Seema isn’t an easy director for actors: Manoj Pahwa
Manoj Pahwa, who shot for his wife and actor, Seema Pahwa’s maiden directorial venture last year, says that she’s a difficult director to please. He reveals that she kept “reprimanding” everyone in the cast and the crew until she made sure that everyone put their best foot forward. He shares, “Initially, I was quite reluctant in doing the film. She puts in a lot of effort and adds improvisations when she plays a character. So, I knew that she wouldn’t be an easy director for actors. She would expect the other actors to work in the same way that she does and would make them work equally hard. I kept telling her that I wouldn’t do the film and she made me do it finally.”
The Mulk (2018) actor believes that his wife is a “demanding director” who still isn’t quite satisfied with the film despite it getting rave reviews at the film festival circuit. “Despite praising us now, she keeps telling me every now and then that we couldn’t take the film to that level which she had expected usto( laughs). She was very particular about what she wanted and her vision was very clear. I told Naseer saab (Naseeruddin Shah; actor) that Seema chides everyone. He said she’s demanding because she’s a very hard working actor herself,” he says.
So, with his children running a theatre company, are conversations always about work? “I’ve done plays with my daughter. She, along with my son, runs a theatre group called Kopal Productions. The three of us have done a play called Dholak penned by Bhishm Sahni (late playwright). Though they’ve stopped doing plays sometime back as my daughter wanted to concentrate on acting in films and my son went to London to pursue higher studies, our dinner table conversations continue to be all about acting, plays and movies. That’s the effect of being a part of the same profession,” he concludes with a smile.