When Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit mistook Anupam Kher’s facial paralysis as comedy
Actor Anupam Kher suffered facial paralysis before he began shooting for the 1994 film ‘Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’. Instead of taking a break, the actor rushed to the sets of the film and shot for the Salman Khan-Madhuri Dixit starrer.

Sooraj Barjatya’s iconic film ‘Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’ completed 30 years of its release on August 5. While shooting for the film, Anupam Kher, who played Madhuri Dixit and Renuka Shahane’s father in the family drama, was paralysed on the face. However, Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit thought that the senior actor was only making faces to add a comic element to the scenes.
When Kher had to start shooting for his part Who am I to youHe was suffering from facial paralysis, which left the left side of his face disfigured. Instead of telling Barjatya about his health crisis, Kher came to the sets.
“It was also the first day of the antakshari scene (the pillow play sequence followed by songs) in Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. I was returning from a doctor’s appointment and I thought to myself, ‘If I go home today and rest for two months, I will live in fear for the rest of my life. In the years to come, I will think that quitting work is the only solution when I get sick,'” the actor recalled during his appearance on the show. Your court.
He said that his co-stars in the film, Madhuri and Salman, mistook his distorted face as a comical expression.
Anupam Kher said, “For a long time, Madhuri and Salman thought I was doing a comic scene. After a while, I gathered everyone and told them that my left side was paralyzed, but I was ready to shoot. If you look at the scene carefully, you will find that it had a close-up shot and they changed the sequence and gave me Dharmendra’s Sholay sequence, in which I had to recreate his famous drunkenness scene and say ‘Aunty ji’ with a crooked face.”
The actor had also discussed his facial paralysis at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2012 and said, “If you look closely, the film (in a particular song sequence) does not include any close-up shot of me. The film was very successful… If you explain your shortcomings and problems, it helps sometimes.”
Kher also recalled the time when he first realised that something was wrong with his health.One day I was having dinner at my friend Anil Kapoor’s house when his wife Sunita said, ‘Anupam, you are not blinking with one eye’ (I was at my friend Anil Kapoor’s house one day when his wife Sunita told me, ‘Anupam, you are not blinking even one of your eyes.’) I thought maybe I was tired,” Kher said. Your court.
The next day, while Kher was brushing his teeth, water came out of his mouth and he did not even realise what had happened. It was then that Kher realised the seriousness of the situation. He went to filmmaker Yash Chopra and told him about his condition. Yash advised him to consult a doctor. The doctor asked Kher to rest at home. “He asked me to take medicine because my condition was very bad,” Kher recalled.
Released in 1994, ‘Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’ became the first Indian film to cross the Rs 1 billion mark. It remains a favourite among Hindi cinema fans and its songs are still played at Indian weddings.