‘Sorry, Karan Johar doesn’t want to see you’: Taha Shah recalls ‘heartbreaking’ phone call moments before his first big Bollywood audition

Actor Taha Shah Badussha, who was recently seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, spoke about bagging a role in a YRF project over a decade ago. But before that, he nearly got the opportunity to audition in front of Karan Johar, but his dreams were shattered at the last moment. Taha, who played Tajdar Baloch in the Netflix show, was originally launched as an actor in the film Luv Ka the End. In an interview with Social Kandura, the actor spoke about his near-miss with Dharma Productions, whom he eventually collaborated with some years later after chasing down Karan Johar’s car on the street. He said, “After five or six months of (trying to get an audition in Mumbai), Shanoo Sharma called me. She said, ‘Karan Johar wants to test this girl, but you can come and test with her, and he might see you’. So, I’m like, ‘I’ll take that opportunity, why not?'” Also read – Taha Shah held Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s hand and pleaded with him to not be fired, asked for forgiveness: ‘Sir, don’t take me out of this role’ Taha continued, “I finished a prior shoot commitment, and I was under their building, when I get a call from Shanoo. And she’s like, ‘I’m so sorry Taha, but Karan doesn’t want to see you.’ She asked me where I was, and I told her that I was far away and that’s fine. I went back in an auto, I was really heartbroken, because they said he didn’t want to see me at all.” Taha said that a month later, she called him over to her house, where he met several other aspiring actors. They’d all been gathered to audition for an upcoming YRF project, which the Heeramandi actor eventually bagged. In a recent interview with The Week, Taha Shah Badussha had narrated the story about chasing down Karan Johar’s car on the street, which actually got him an audition. He’d said, “I ran after Karan Johar sir’s car and I hit his car telling him that I just got a film. ‘I want to show it to you, please give me your number’. He was very kind to give me his number and asked me if I was okay. He offered me some water, and that’s how I met him for the first time. Later, I went to his office and got the audition for Gippi.” Taha has spoken about the hustle mentality that he has adopted in his career. He said that he doesn’t think twice before approaching industry personalities and introducing himself, with the intention of building relationships that could translate to work for him in the future. It was this same tenacity that got him an audition for Heeramandi.