Naseeruddin Shah: I got typecast as a serious actor too damn early in my career and have struggled to shake off that mantle

Naseeruddin Shah tells us about rediscovering his funny bones in the new web series Kaun Banegi Shikharwati and life during times of the pandemic. Excerpts from the interview: It is good to see you having some rare fun in Kaun Banegi Shikharwati. Aren’t you tired of being cast as a sullen world-weary existentially burdened soul? Oh boy, you can say that again! I got typecast as a serious actor too damn early in my career and have struggled to shake off that mantle, it was too heavy to lug around but despite my efforts, I never got the chance to perform in as many comedies as I would have liked to. But maybe that was also a disguised blessing considering the kind of comedies we make in Mumbai. We haven’t seen too much of your impeccable comic timing since Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. Why do you think dramatic performances are taken more seriously in our country? Would you agree that comedy is much harder to do? Comedy is way more difficult than the serious stuff, in fact, I always tell my students that the easiest thing an actor is asked to do is to cry –and all actors LOVE to cry!–but even some experienced and excellent actors have trouble laughing –watch Sanjeev Kumar In Shatranj ke Khiladi  , for example–when they act, and that’s because they don’t understand the mechanics of laughter: what happens to the breath and so on when one laughs. Crying is easy because the actor can just recall a past incident, however, disconnected the context may be, and the tears begin to flow. Serious actors are held in higher regard because they are.. well.. serious! Mehmood sahab in my opinion was one of the most gifted actors Hindi cinema has ever had yet he is remembered only as a comedian. Also read:  Flashback | Revisiting the enduring relevance of Ardh Satya, Om Puri and Govind Nihalani's 1983 seminal cop drama You have some lovely ladies for the company in Kaun Banegi Shikharwati. Did you enjoy working with the diverse cast that includes the very talented Lara Dutta and Rahuvir Yadav? Lara was a delightful surprise since I’d never seen her work but she has a WOW personality and of course, she’s a gorgeous looker and wonderful actor. Soha has an innate sweetness which I suspect masks a fiery temper-though I didn’t see any evidence of it! Kritika, of the sunny smile, has something in her eyes which makes you look at her twice, she’s terrifically confident and I think she could play an introvert as well as she has done this part. And Anya radiates a kind of mystery and innocence (though I hope she doesn’t begin to take herself too seriously and milk these qualities) What she needs as a breakout role is of a foul-mouthed woman of the streets! All these girls were wonderful and affectionate and caring and sincere about their work and I’d happily work with any or all of them again. Raghuvir Yadav, I have been a fan for forty years now ever since I saw him on stage in Delhi and couldn’t recognise him the next time I saw him. His performance in Massey Sahab, I consider one of the finest in Hindi cinema. Sir, at this stage of your career, what do you look for in your roles, and what prompts you to say yes to an offer? As always, if the project promises to be fun. And it could be fun for any number of reasons. The OTT platform is not new to you. You earlier did Bandish Bandits where you played a classical musician. How was that experience compared with Shikharwati? For Bandish, I had to work at the singing and luckily I had ample time. In  Shikharwati  I winged it! Both were equally enjoyable though. With the movie-theatre business suffering a massive blow due to Covid, do you think the OTT is the way forward for the Indian entertainment industry? OTT is the future and the days of cinema houses are numbered, I’ve always felt. That’s a sad fact but one feels equal sadness when one sees yet another beautiful cottage in Bandra being demolished to be replaced by a faceless skyscraper. It certainly can be a way forward for our cinema in terms of content and presentation-until of course the big bosses step in and lay down strictures that only jingoistic films are to be shown and that’s a real possibility you know. The great thing about the OTT is that so many bright filmmakers, talented technicians, and marvelous actors who would have found it difficult to fit into the mainstream Bombay cinema have not only been able to display their work in the parts they deserve but have proved to be brilliant. Sir, how did the year 2021 treat you? Were you content with what it had to offer? What were the sore points of the year for you? The first lockdown didn’t affect me much, I spent time at home, learned to cook a few basics, helped clean the house, and read many things I’d been planning on reading for ages. My wife Ratna and I also did several story readings online. Akash Khurana, Benjamin Gilani and I even performed Act 1 of Waiting For Godot  with all four of us in our own homes! I didn’t miss the movie camera one bit but I did pine for the theatre and of course got down to it as soon as the lockdown eased. We also shot  Shikharwati  rather quickly in the first un-lockdown. The second lockdown hit everyone more than the first I think and I did find myself often at a loss. But since then I’ve been busy as a bee. I’ve done a cameo in Shakun Batra’s new film, four wonderful short films with directors like Vishal Bhardwaj and Vinay Shukla, and two by relative newcomers and at the moment I am into a lengthy schedule for the ZEE5 series TAJ. I also have a role in Dibakar Bannerjee’s next entitled Tees. Does the growing climate of intolerance in our country continue to bother you? What according to you is the way out? ‘Intolerance’ has become a bad word like ‘secular’ so I won’t use it but what’s happening all around can not fail to disturb any sensitive person. About what I think is the solution we could talk till the cows come home and we wouldn’t have found it. It’s a real pity that even an exchange of ideas about beliefs is no longer possible without arousing hostility. I however refuse to lose hope because time travels in cycles and sooner or later everyone will realise that living in shackles is not what they want and that hatred cannot be a way of life. This may take a long time considering how widely the poison has spread but I am certain it will happen. Finally, Sir, which is that one role that you still pine to play?  The next one. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.