Mahesh Bhatt Salutes Anupam Kher After 42-Year Arc From Saaransh to Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana

Forty-two years ago, an anxious 28-year-old actor stood in the Pali Hill compound of a 34-year-old director, uncertain if Bombay would ever make room for him.

Today, that actor is lending his voice to Jatayu in director Nitesh Tiwari’s mythological juggernaut Ramayana—and the director who first bet on him is watching from the wings. Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt penned an unprompted, deeply reflective tribute to Anupam Kher, tracing the actor's rise from his screen debut as the grief-stricken retiree BV Pradhan in Saaransh (1984) to Indian cinema's biggest modern canvas.

Kher felt floored. The veteran actor shared Bhatt's note publicly, describing the correspondence as the warmest acknowledgement possible from the artist who opened the Hindi film industry's doors to him four decades ago.

From the Ash Scattering in Saaransh to Sweden

Bhatt’s reflection anchored itself in the pivotal moment that launched Kher’s career. In Saaransh, an unproven Kher had aged decades to embody Pradhan, an elderly father grappling with the violent loss of his son, Ajay. Bhatt recalled the resonance of that performance and drew a direct line from Bombay sets to a recent encounter abroad.

“

Anupam, From BV Pradhan in Saaransh to Jatayu in Ramayana — what a journey. The rise and the rise and the rise of you. I am so happy for you. I loved seeing you in Sweden. That experience seems to have entered your body somehow. You look different. I saw the way you shook hands with people — your whole hand, your whole attention given to the person in front of you. You have never looked so sure of yourself, and so free of yourself.

Bhatt lingered on the emotional gravity that first bound them together on set in 1984:

“

It took me back to that old woman in the park in Saaransh. Pradhan has let go of his son Ajay's ashes, and there she is, playing with the children. The way you looked at her. That was your Buddha moment. Life had struck you, and something of that moment has stayed in your eyes, your body, your heart. I saw it again in Sweden. I keep thinking of that 28-year-old actor and that 34-year-old filmmaker talking in the compound of my home in Pali Hill. What did we give each other that day? I don't know. I could never have imagined all that would follow.

For Bhatt, watching his protégé command the screen across generations represents a rare personal triumph:

“

You make me so, so happy. I feel the happiness of someone who once held your hand and now watches you go where I could never have taken you. And somewhere, a boy from the hinterland will see you and dare to come here with his own impossible dream. What more can I ask for, Anupam? What more can I ask for?

Forty-Two Years of Cinema in a Single Letter

Kher responded with visible vulnerability, describing himself as the happiest man on earth after reading the filmmaker's missive.

"Your message came out of the blue yesterday, and I was completely unprepared for it," Kher wrote in his public response. "I read it with a heart full of gratitude and felt deeply humbled. It was like receiving the most beautiful certificate for 42 years of work, and the warmest acknowledgement from the person who first opened the doors of cinema for me."

Kher stressed that their bond transcended a typical working dynamic between filmmaker and performer.

"You are so much more to me than the director of my first film, Saaransh. You are my mentor, my friend and my teacher," Kher said. "To receive these words from one of the finest directors, writers and authors of our country means more to me than I can express. Thank you for believing in me, for seeing my journey with such generosity, and for being such an important part of my life."

Milestone / Project	Year / Metric	Creative Context	Key Collaborators
Saaransh	1984	Kher's cinematic debut as BV Pradhan	Directed by Mahesh Bhatt
Initial Collaboration	Pali Hill	28-year-old actor meets 34-year-old director	Bhatt and Kher
Ramayana Voice Role	Present Day	Voicing the mythic warrior bird Jatayu	Directed by Nitesh Tiwari
Domestic Theatrical Gross

The Big Picture

Industry mentors rarely step into the light to offer unvarnished creative assessments of actors who have matched them in stature. Bhatt’s public validation underscores how a career built on dramatic range—from quiet art-house grief to massive VFX spectacles—can still trace its creative lifeblood to an obscure Pali Hill lawn.

The praise arrives as Tiwari's Ramayana rewrites commercial benchmarks across Indian turnstiles. The big-ticket production, anchored by Ranbir Kapoor alongside Sai Pallavi, Ravi Dubey, Kajal Aggarwal, Rakul Preet Singh, Vivek Oberoi, and Kunal Kapoor, has already crossed the ₹500 crore mark domestically and climbed past ₹900 crore worldwide inside its first week of release. Kher’s vocal turn as Jatayu places him squarely in the centre of that cinematic wave—four decades after an elderly father’s grief on screen made him a household name.