‘Find the balance’

College has played a major role in actor Kabir Bedi’s life, influencing his career and life choices, both of which he is proud of

Kabir Bedi, an international actor, attended the book launch of Lives of Freda, at Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, where he had a conversation with students about his mother Freda Bedi, a British woman who fought for India’s independence. The book has been penned by eminent journalist and former editor of BBC, Andrew Whitehead.

The actor talks about the various role models and influencers he’s met along the way and why one must learn to be proud of the institution you are from, despite its people.

From the heart

My parents were idealists. We had no money in the family. I had to work my way through college. I was studying History honours at St Stephen’s college in Delhi University. To earn some pocket money, I did commentary for AIR, read English news for television. Later, I even did a show called “Mirror of the world” on television. Remember, those were the earliest days of Indian television.

History was one of my favourite subjects and I followed that in my college as well. People asked me, ‘What will you do with history?’ I was always interested in where we came from. We had some great professors as well. Ameen Sahib, who taught us medieval history, was a phenomenal man. He should have become the principal, given his qualifications. But he couldn’t because of circumstances. It was really unfortunate.

A lot of characters I played on screen have been inspired from characters of medieval history. I played Shahjahan and Tuglaq on stage and screen as well. When I moved to Bombay, I worked with a theatre group under Alyque Padamsee. All my training came from acting through stage.

You see, I could never become a conventional Bollywood superstar. I just couldn’t sing and dance. I always considered myself more of a dramatic actor, Shakespearean in nature. Acting wasn’t even my first choice. I wanted to be a filmmaker. That’s why I had joined advertising after college, and worked for two big MNCs — Ogilvy and Lintas. I was their film chief for five years. But as fate would have it, Girish Karnad’s first play “Tuglaq” became a major hit and producers came to sign me. I consoled myself saying that I could always come back to filmmaking.

I was always inspired by historical greats such as Gandhi and Tolstoy. I wasn’t really moved to acting because of any Bollywood actors.

There were no filmmaking schools those days. So I always respect the institutions I came from. I learnt this from my mother. While in Tibet, she was teaching English to monks. But frankly, some of them were absolutely worthless. I was extremely angry at my mother for bowing down to them. In reply, she said, “I bow down to the robe, not to the individual”. Always be proud of the institution you are from, despite of its people.

I understand the pressure today’s youth faces. The ridiculous practice of judging solely by marks is unfair not only to students but colleges as well. How can you judge someone from the marks they have scored? There are various types of skills!

I can only say this: Be clear of what you want to do and why. Don’t search for a ‘lucrative job’; search for a fulfilling one. Search for something that strikes a balance between the two. Second, ask yourself who is going to be the best father or mother to your child. If you get these two right, a major chunk of your problems won’t even exist.

As told to Eetika Kapoor