Why Farooque Shaikh ditched the chauffeur-driven car to hail an auto outside his home

While most actors in B-Town can't stop rattling off names of the hot wheels in their garage, Farooque Shaikh definitely stands out from the crowd. The veteran actor recently showed how it's a conscious decision on his part to stay simple in an otherwise glitz-crazy world.

When the organisers of a recent event in the suburbs sent a chauffeur-driven car to his residence to pick Farooq up, he politely refused the ride. The actor hailed a rickshaw instead.

According to our sources, since the 64-year-old old stays in Oshiwara and the film event was held at Juhu -- not to forget the evening traffic -- the organisers thought sending him a vehicle would be a nice gesture.


`He was supposed to attend the promotional event for the re-release of the digitally restored version of Chashme Buddoor that is releasing next week. And it turned out that the actor doesn't own a car, so we arranged a pick-up for him. But he said he's more comfortable travelling by public transport and then reached the venue on time in an auto rickshaw,` adds the source.

Jayshree Makhija, the co-producer of the original 1981 film, says she is not at all surprised by this amusing anecdote. `Farooque is one of the most endearing artistes I have come across in my career. He was very down-to-earth when we were shooting for Chashme Buddoor back in the '80s and he is still the same,` she says.