Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah has revealed a shocking experience where Mumbai University disinvited him from an event called "Jashn-e-Urdu" without explanation or apology. 

 

The actor shared the incident in an opinion piece for The Indian Express. The op-ed led to the thespian being targeted by pestering reporters. 

 

Shah said, “I do not want to talk about this issue, so please don’t harass me. I told you I don’t want to talk about it.” When the reporter pressed further and asked, “Why are you pushing the mic?” Shah replied, “Because you are shoving it into my face.” He added, “Because you are bothering me. You take that out of my face.”

 

Amid the row over veteran actor's op-ed, Naseeruddin Shah refuses to comment when confronted by Times Now’s @YakkatiSowmith.

Watch the entire sequence here! pic.twitter.com/yGfYkyJnfs

— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) February 5, 2026

 

The actor continued, “Can’t you see I have just come from a journey, and I have said to you politely, I don’t want to talk about this issue. Why are you harassing me?” When the journalist claimed he was not harassing him, Shah responded, “You are harassing me. Do you understand what I am saying?”

 

Reactions to the reporter’s behavior quickly spread on social media, with many slamming their unprofessional behaviour. “In any civilized society, this reporter would have been behind bars. But TV reporters in the subcontinent think they have a license to harass public figures," one person wrote. 

 

Another person wrote, “I literally wanted to slap the reporter from here."

 

In his opinion piece, Shah explained, “The Jashn-e-Urdu organised by the Urdu department of Mumbai University for February 1, from which I was disinvited at the last moment, was an event I was greatly looking forward to because it meant interacting with students. The university, after informing me that I needn’t attend on the night of January 31, and giving no reason, forget an apology, obviously considered this not insulting enough. So they decided to rub a little salt in by announcing to the audience that I had refused to be there.”

 

On the professional front, Naseeruddin Shah was recently seen in "IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack", a web series streaming on Netflix. The series also features Vijay Varma, Pankaj Kapur, Patralekhaa, Aravind Swamy, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Dia Mirza, and Amrita Puri.

 

Shah has consistently delivered some of the finest performances in Indian cinema, earning critical acclaim for his work in films such as Masoom, A Wednesday!, Sparsh, and The Dirty Picture, making him one of the most respected actors in the industry.