An aspiring actor-writer Akshay Shivam Shukla (28) came to Mumbai or the ‘city of dreams’ to make it big but finished up in a hospital with burn injuries.

Shukla, a native of Allahabad, set himself on fire outside the gate of country’s most flourishing soap opera factory Balaji Telefilms office in Oshiwara on Tuesday, as he was not permitted to enter the studio by the security guards.

Shukla suffered 45% severe burn injuries and was admitted to Cooper Hospital

According to Oshiwara police functionaries, Shukla, who was living in Asaram Bapu’s ashram in Ahmedabad since 2002, dreamed of making it big in Hindi film industry. Despite his acting skills, he also desired Ekta to see the scripts and songs he had written.

He came to Mumbai on July 19 wishing to meet Kapoor and stayed on a pavement near a rickshaw stand in Malad (E) and began visiting the Balaji office on a regular basis, requesting the security guards to let him to meet Miss Kapoor.

The watchmen reportedly rejected Shukla’s appeal and told that he would be permitted to meet Ekta only after an appointment.

He told, “I am an artiste, but they had no respect for me. The office watchmen insulted me. I wanted to meet Ekta Kapoor to get some work.”

Shukla told the police that he love writing scripts and lyrics. On Monday, Shukla managed to get into the Balaji office during a puja but he was thrown out by the guards.

Again, on Tuesday morning, Shukla went to Balaji office and had a quarrel with the security guards.

Shukla told them that “he would prove what he could do.”

He came back to the building at 10 am with a bottle of kerosene and again started to argue with the guard. When the latter still denied letting him in, Shukla set himself ablaze on the road in front of the office.

When Shukla started crying for assistance, a local from the area, Ram Bahadur pushed him into a gutter to douse the flames.

In his statement to the police, Shukla said he got married in 2002 but took sanyas later on.

Dattatreya Sankhe of the Oshiwara police said, “We have registered an attempt to suicide case and will inform his family members in Allahabad.”

Balaji Telefilms refused to comment on the matter.