Actor Javed Hyder, who has been seen in the Salman Khan-starrer "Dabangg 3" among other films and TV shows, has been in news for having a tough time financially over the last few months, but he says he is not selling vegetables to earn a living.
The news of him selling vegetables during the lockdown started when actress Dolly Bindra tweeted a video of Javed singing the famous song 'Duniya mein rehna hai toh kaam kar pyaare' in front of a vegetables laden cart.
The video went viral and soon people assumed that Javed was facing a financial crunch, so much so that he had been driven to sell vegerables.
Now, in an interview with ETimes TV, Javed has clarified that he is not having any monetary issues.
"I am not selling vegetables. I am an actor by profession and currently because of lockdown, I am not doing anything. As an actor to keep myself busy and occupied I started making musical videos on an app. My daughter was using that app and she encouraged me to make some videos. Everyone is dealing with stress. People are committing suicide, they are facing financial crunch, they don't have work, seeing the situation that we all are in currently in, I thought of making videos. I know so many artists who are dealing with lack of work. So, initially, I started off by putting a few videos with good messages. Then one day I took permission from a vegetable vendor and shot a video with his (thela) vegetable cart. Suddenly, the video started doing well and it crossed over 1 million views. I was very happy and the actor in me who was very sad because of the lockdown got excited. After that I started making videos to motivate people that no job is small. Today, with God's grace I don't have any monetary issues, but if at all it happens in future I won't shy from selling vegetables as no job is small," he said.
As for surviving in the lockdown, Javed said: "The last big film I did was 'Dabangg 3' and it was a super hit. We shifted to a new flat in March first week and soon the lockdown was announced. We were shell shocked initially because we had just shifted and we had exhausted a lot of money. Then, there were a few friends who were going through a tough time so I decided to help them too. Because I thought the lockdown would be lifted after 21 days, but it continues for four months now. Also I am an actor. At the end of the day,I was getting frustrated because I wanted to work. That's when I started making these videos. But thankfully we had savings and money."
Javed began his career in films in the eighties as a child actor. He has worked in films like "Khudgarz" and "Ram Jaane".