ME & MY CARS - Jakie Shroff

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ME & MY CAR - Jackie Shroff

"I was fascinated by the bird, the body, and the grace. I fell in love with it."

Everyone knows him as the macho filmstar. Few know Jackie Shroff as the true-blue car aficionado. Joy Chaudhuri discovers the hero’s passion.

The 13th floor residence in the Mumbai suburb of Bandra is elegantly furnished. The only concession to Bollywood is an oil portrait of Jackie Shroff glaring out from one of the walls. But make no mistake, Jackie is not your ordinary Mr J Shroff, he is a ‘Hero’. And heroes don’t drive Marutis. What do they drive?

“It’s a Pontiac Firebird. A Transam. A friend, Sunil Katiyal, used to have it. It was blue and I was fascinated by the bird, the body, and the grace. I fell in love with it. It’s not a high-speed car, you can’t race anybody in it. It’s got just 130kph on the speedo. It’s an automatic. The rpm shows 55 or 65. It’s about grace and looks. It’s a heavy body, so chalane ko mazza aata hai.”

The lure of grease hit Jackie Shroff much before grease paint did. “My passion for cars began when I was a kid. I resided in the same area where another automobile lover Adi Dubash lived. He had a Porsche and a Ferrari. I remember the glorious note of the Ferrari’s engine, which could be heard from half a kilometre away. And I used to run to get a glimpse of the Italian beauty flashing past.”

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ittle wonder when young Jackie grew up and bought his first car, it wasn’t the ubiquitous Fiat or Ambassador. “My very first car was a very pretty Triumph Spitfire Mark II. Unfortunately, once while taking a sharp turn, the axle collapsed. After that I dumped that car.”

Jackie has a soft spot for a few of his past loves. “I have had Jaguars, BMWs, Alfa Romeos, the works. The BMW 750i was a beauty. The Lotus Esprit was very rigid, very powerful, the most powerful car I’ve ever driven. Very fast but with a very hard drive.”So does Jaggu-dada change cars as often as he changes his shirt? “I’ve had a Nissan Patrol since the past six years. It’s an offroader I really went high for. She’s broad, looks like a horse and works like a mule. Very strong, good power and corners like a car.

“The left-hand-drive Patrol even saved my life once when a truck collided head-on. I was in the front passenger seat with a friend driving. The dashboard cracked but the windscreen didn’t break.”

What kind of cars does Jackie Shroff like? “My car should be big bodied and big engined. Muscle cars is what I go for. I don’t like small cars because I feel like an overgrown buffalo in them. Body weight is what I look for when I drive a car.”

What cars does the man, who weaves dreams for millions of Indians, dream of? “Hummer. I want to have a Hummer. It’s a dream I’m certainly going to fulfill.” Okay folks, here’s the scoop: there’s going to be a Hummer on the roads of Mumbai city with Jackie behind the wheel.

“The old cars I’m looking out for are a Jaguar SS100. Even an XK120 or XK140 would be nice. Or the E-type. Maybe a Ferrari Daytona. Also a Cadillac Eldorado or some late ’50s and early ’60s cars with aircraft-like fins and an overdose of chrome.”

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ckie Shroff has a ten-year-old called Tiger. What advice does he want to give his son, and all the young guys and girls behind the wheel? “My son is already looking for an Esprit!” “The first thing is safety. Speed is not everything. Speed, without being alert, can kill. Delhi, which has the highest accident rate in the world, is where I’d like to spread the message that please go easy on the accelerator. More people are killed due to road accidents than by diseases.

“Also, don’t drink and drive. If you’re going out with friends, one guy should say: ‘I’m not going to drink today, but make sure that you guys reach home safely’. It’s not being a sissy, it’s being sensible.”

Hear this, all you macho guys. You don’t to get much more macho than Jackie Shroff. The message is clear: It’s not macho to speed, or to drink and drive.

Another issue close to Jackie’s heart is pollution. “Pollution is a major issue today. The level of benzene in petrol should be one per cent, not three per cent. Adulteration of fuel should be checked. We have to tackle this on a war footing for the future of our children.”

As I drive back to office, a film hoarding with Jackie’s face peers down at me. I ease off the accelerator; pretending that my ramshackle Maruti is a Transam is not macho.

Source

May 2000

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