How do you walk the tightrope between flying with a Bollywood star in his private jet, spending many nights at the actor’s house with biryani and beer flowing, attending the actor’s wedding and then pen a negative review of the actor’s film upon its release? How do you write a scoop with some inside information about the star and in the same breath, request him for an interview for the Sunday magazine?Ask Khalid Mohamed. Having burnt all his bridges in the 30 odd years that he worked as a film journalist, critic and reviewer, he has written a tell-all book on the love-hate relationship he has had with Bollywood film stars.The bitter sarcasm reflects all through the book, beginning with its title: Not Quite Family. In his early days as a film reporter for the Times of India, he developed a rapport with stars like Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Sridevi and others and he was welcomed as if he were part of their family. The intense, shared familiarity he shared with everyone would suddenly turn into ignominy, often permanently, when he wrote an unfavourable review of a film, denied them an award, or spilled news he wasn’t supposed to.Fatma Zakaria, the editor of the Times Sunday Review created a pen-name Lens Eye for him, so he could do his telephonic celebrity interviews without coming face to face with the very stars who he was critiquing in his reviews of their films. For a long time, actors didn’t know that the acerbic film critic Khalid Mohammed was the same as the docile interviewer of Lens Eye.Sympathy for Smita PatilThe longest chapter and the most sympathetic pages in the book are reserved for Smita Patil, whom he called Smee affectionately. He writes of her solitary life, her clandestine affairs, her angst at navigating the industry alone, her distress when people rated Shabana Azmi as a better actress even though she won the National Award for Bhumika and of her sudden, early death. He says he felt it improper to report everything Smita Patil would confess to him during their long, nightly rides to Navy Nagar or to Aarey Milk Colony.Khalid laments the absurdity of the profession when he was unceremoniously shown the door saying he was of no use to the company. The screenplays he wrote for the Shyam Benegal trilogy based on the stories of his aunts Mammo and Sardari Begum and on his mother, Zubeida also played a role in his swift ouster from the paper.Two things are evident in the book: a consistent bitter tone when writing about the Bachchans that simmers under the text and the memory of his mother, which comes up every so often.Keeping a distanceIronically, after spending a lifetime as an insider in the industry, Khalid chooses to distance himself from Bollywood, saying that the film business isn’t his world as it is petty, unprofessional, and soul-deadening. He names people who are yet to pay him his fees for writing or directing their films.Khalid has always written well. His reviews were a mix of inventive word play and sharp, acerbic opinions. He brings that skill to the book. Sample this: “Vaulted ambitions to write scripts and direct films were swimming in my chlorinated head.”As the editor, he was accused of a Muslim bias whenever any of the Khans won the Filmfare award. Calling Shah Rukh an angel of contradictions, Khalid is unsure whether SRK means everything he says. His close friendship with the star ended when he reported the news of his third child through surrogacy before it became public.The book is full of Icarian examples of his life in Mumbai’s film world. Like being invited to the pre-wedding celebrations at an actor’s house and dancing the night away, only to be spewed with venom and receive no invitation to the wedding a few weeks later when he critiqued the actor’s performance in a film.A film journalist’s career is like a storm tossed boat. Throughout the book, Khalid expresses bitterness about spending a life warming the cockles of Bollywood only to now be out in the cold, uninvited and unacknowledged. A few stars he worked with in his films Fiza and Silsilay still stay in touch. The kind of experiences he cites would have broken anyone, but to Khalid’s credit he survived for thirty years. If you need straight, no holds barred insider stories of Bollywood, Khalid’s book has plenty.Check out this book!(The reviewer runs 91 Film Studios, that produces and distributes feature films in regional languages)Title:NOT QUITE FAMILY: An Intimate Memoir of BollywoodAuthor: Khalid MohamedPublisher: HarperCollins IndiaPrice: ₹599Published on August 30, 2026