Interview of Vijay Sonawane

Vijay Sonawane

Hello folks. Please meet Supercop---ACP Vijay Sonawane. He served the Mumbai Police for decades and was posted in Versova P.S for long. He retired in 2012 with some telling moments and memories and settled down in Kandiville. Soon he took interest in autographs. Met a lot of friends who inspired him. In no time he started functioning as a serious autograph collector. Today he has in his possession over 600 autographs!

 

An avid collector who has come face-to-face with a host of A-list celebs at red carpet events has revealed to us some of his most treasured moments - and also spoke about the ones who were the least friendly towards him.

 

We recently chatted up with him and got to know a lot about his passion. Please read on to know more.

 

I started off by sending mails to important personalities and achievers. Email requests have a very low success rate. It is about 20 %, If you write 100 emails chances are that only 20 people will revert. But I never gave up and kept trying. I am very resilient.

 

The first success I achieved was when I wrote to Pratibha Patil the 12^th president of India. She replied and sent her autograph. This really inspired me to pursue the autograph-hunting trail. I usually have a set format in my own letterhead. I prepare material accordingly. I send a stamp attached reply envelope also. This really helps. Say for example 12^th October is Amitabhji’s Birthday. So I will be ready to send a letter by the 7^th of October by speed post. He is usually very prompt with his replies.

 

Let me share with you the Lata Mangeshkar story. We one day all visited Shanmukhananda Hall in Matunga Mumbai, to meet a host of celebs like Lata ji Javed ji Shabanaji and Usha Mangeshkarji. The Security was too tight and we were waiting for hours near the GREEN ROOM just for a glimpse. Since I was in the Police I used my sources-- showed my Identity card and could overtake the security cordon and did get an opportunity to meet her in person. Lata ji does not give autographs but however we managed to click a photo with Lataji. That was a very prized moment in my life. I still treasure that moment.

 

I also met Amitabhji in his bungalow. I could manage entry. Every Friday he used to come out of Jalsha and meet his fans. I carried along with me a sketch made by my beloved daughter. It was a sketch of Amitabh in Deewar. He promptly signed on the sketch and deeply appreciated my daughter’s efforts. Later we also went to Film City Reliance studio no 7 to see the shooting of KBC. Nothing is allowed there. No mobile phones. No autograph books are allowed. However we managed to take an autograph again.

 

During my career I was also posted in the immigration dept. of Mumbai international airport. That gave me an opportunity to meet and greet a lot of International and National celebrities. Say for example Dhirubhai Ambani. I frisked him on a number of occasions. But during those days I never thought of collecting autographs. This was quite a big miss.

 

I did not have the autograph of Manoj Bajpayee. I wrote to him and he did not reply. I gave up hope, Then one day out of the blue, I got a postal reply from him with his autograph. A similar thing happened with Amen Sayani, He also replied to my request.

 

Another bigwig is the master choreographer Ganesh Acharya. He is a personal friend. I requested him for autographs. He took me to the sets of David Dhawan’s Jurwa II. Here I met Varun Dhawan, In the same occasion I met Tiger Shroff. Ganeshji took me to meet him. He promptly signed my autograph book and took selfies too. ( Refer to pic attached )

 

I am still in pursuit of a few autographs. Say for example---Gulzar Sahab, I tried a lot but could not get it. Zakir Husain is another celebrity I have tried but could not get it, I also tried getting the Autograph of Asha Parekh ji and Dilip Kumar ji. I never got it.

 

I have also visited the Gurukul Academy of Hari Prasad Chaurasia in Versova and have collected the autograph of Hariji Shiv Kumar Sharma ji and Anup Jalota ji.   That was indeed a great experience.