Mahesh Bhatt has marked Anupam Kher’s latest credit in Ramayana: Part 1 – The Rise of the Legend with a personal note that reframes a 42-year working relationship as one continuous arc. Kher shared the letter on Instagram with a reply of his own, turning a private exchange into a public record of a formative Hindi cinema partnership.
A note that maps the journey
Bhatt opens with a direct frame. “From B. V. Pradhan in Saaransh to Jatayu in Ramayana—what a journey,” he writes, adding, “The rise and the rise and the rise of you.” The two roles anchor a career that began in 1984, when Kher played an elderly man in Bhatt’s Saaransh, and now includes a voice performance as the vulture Jatayu in Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana.
The note does more than congratulate. Bhatt recalls meeting Kher in Sweden and watching him shake hands with “your whole hand, your whole attention”—a change the filmmaker connects to a scene from their first film. In Saaransh, Kher’s B. V. Pradhan has released his son’s ashes, and Bhatt returns to the image of Pradhan watching an old woman play with children in a park. “That was your Buddha moment,” Bhatt writes, arguing that something of that realisation has stayed in Kher’s eyes, body and heart.
Why the exchange deserves a place in the record
Kher’s response is equally significant for the archive. He calls Bhatt’s message “the most beautiful certificate for 42 years of work” and describes the director as his mentor, friend and teacher. The language makes the exchange read as an acknowledgment of a shared past, not a promotional note for a current release.
- Saaransh (1984): Kher’s first major film role, as B. V. Pradhan.
- Ramayana: Part 1 (2026): Kher voices Jatayu; the film released on November 5.
- The bridge: 42 years, with Bhatt recalling the first conversations at his Pali Hill home.
The surrounding facts sharpen the arc. Bhatt remembers a 28-year-old actor and a 34-year-old filmmaker talking in the compound of his Pali Hill home. Neither, he says, could have imagined what followed. Ramayana: Part 1 released on November 5, 2026, with Kher voicing Jatayu alongside Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita and Yash as Ravana.
What it means for the next generation
Bhatt closes by extending the story outward. A boy from the hinterland, he writes, will see Kher and “dare to come here with his own impossible dream.” That is the note’s real claim: a career properly witnessed becomes a map for others to follow.
For readers who keep the record of Hindi cinema, this exchange does what dates and cast lists cannot. It connects two moments across four decades and shows how a debut performance becomes a reference point for everything after.
Source: bollywoodHungama.com
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