Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
In Bollywood, one box office flop can exile you overnight. Celebrity hairstylist Aalim Hakim reveals how stars vanish the moment you're no longer a hit.
He was only nine when his father, hairstylist to Bruce Lee and Amitabh Bachchan, died mid-shoot. What followed wasn’t tribute — it was abandonment.
After styling legends, his father died with just ₹13 to his name. Aalim’s journey began not with scissors, but with hunger and humiliation.
The same actors who once crowded their home for makeovers disappeared when tragedy struck. Aalim’s mother begged. Most didn’t answer.
While working on Mard, Bachchan urged Aalim’s father to seek medical help. He died the next day — a scene more poignant than the film itself.
Aalim’s salon empire wasn’t inherited — it was clawed out of pain, rejection, and an industry that only loves you when you’re trending.
His father styled the biggest names of the '70s, but Bollywood has a short memory. Even legends can fade from reels and real life.
Before styling Ranbir and Hrithik, Aalim was a boy with no mentors, no money, and a mission — to make sure his father’s name wasn’t lost.
“They’ll party with you but never stand by you,” Aalim says of Bollywood’s elite — a world of glam where loyalty dies faster than box office buzz.