Tarlochen Thapar was the small shop owner credited with giving Kevin Smith the foothold that eventually led to him being a filmmaker. According to Entertainment Weekly, Kevin Smith paid tribute to Thapar after the longtime New Jersey business owner died on Friday at 90. Thapar had owned the Quick Stop grocery store and the video rental shop in Leonardo, N.J., where Smith once worked and later filmed his low-budget debut, Clerks. In Smith’s Instagram post, he reflected on the man who had shaped the earliest part of his career.“Tarlochen Thapar, the owner of @quickstopgroceries, has passed away. Thapar came to America from India in the 60’s/70’s, working tirelessly until he could afford a small business in Leonardo, NJ: a video shop beside a Cumberland Farms. When the Cumberland closed in the early 90’s, his little video biz lost its anchor — so Mister Thapar convinced Cumberland Farms to let him take the store over instead, renaming it @quickstopgroceries,” explained Kevin Smith.He went on to describe the first time Tarlochen Thapar hired him.“Mister Thapar hired me in 1989, both of us sitting on tiny step stools behind the counter of RST Video. Working at a video store was my dream job, but it came with a cost: I had to also work at the convenience store next door, which also belonged to the Thapars. Thank God for that caveat, because it changed my life,” explained Kevin Smith.Kevin Smith pays tribute to Tarlochen Thapar, the quiet force behind his early career:Chronic Con 2025 - Source: GettyIn his Instagram tribute, Kevin Smith looked back at how much Tarlochen Thapar had shaped the beginnings of his film career. “In 1993, Thapar let me shoot my first film in #QuickStop at night when it was closed. So without Mister Thapar, there’d be no Clerks,” he wrote, making clear how crucial that act of trust had been. Kevin Smith said Thapar had come to the United States in the ’60s or ’70s, and he credited that move with changing the course of his own life.“Because this sweet soul from a world away came to America, my American Dream came true,” he shared.The filmmaker then reached for a more nostalgic comparison, tying their story to the 1976 Schoolhouse Rock song “The Great American Melting Pot.” “America brought us together, and what a tasty meal we made!” he wrote, before ending the thought with appreciation:“I’ll miss you, Mister Thapar. Thank you for making your lifelong journey to Jersey — because this Jersey Boy (and anybody who ever enjoyed his black & white convenience store comedy) benefitted big time from your bravery.”He closed the tribute with a memory from years before Clerks existed.“I still remember our 1991 conversation about reincarnation and I hope you were right, Boss, because that means I might see you again one day. And when we do, we’ll sit on tiny stools and talk movies,” he wrote.The post appeared with an image from Thapar’s memorial announcement, showing that he was born on March 10, 1935, and died on November 21, 2025. The message on the image invited people to honor“A distinguished professor, devoted husband, and cherished father, grandfather and great grandfather.”Kevin wasn't the only one to pay his tribute; on Reddit, other users also paid their respect to Tarlochen Thapar.Comment byu/Seraphenigma from discussion inViewAskewniverseComment byu/Seraphenigma from discussion inViewAskewniverseComment byu/Seraphenigma from discussion inViewAskewniverseFrom film school to Quick Stop: Why Kevin Smith’s boldest decisions were the ones he didn’t planThe IMDb Studio At The 2018 Sundance Film Festival - Day 4 - Source: GettyA Vice interview from October 21, 2019, revisited Kevin Smith’s life before Clerks, a time when he hadn’t yet figured out what direction he wanted to take. In 1992, he still believed he might land a writing job at Saturday Night Live, going so far as to ditch classes at The New School to hang around 30 Rockefeller Plaza in hopes of catching Lorne Michaels’ attention. That plan fizzled, and he withdrew from college after his first semester.His job as a clerk at the connected video store and Quick Stop in Leonardo, New Jersey, turned out to be far more influential. Everything shifted after Smith watched Richard Linklater’s Slacker. Inspired, he applied to the Vancouver Film School, where he met Scott Mosier. But four months into the program, he left, deciding the tuition would be better spent making a real film.The project came together under difficult circumstances: a limited budget of $27,575, delays caused by a nor’easter, and a first screening that drew only a small crowd. Despite the hurdles, Clerks found its audience. Miramax purchased it at Sundance in 1994; it won two awards at Cannes, and it eventually grossed $3.2 million, marking Smith’s arrival as a major figure in independent cinema. During the Vice interview, Smith walked through the moment the script first began."While I was at film school, I started writing Clerks. The first scene that I wrote was Randal talking to the customer, where he was like, ‘I don’t appreciate your ruse.’ I knew I was wanting to leave film school; I was about four months in, it wasn’t what I thought it would be, and I asked the guy who ran the school, ‘Hey, if I drop out in the halfway mark, do I get my tuition back?’ He said, ‘Yeah, but if you drop out one day after the midway mark, we keep all your money,’" he shared."It was a week away, so I had this week to make this decision. I’m like $5,000 bucks [into] my tuition. I’d rather save my money and put it into my own movie at home, because I don’t have $5,000. So I told Mosier, ‘I’m gonna go home to New Jersey and write my script for a movie, and you write your script for a movie. If you’re done first, I’ll come out, help you make a movie in Vancouver. If I’m done, you come out, help me make a move in New Jersey,’” Kevin Smith added in detail.