Johnny Walker started working at 12

Recalling his father’s childhood, Nasirr said his grandfather initially worked as a mill manager. However, the family’s circumstances changed after he lost his job. With a large family to support, he repeatedly moved in search of work.

Story continues below.
Subscribe to see fewer ads.

“As a child, there was a point when his father was a mill manager and things were going well. Then his father lost his job. They moved from there to Indore in search of work. After some time, that job was also lost, and they moved somewhere else. The entire family kept moving from one place to another, but they could never settle down. Their financial situation kept getting worse,” Nasirr said.

With his father unable to find stable employment, Walker started earning money himself while still a child.

“Daddy left school when he was 12 or 13 and started working. He began selling fruits and ice cream from a bicycle because his father was unable to find another job and could not earn money. He thought, ‘I have to do something. I have to try to earn some money so that the whole family can have two proper meals a day,’” Nasirr said.

Walker went on to take up several jobs during those years.

Story continues below this ad

“Daddy used to sell ice cream, sell kite string, work at a bicycle shop, sell fruits and even shout slogans at fairs. There is hardly any job that Daddy did not do,” Nasirr recalled.

“Before he became a bus conductor, when he was 12, 13, 14 or 15 years old, he did all these jobs. He had lost everything at that point.”

Nasirr said the family continued moving in search of stability before eventually reaching Bombay. It was in Mumbai (then Bombay) that Walker eventually got the opportunity to work as a BEST bus conductor.

“Then they came to Bombay. My grandfather had some contacts, so they asked if Johnny Walker could be given a job as a conductor with BEST,” Nasirr said.

Story continues below this ad

Johnny Walker had severely impaired vision in his left eye

Nasirr revealed that his father had developed a problem with his left eye when he was around 14 or 15.

“When he was around 14 or 15, he developed a problem with his left eye. The doctor gave him some eye drops and asked him to come back after 10 or 15 days. When he went back, the doctor wasn’t there; there was only a compounder. The compounder accidentally put ear drops in Daddy’s eye,” Nasirr said.

According to Nasirr, the incident permanently affected Walker’s vision.

Story continues below this ad

“As a result, he lost vision in his left eye. He could not see properly from that eye for the rest of his life. He could see only about 30 to 40 per cent with his left eye, and his vision deteriorated further as he grew older,” he said.

“You would never know this by watching his films. You could never tell that he had this problem. Nobody knew about it.”

He memorised the eye chart to pass the BEST test

The eyesight problem could have prevented Walker from getting the conductor’s job. Nasirr recalled that his father knew he would struggle with the eye examination and came up with an unusual solution.

“When he went for the conductor’s job, someone told him there would be a physical test. He knew that he would fail the eye test. So, on the day of the physical examination, he arrived at 8 am and memorised the entire eye chart before his test. He memorised it and then passed the physical,” Nasirr said.

Story continues below this ad

From BEST conductor to Johnny Walker

Johnny Walker’s time as a bus conductor ultimately became the bridge to his film career. Actor Balraj Sahni reportedly noticed his comic talent and introduced him to filmmaker Guru Dutt. Walker subsequently got an opportunity to work in Baazi, and his performance helped launch his career. He worked in films such as Pyaasa, CID, Mr. & Mrs. 55 and Madhumati, among others. His comic performances and songs became an integral part of several classic Hindi films.