Veteran actress Aruna Irani has revisited a defining childhood moment — her very first film audition, given in front of Hindi cinema legend Dilip Kumar — recalling how she was casually sipping a cold drink and munching on wafers when the icon spotted her. The anecdote will feature in an upcoming episode of the reality show ‘Tum Ho Naa – Ghar Ki Superstar', hosted by Rajeev Khandelwal.

How the audition came about

Irani recounted that a casting team had once visited her residential building in search of child actors. Children interested in auditioning were promised wafers and cold drinks, an offer enticing enough that a young Aruna roped in her friends to tag along.

‘Audition diya, Dilip sahab ko diya,' she said with a smile, revealing that the casting eye that day belonged to none other than Dilip Kumar himself.

The moment Dilip Kumar noticed her

Recreating the memory, Irani said, ‘Mai to aram se udhar kone mai khade hoke cold drinks pee rahi thi, wafers kha rahi thi, utne mai unki nazar gai. Unhone bola, Ae ladki, ha tum, tum idhar aao.' She narrated how she wiped her hands, folded them in a namaste, and was promptly asked if she could deliver a dialogue.

The line given to her was a frightened plea — ‘Kaka, kaka mujhe bohot dar lag raha hai' — to be performed with palpable fear. She delivered it on cue. ‘Phir mujhe short list kiya, tab Shree Ganesh in the industry hua mera,' she said, marking that audition as the genesis of her career.

A family already steeped in performance

When host Rajeev Khandelwal asked whether her family backed her acting ambitions, Irani replied, ‘Yes, because my father had a drama company, my mother was an actress.' Khandelwal called the moment surreal, noting that her very first audition came before ‘mananiya superstar Dilip Kumar sahab'.

A career spanning 500-plus films

Widely regarded as one of Hindi cinema's most versatile performers, Aruna Irani has appeared in over 500 films across multiple languages. She began as a leading lady in titles like ‘Caravan' and ‘Bombay to Goa', before transitioning into the memorable character roles that defined her later career in films such as ‘Beta' and ‘Raja Babu'.

Her on-screen presence was matched by chart-topping numbers like ‘Chadti Jawani Meri Chaal Mastani' and ‘Dilbar Dil Se Pyare'. On the personal front, she is married to filmmaker Kuku Kohli.

The episode promises a rare, unfiltered look at how a chance encounter — sparked by wafers and a cold drink — shaped one of Hindi cinema's longest-running careers.