Bollywood’s gold standard
script, if I like the screenplay, if I love the person who is telling the story, then I just go for it. The film has to appeal to me. I don’t have a team that sits down with me to discuss my professional choices.
Q. You have been a part of many films with an ensemble cast, and your recent release, is a multistarrer as well. What is your approach when you are doing such films? A.
We are all friends on the movie sets. We play a lot of games. Even while filming Gold, there wasn’t a single day when we didn’t play games. So I just enjoy with my co- actors. There is no such feeling that I have been in the industry for 28 years now. My only approach is that I want to learn from my co-actors, since all of them are very talented.
Q. Whenever you are doing a biopic or a film that is inspired by real events, what serves as your reference point? A.
I don’t know that man [the subject of a biopic] personally, I have never met him. I don’t know anything about him. So you just start making up things. You decide that he must be having a moustache, he must be having a peculiar hairstyle, he is Bengali, he drinks. You start making a sketch and then you also have a director with you who would help you. And then it just flows. As I always say, once your clothes and looks are right, 50-60% job is done. Zyada acting karne ki zarurat nahi hai [you don’t have to act much]. In fact, acting comes naturally then. I am not one of those actors who lock themselves up in a room for a month to get into the skin of the character. I only need to understand my character well and get the look right.
Q. How, according to you, has the definition of a “Bollywood hero” changed ever since you started your acting career in the 1990s? A.
These days, every hero is a character. It doesn’t really matter now if the hero is able to beat up 20 people. Even if he is beaten up by two people, the audience is fine with it. All that matters now is that the actor must be able to live up to the demands of his role.
Q. In your life as an actor, how did you adapt to this changing outlook of the audiences towards the hero they want to see on the screen? A.
You just keep on learning from your mistakes. I started to adapt to this changed definition after I delivered flops. I started analysing , I thought about why a film didn’t work. I wouldn’t just analyse my own films, I would analyse the work of other actors as well. The audience, too, has become smart. Earlier, in the 1990s, they were gullible, now they are not. They get to know when you are cheating with your character. They forgive continuity problems, but if you’re not honest with your character they figure it out.
Q. How was your experience of working with
director Reema Kagti, since this is the first time you have collaborated with her? A.
She is brilliant. She knows her job very well. She knows angles, she knows takes and because she has assisted a lot of directors, she is quite used to filmmaking. She has herself written the whole story in English, which was translated into Hindi by Javed Akhtar later.
Q. You have been a part of the Hindi film industry for about three decades now and have worked with some of the best-known filmmakers. Would you consider yourself a director’s actor? A.
Once upon a time, I had 16 flops but I still had four films because I was a producer’s actor, and not just a director’s actor. The producer is the one who invests money in the film. And they would want to take an actor who would reach on time and would be able to multitask. You have to be a producer’s actor first and then a director’s actor. So if you want to survive in the industry, hits and flops would always be there, the only thing that will help you is your reputation of being a good human being. I have heard producers talk about so many heroines and say, “Let’s take her, she takes less than five minutes to get dressed”. This is simple but effective, if heroines understand it. Sometimes a heroine takes an hour or three to get out of the vanity van. Even if you have made it big that way, in the long term you won’t sustain.
Q. From starting out as an action hero, we have seen you evolve into a romantic hero, then into an actor with amazing comic timing and now as an actor who is doing films that are socially relevant. How has each of these phases rewarded you as an actor? A.
I have got paycheques for these. I can answer this profoundly but I would be lying if I would do that. A film releases, it is off theatres after some time and then you move on. However, there are some films that stay with you for long.
Q. In recent years, we have seen numerous successful sports dramas being made in Bollywood. What do you think has led to this trend? A.
It is a good shift. These movies are also doing good business. People are eager to know about sports. Things are changing. With each passing year, the medal count in the country is increasing too. And so, I am hoping that this year at the Asian Games, we will see our athletes doing well. I will be the happiest if our hockey team gets gold this time at the Asian Games.
Q. Gold is a period film, set around the years 1936-48. You haven’t done many period films before and your upcoming film,
is also a period war drama. So do you plan to try, in years to come, all those genres that you haven’t yet had the chance to explore? A.
I don’t plan on doing anything as such. I am doing Kesari because I liked its subject and it was the same case with Gold. I did Special Chabbis, which is set in the 1970s, because I liked its story. It is all about the subject matter for me.
“Once upon a time, I had 16 flops but I still had four films because I was a producer’s actor, and not just a director’s actor. The producer is the one who invests money in the film. And they would want to take an actor who would reach on time and would be able to multitask. You have to be a producer’s actor first and then a director’s actor.”