Did you know? Naseeruddin Shah was stabbed by his co-actor in the 70s; Om Puri's timely intervention saved him

One of the versatile actors of the country, Naseeruddin Shah, is celebrating his 72nd birthday today. The actor, who boasts of an illustrious career of four decades, has been part of movies in several languages. Though he has mostly worked in Hindi projects, there are notable films in Bengali, Punjabi, Kannada, English and Tamil, in which he made his presence felt with his impeccable performance.

The actor had released his autobiography "And Then One Day" in 2014 which has him narrating interesting anecdotes from his prestigious professional life. One of the incidents written in the book which happened in the 70s left his fans and other movie lovers shocked.

He briefed about getting stabbed by a co-actor at a restaurant and how Om Puri, who accompanied him, saved his life. While shooting for the 1977 film Bhoomika, Naseeruddin and Om were having dinner at a restaurant when an actor friend of his, Jaspal, entered the place.

Naseeruddin had some differences with Jaspal and they were not on good terms for a while. He mentioned in the book, "We ignored each other but, eyes fixed on me, he passed to sit on another table behind me, so I thought."

The actor further mentioned that he was suddenly reminded of his presence by a sharp punch in the middle of his back. When he got up from his seat, Om started shouting after he spotted something behind my back. "I turned to see Jaspal holding a small knife, its point dripping blood, his hand raised to strike again, and Om and two others grappling to subdue him,” he wrote.

The veteran actor was last seen in Amazon Prime Video's Gehraiyaan, in which he shared screen space with Deepika Padukone. He's now all set to return to the Malayalam movie industry; according to sources, he might join hands with Mohanlal for the first time.