‘I AM NOT AN ACTOR, I MAKE OTHERS ACT!’

Goutam Ghose is a reluctant actor. In fact, ask the national award winning filmmaker about the handful of films in which he has acted, and he is quick to point out – “I am not an actor, I make others act.” Still, Ghose has been a part of some impressive projects as an actor, Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Grihajuddha and Srijit Mukherji’s Baishe Srabon, to name a few, as well as the soon-to-be-released Beyond the Clouds – Iranian director Majid Majidi’s Indian project.

“All the films I have done as an actor have been on request, and Beyond The Clouds was no different,” says the 67-year-old director. “I got a call towards the end of 2016 from casting director Honey Trehan that Majid Majidi was in Mumbai and making an Indian film and wanted to meet and cast me in it. But at the time I was busy with a film of my own.”

The two directors, however, seem fated to work together. “But soon after I was in Mumbai and since my film had been delayed, I told Honey I was willing to meet Majidi. I had seen some of his films, Baran for example, and liked his work.” Ironically,

Majidi himself had started off as an actor, before turning director with Baduk in 1992. Over the years

Majidi’s films have received Best Picture awards at the Montreal World Film Festival, been nominated for the European Film Academy award, and been counted among the top films of the year by international magazines. The director has also won the Douglas Sirk Award in 2001, and the Amici Vittorio de Sica Award in 2003.

Anyway, Ghose and Majidi met. “He called me a great Indian film-