From being the son of a small-time mechanic to owning Mercedes: Vishal Kotian shares his struggle story

Mumbai (Maharashtra): Vishal Kotian has a beautiful fan following that appreciates and respects the actor’s hard work. He has never shied away from sharing his struggle story and has always been vocal about the hard times he faced. Although the actor is famous for portraying the role of Birbal in ‘Har Mushkil Ka Hal Akbar Birbal’ and ‘Akbar Ka Bal Birbal’, he gained monumental fame after appearing in the 15^th season of Bigg Boss. Talking to First India Telly, Vishal shared some #UnfilteredBaatein about his self-made journey from a waiter to now an actor.

Sharing his story, Vishal said, “I was born in Dagdi Chawl, a small area in Lalbaug Parel. Dagdi Chawl was very raw during those days. It basically was a mill workers’ area where most of the people worked in mills.”

He also shared how his childhood was related to Salman Khan. Vishal revealed, “During the afterparty of Bigg Boss, Salman Sir praised me a lot for my journey. That is when I told him my dad worked in a garage in Andheri. He had a small area in a garage named Singh’s Garage. That is when Salman sir told me that the garage belonged to his bodyguard Sheru’s father.”

Talking about his education, the actor said, “My parents were highly educated. My dad was a South Indian and my mom was a Punjabi; they had a love marriage. That is the reason why we were living alone. They had decided to remove me from the gangster environment of Dagdi Chawl. So, they did not put me in any local school but Don Bosco’s. As a result, my education was excellent.”

He added, “I did a lot of odd jobs. I used to work in a Udupi hotel as a kid where I used to wipe tables. I was very happy there because my entire day’s meal was fixed. Other than that, I delivered newspapers and bottled milk. From around the XI-XII standard, I studied with my own money. So, I got the habit of living independently from a young age.”

Vishal also further revealed that he used to sell the tickets for ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander’, ‘Veergati’ and ‘Bandhan’ in black to sustain his expenses.

“I was good at education and hard-working as well. I got myopic glasses from a very young age due to studying at night under a street lamp,” the actor further said.

Vishal stated that many people in Bigg Boss asked him if he told all these stories to gain sympathy. To this, the actor replied, “If I wanted to gain sympathy, I wouldn’t have revealed that I own two apartments and a Mercedes today. I shared my story for every kid who lives a life today that I lived previously, who thinks that he cannot rise above poverty. I wanted to inspire them that anyone can achieve goals if they work hard. Because when I was a kid no one else other than my parents and Amitabh Bachchan were there to inspire me.”