An elderly character with a difference

Naseeruddin Shah plays the pivotal role of Radhe Guruji – Pandit Radha Mohan Rathod – in Bandish Bandits, a romantic musical drama which will begin streaming on Amazon Prime in August. The show is directed by Anand Tiwari, and this, says the veteran actor, was the reason he readily agreed to go on board. “I wanted to work with Anand as I have seen his work and his films and I have always liked them,” revealed Naseeruddin Shah, who is not easily roped into any project.

The story revolves around two young people with a music background who are in love. The character played by Naseeruddin Shah is responsible for a lot of the complications that happen in the drama.

When asked in a recent interview if one of the reasons he agreed to do Bandish Bandits was because his character had three shades. The actor replied, “Well that was one of the reasons.” Elaborating, he said, “I liked playing this character as he is not depicted as goody-goody. Elderly actors are either shown as wicked or kind, as doctors or fathers. But this is just very different.”

“Getting the manner of a classical singer was indeed great fun,” says the actor, adding, “I’ve always had a bit of a problem with singing on screen. The film Mirza Ghalib helped me to come to grips with it and this film really helped me to overcome my terror of playback singing. It was rather difficult because it had some pretty complicated ups and downs in the classical mould and I’m not very familiar with it.”