form of discipline. "I was looking like a monkey. I started crying, touched their feet," Shakti recalled. He was then instructed to complete 40 laps in the pool. He was on the verge of giving up when Mithun finally intervened, telling him to remember his place and how to respect his seniors.