Is it right that you ran a workshop for the newcomers who
worked with you in the Pakistani film Zinda
Bhaag?
Yes,
I was deeply touched by the script and was the only known actor in the entire
acting cast. My very first advice to a new actor is: go and look for the
meaning of the word “act” in a dictionary. It will surprise you, because it
doesn’t mean speaking great dialogue, or wearing great costumes, anything of
the sort. It has a very simple meaning. I explained to them that acting is not
an end in itself: you don’t act for the sake of acting, you don’t act for
showing off your abilities; you act for a purpose, and that purpose is to
communicate a text to the audience. That’s more important than your own
performance.
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Who, in your opinion, is an honest actor?
By its very nature, acting is being
‘false’. So an ‘honest actor’ is a contradiction in terms. An actor can’t
plagiarise like a writer can and he can’t improve on a grand performance. It
has to be definite, certain and once for all. An honest actor is ‘a work in
progress’. An actor is a messenger who
is entrusted with the task of delivering the ‘goods’ honestly. There just can’t
be a ‘dishonest’ actor. To me, acting is not to pretend to disguise myself in
order to emote but ‘to do’. An actor is being dishonest when he considers
himself to be more important than the work he is involved in.
Career favourites of your own performances?
There
are just too many to recall after all these years. Shyam Benegal’s ‘Manthan’ which
brought me critical and public
recognition. Govind Nihalani’s ‘Aakrosh’ in which I portrayed a
straightforward, committed lawyer is another favourite. The self-respecting,
blind teacher in Sai Paranjpye’s ‘Sparsh’, the drug addict in Robin Dharmaraj’s
hard-hitting Chakra, the confused husband and father in Shekhar Kapoor’s ‘Masoom’,
the role in Gautam Ghose’s ‘Paar’ which made me shed more than five kilos.
These films are unforgettable not so much for my work as for the films
themselves. But I truly consider it an honour to be chosen by Gulzar Saab to
play Mirza Ghalib in his bio-serial on the great poet.
How do you look back on some of your commercial films?
I
never believed ‘Tridev’ would
run for a day. Yet, it prolonged my career by ten years. I am grateful to Rajiv
Rai for this. The film gave me a box office hit I had never experienced before.
Ten years later it gave me ‘Mohra’,
again by Rajiv Rai. And ten years later it gave me ‘The Dirty Picture’. In fact, my dossier has more commercial films than all the art
films I did put together. I worked in Mahesh Bhatt’s ‘Sir’, Dharmesh Darshan’s ‘Lootere’,
‘Karma’ with Dilip Kumar and Bonny Kapoor’s ‘Rajkumar’ in which I did a double
role. Today too, films like ‘A Wednesday’, ‘Ishquiyan’, and ‘Dedh Ishquiyan’
are the kind of films one looks forward to.
