The latest episode of Love Lingo is out, and in a deeply compelling conversation with hosts Jas Sagu and Arsala Qureishi, Neeraj Kabi goes beyond recounting a success story, he unpacks what it truly takes to survive and succeed in Bollywood without a godfather.
He revisited the years he spent travelling in Mumbai’s local trains with nothing but a pen and unwavering belief. During his most uncertain days, he would pick up scraps of paper and scribble down the names of filmmakers and actors he aspired to work with, from Irrfan Khan, Shyam Benegal and Gautam Ghosh to Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Anurag Kashyap, quietly manifesting a future he was determined to earn.
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“I would laugh at myself first and say, ‘Oh really?’ And then I would answer, ‘No, really. I want to work with them.’ There were always two voices, one doubting, one believing.” Years later, when he found himself standing on sets of Sacred Games with those very artists, the moment overwhelmed him. “I had tears running down my face… I told myself, these things do happen. But you put in a lot of work to reach here.”
The conversation, steered by Jas Sagu and Arsala Qureishi, moved beyond nostalgia into a powerful exploration of the dreams and illusions attached to Bollywood versus the hard, invisible years that shape an artist. As a filmmaker herself, Arsala’s probing questions drew out the discipline behind the desire, positioning the episode not just as celebrity storytelling, but as a raw meditation on resilience, preparation, and the quiet madness required to build a career in Bollywood without a godfather.