Tell us about your experience with Niruttara , particularly dubbing
If you ask any actor if they’ve enjoyed dubbing, very few would say yes. It’s always a pain to revisit a character that you lived with six to eight months ago and relive it. It is a process, it is hard work that is compounded when you’re dubbing in a language that isn’t yours.
Most times when I am dubbing for a role like that, I know the role is created in a way that I am an NRI or somebody whose unfamiliarity with the language will be excused as a character, but otherwise it is as arduous as anything else.
As an audience, when I’m watching an actor and I don’t hear his voice, I feel cheated of half the price of my ticket. I would much rather have the actor’s voice even with a 10 per cent flaw, so I was determined that unless Apoorva was unhappy, I wanted to take a shot at it. And it turned out well.
What is the difference between Bollywood and other regional industries that you have worked in?
I think films, no matter what language you do them in, are the same. I have worked now in six different industries -- Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam -- and everywhere I have met actors and technicians who are hard working, humble and warm. It is not the language that determines the quality of the industry; it is the actors and the people.
As far as I’m concerned my co-actors on Nirruttara , Apoorva himself, the pains they underwent to make me feel comfortable, all of that was as pleasurable as anything I’ve done.
Now that you are familiar with the language, do you try to talk in Kannada when you are in Bengaluru?
No, I have forgotten it completely. It is like doing my B.Com exam and the moment I step out of the examination hall, I forgot everything. I remember nothing of Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu or Kannada. I have acted in nine Bengali films. My father was a Bengali but I have lived in Mumbai all my life. So when I go back to Kolkata for a film, it takes me three to four days of warming up with the language till I can actually start feeling okay.
How do you maintain the balance between your personal and professional life?
I have not dated anyone for 15 years, so there is no need for balancing. One side of the see-saw is on the ground and the other side is right up there. I spend about 70 to 100 days on The Foundation (an NGO founded by him). .
I normally need about 550 days in a year, so I do both at the same time in one day. If I was to factor a relationship into this, I would go crazy.
What are your plans for directing movies?
This is it. This is what I’m going to do from now on, directing and producing films and only act in stuff that I really believe I can make a difference in. Otherwise, somebody else can do it.
Which genre of films do you prefer to act in?
I grew up as a comedian. I was doing broad physical comedy if you can believe that and I still do it once in a while to raise money. I have played the idealised lover, the evil villain, a jerk in Dil Dhadkne Do . It’s all good. There is nothing I dread or nothing I like less. I relish it all.
Can you tell us a bit about the ‘Oxfam India- Best Film on Gender Equality’ Award, that was instituted at the 18th Mumbai Film Festival?
I think when you watch a movie, you can watch it as a movie, or you can start changing your lens, so you say I’m going to watch this movie through the lens of gender equality; how gender sensitive it is? Or I am going to watch this movie through the lens of disability: how disability sensitive is it?
So there any many lenses through which you can watch a movie, and this is just one lens that nobody puts on. Without changing the story, is it sensitive towards gender equality, does it work as a gender neutral film? Does it work with equal respect for all genders?
That is something I feel is important. A film simply cannot be misogynistic. It can have a misogynistic antagonist, but the ultimate takeaway from the film cannot be misogynistic, it cannot propagate the use of violence. There is no reason why a mainstream film can not be gender sensitive.
Maybe you don’t get a sweet happy ending. Like Scarface or Apocalypse Now , there is no happy ending, rather they end with deep destruction. But within that destruction there is an incredible, deep and profound lesson, and we should revisit those spaces in our art.
What steps have you taken to better gender equality in India?
Specifically what I am working on is an initiative, looking at the men around a woman who has been molested or abused or violated. Around every woman there usually is an angry grand-father, an ashamed brother for no reason but he feels a sense of shame, an angry husband or a sad and confused son. These men, who are in pain, society never reaches out to them.
They have to constantly hear other men in the community, say things like, ‘Look what your wife has done’ or ‘This is all her fault’, so they are susceptible to becoming deeply misogynistic, but actually what they should be susceptible to, is to become deeply compassionate.
I am working on that with an organisation called Men Engage, to engage men around the survival of violence and to take them through a less confusing and more constructive path.
What are your favourite musicians or bands which help get through a difficult day?
Bhimsen Joshi, Radiohead and Billie Holiday.
