For 65 year-old Kader Khan, Local Train, one of the first plays he wrote during his college days, is close to his heart. After all, this was the production that was his stepping stone into films. At his duplex apartment in Santacruz, the writer-actor reminisces about his past. He narrates that after Local Train notched up top honours — best playwright, actor and director — at Jagriti, an all-India Dramatic Competition, the judges — author and filmmaker Rajinder Singh Bedi, his writer-director son Narendra Bedi and actor Kamini Kaushal — met him backstage and asked him why he wasn’t inclined to films.

Kader Khan flanked by his sons Shahnawaz and Sarfraz at his Santa Cruz residence. Pic/ Satyajit Desai