Meet writer who grew in poverty, danced in bars to earn a living, was pushed into prostitution, made Emraan Hashmi star

Apart from the actors' acting chops and the directors' imagination, another factor that plays an integral part in making a film successful is the script and a good script needs a good writer. Today, we are going to talk about a Bollywood writer who was adopted and grew up in poverty, however, this didn't stop her from entering Bollywood and making a name for herself. 

The writer we are talking about started working at 11 and used to dance in private parties for Rs 700. She later wrote a number of hits for Emraan Hashmi which made him a star. She is none other than Shagufta Rafique. 

Shagufta Rafique was an adopted child and according to a report in Al Jazeera, Shagufta’s mother was the "invisible wife", the unacknowledged partner of a Kolkata-based businessman. He left his second family unsupported after his death which pushed them into poverty. To support her family, Shagufta started working at the age of 11 and used to dance in private parties for Rs 700. 

The portal quoted Shagufta, speaking about her struggle, "The whole thing made me see very early how vulnerable women are, and how money decides what is respectable and what is not." Her childhood got even more hard when she married a wealthy man to get some financial stability in her life at the age of 17, however, the union did not work well. 

Finally, Shagufta broke up and survival forced her into prostitution. After this, she became a bar dancer for her survival, to earn money before entering films and writing a number of hit films. As quoted by Al Jazeera, Shagufta said, "It was a vicious cycle. To get away from my frustration at being trapped I got into prostitution, to get away from that I started working as a bar dancer, to get away from Mumbai I went to Dubai, and so on."

At first, she faced a number of rejections in Bollywood as well as the television industry as a writer. She revealed in an interview, "I would go to production houses, even to TV shows, and ask for work as a writer, but nobody was interested, as I had no experience." But instead of giving up, she kept trying and finally joined Mahesh Bhatt's production company, Vishesh Films, where she wrote eleven films including Woh Lamhe, Jism 2, Murder 2, Jannat 2, Raaz – The Mystery Continues and Raaz 3D among others. The majority of these films starred Emraan Hashmi and made him a star. After this, in 2013, she wrote the story for Aashiqui 2 which turned out to be a blockbuster and made Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor stars even though they were already working in the industry.