Legendary writer-poet Gulzar says he believes he was destined to make his acclaimed 1988 television series Mirza Ghalib with Naseeruddin Shah, who, as a student, once wrote to him declaring he was the best man for the role.

Gulzar, whose admiration for Ghalib is matched by his love for Urdu and Bengali, said he had long envisioned bringing the 19th-century poet to the screen and initially planned a feature film with close collaborator Sanjeev Kumar.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the 10th Jashn-e-Rekhta Festival, Gulzar recounted how the film failed to take off. “Sanjeev Kumar used to say, ‘I don’t need to listen to the script because I know you will not waste me.’ But the producer changed his mind and it didn’t work out,” he recalled at the session hosted by Divya Dutta.

The project remained stalled for years until the growth of television serials created an opportunity to tell Ghalib’s story at length. Gulzar said he welcomed the chance to unfold the narrative across multiple episodes.

He first noticed Shah in a diploma film at the Film and Television Institute of India and felt he had the depth for the role. But when he proposed Shah to the producer, he was advised to choose someone more “handsome”.

“I told him that I need a good actor for this and he will play the role very well. I remember that a lot of people objected to his casting. The producer didn’t agree. So I said ‘I will not do it’,” Gulzar said.

Matters became more complicated when Shah demanded a fee considered unusually high at the time. Gulzar recounted an encounter during a meeting with the producer.

Shah entered the room and reminded Gulzar of a letter he had written as a student: “Gulzar sahab, I was in college when I wrote a letter to you, saying that Sanjeev Kumar can’t play Ghalib because Ghalib wasn’t fat. And I wrote in that letter that you wait for me. I am coming to the industry.”

Shah insisted the letter was likely lost in fan mail, but added: “‘But do you think if I am told that I can’t play the role, I will let anyone else do it?’ And he (Shah) said, ‘…I will not take a penny less than what I have said. I will take that and do this role. Otherwise, I will not let anyone else do it.’”

The producer, Gulzar said, was upset, but he himself was struck by Shah’s conviction. “The producer, who we used to call Babuji, said, ‘Gulzar sahab, did you see that.’ I told him, ‘Yes, I saw it and I saw that this was Ghalib who got up and left just now. This man has the attitude of Ghalib. This is him’.”

Praising Shah’s versatility, Gulzar added, “I can name three of his films — Pestonjee, Sparsh and Mirza Ghalib. I don’t see Naseeruddin Shah in these, I only see those three characters.”

At the festival, Gulzar also recited poems and spoke about his childhood, his career, and his enduring love for languages.