CULTURE ADVENTURE I’M NOT AS HANDSOME AS RUSKIN: TOM

Tom Alter, who performed in Gurgaon recently, talks about new short film on friend Ruskin Bond

Aattempt to mimic him,” he says. The veteran actor performed his two plays at the city’s most popular cultural haunt, Epicentre, which closed its doors from Monday pending a fresh lease.

“We were doing a show the other day in Sri Ram Centre, and realised that in the last 15 years, I have performed here more than 400 times. Unfortunately, these were the last shows at Epicentre, as it’s closing down. I have been performing here for 10 years now,” shares Alter.

Although he has been playing Ghalib for the last decade or so, Alter says it’s not got any easier. It’s a great pleasure and a great challenge to do Ghalib. He is the person everybody loves. And everybody knows his poetry so well. People have their own ways of reciting him, but you have to do as your heart says and not copy anybody else. There have been great performances of Ghalib, especially Naseer’s (Naseeruddin Shah). I love it,” says the actor, who has been planning a festival of his historical plays in March at Mumbai.

Alter, who’s had a fruitful career in Bollywood too, says he is glad the industry is exploring more themes now. “I’m glad people are trying out more themes now. I saw Dangal. No one would have made Dangal, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013), Mary Kom (2014) 10 years ago. When I wrote a sports novel in 2005, people laughed at me saying no one is interested in sports,” he says.