Mohd Shameem Faridi is the supervising producer of Saregama India Ltd’s Savdhan India that dishes out stories based on real life crime stories. But, his personal life story is no less filmy. Having started his career in showbiz as a helping hand (boy), he has reached astronomical heights today. With an attitude of ‘never say die’, the man has achieved a lot in life. Tellychakkar.com got into a conversation with the man for our Behind The Lens segment. Excerpts: Tell us a bit about your journey? My journey in Mumbai began way back in the year 2001 when I had just completed my graduation. As a matter of fact, my coming to Mumbai was rather a forced one due to my family’s unstable financial conditions. Once here, I took up a small time marketing job, but as I had graduated from Hindi medium, nobody wanted to pay me anything more than rupees five thousand. Since I wasn’t very happy with the pay I was getting, one fine day I asked my elder brother to help me get into the entertainment industry as he was already a part of it. Is that when your journey in the entertainment industry begun? Yes, I started with a small-time job of a boy; as a matter of fact I used to be Shama Sikander’s boy way back in 2001. I worked with her on her two films after which I moved on to join Archana Puran Singh’s production house Magic Work. There, I worked as a setting boy on two of her shows, Mere Samne Wali Khidki and Aasman Se Tapki for DD Metro. Somehow, I wasn’t very happy with what I was doing so far as I felt that, as a learned man, I deserved better things in life. Hence, from there I took a leap and went on to be the assistant manager on DD’s Talaq Kyun? After this, I worked on Zee TV’s Tum Bin Jaaon Kahaan. In 2004, I shifted my base to Filmfarms where I joined as a production manager for its show Tumhari Disha. Later, I went on to work on various other shows as a production manager that included Kituu Sabb Jaanti Hai. In 2008, I joined Beyond Dreams as a production controller for its Star Plus’ show, Chehra. I was working on the show, when in 2009, there came a bad patch because of recession and I lost my job. How did you get back then? Later, I went on to join BBC Worldwide. I worked with them on Wife Bina Life as a production manager in 2011 and at the end of the year, I joined UTV and worked with them on Ajab Desh Ki Gazab Kahani. Here, I went on to be a supervising producer on IMRC Productions’ Teri Meri Love Story. In July, last year, I joined Saregama India Ltd. Currently; I am working on Savdhan India for them. Are you happy with your progress? I am very happy at the moment, but am looking forward to produce shows some day. Who are the ones who backed you in your ups and downs? Well, first and foremost I would say that it was my wife Sushma, my girl friend then, who always stood by me. Having first met her in 2003, we tied the knot in 2005 and from then everything for me changed in life; she is my lucky charm. Here, I would want to name Divyank Joshi, who was the production controller of Tum Bin Jaaon Kahaan, who taught me everything about the industry. It is from him that I learnt to observe and work accordingly. Today, I know every aspect of filmmaking and the credit for all this goes to him. Lastly, I want to mention the name of my current producer Manish Popat who is someone who has shown faith in me and given me the responsibility of the stories that we produce for Savdhan India. These people have been the strongest pillars of my life. Your advice for newcomers Industry is a beautiful place but it’s only meant for hardworking people. If you have the zeal to work and reach heights, it is for you.