(via indiatoday.com)
Basking in the success of Salman Khan’s latest release Kick, screenwriter Chetan Bhagat wrote an open letter to his fans and haters, reminiscing about the time his boss in Deutsche Bank gave him a bad performance review, which eventually led him to take up writing as a career. (Read the letter here.)
Hours after Bhagat’s letter went viral, his old boss responded with an emotional letter of his own, that he sent it to The UnReal Times:
Here’s the full text:
“Hello.
Just got back from watching Kick…
Sometimes, I look back and wonder, what on earth have I done? What have I unleashed upon this world?
I remember those days back at the bank in Hong Kong, doing Chetan’s performance appraisal. I remember telling him that he doesn’t deserve to be promoted. He took it hard, but I remember ignoring it, thinking that he’d perhaps go get drunk, and come back to work the next day, albeit with a hangover.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine he’d start writing a book, let alone one about his three lame friends in Engineering college.
Six books, five films and a hundred columns later, today as I see Kick release in more screens than any other film ever, I wonder, what if I had not treated him so shabbily? What if I had given him a good performance rating? What if he had stayed in Investment banking instead of venturing out to be a writer? Screw you God, for not giving me the strength and wisdom at the moment.
All of us tell our subordinates they aren’t good enough. It’s fun to be a boss and kick down. But don’t. Because nobody, not even you, knows what that chap might be capable of. What he might go on to write.
Congratulations to you Chetan for the big release today.
And sorry dear Indians. Sorry very much for not promoting Chetan back then.
Chetan Bhagat’s old boss at Deutsche Bank
26 July 2014″
(Editors: Just kidding, Chetan. We’re just jealous that your books sell so much as compared to ours :P)