Annu Kapoor has succeeded in excelling his craft of getting into the proper tone of a character. Be it the Allahabadi lawyer in “Jolly LLB 2” or Dr Chaddha in “Vicky Donor”, he manages to bring a certain uniqueness to every character without repeating mannerisms. Recently in Delhi for his latest release, ‘Muavza’, he talks about his acting process, working with new directors and his environmental initiatives.
Excerpts:
You recently played the role of north Indian village man in ‘Muavza’. How do you manage to get proper accent and diction for the diversity of roles you play?
Because of my mother, my mother was expert in different languages. She was a scholar of Arabic, Persian and Urdu. We stayed in many places in northern India. The atmosphere around me allowed me to adopt those accents. All my characters look different in ‘Vicky Donor’ I speak Delhi’s Punjabi, in ‘Muavza’ I have a diction of Delhi NCR, in ‘Dharam Sankat Mein’ I speak in chaste Urdu. That shows my diverse experiences of life. I do not want to glorify my homework by telling how I do it as long as the results are fine. Actor is only selected because of his skills, he does not need to talk more about the work gone into it.
Why character actors are still not able to get their due recognition?
Cinema is a very costly medium and producers have to choose a saleable star and there is nothing wrong in that. But there are other brilliant actors too who should be given a chance. The way you should search for an honest man to be in politics, the same way true artists should be searched. People often appease character actors that woh artist achcha hai( he is a good artist) but give him only one scene with only a few thousand rupees. How will he survive in this ecosystem? I have tried to prove myself in smallest of roles, and for thirty-five years now I am still proving.
You worked with you father in his folk theatre. How do you see today’s cultural landscape in cinema?
Whenever film people get a chance, they bring out something from the folk. That is their innovation. The film music that we have is a little original; rest is copied from somewhere else. Apart from lyricists, no one is looking back at our culture and is busy in copying stuff from outside in the name of inspiration. We have stopped creating something of our own. It is the duty of the media and the audience to understand that we need our aesthetics.
What changes do you feel while working with new directors and how different is it from the time you started off in the industry?
The atmosphere in the 1980s and 1990s was more casual, we hardly see someone very concerned about sticking to scripts and a lot of improvisation used to happen on sets. That was the ‘jugaad’ mentality but the present generation of directors has technique as well as creativity. They try to do work more efficiently. Shoojit (Sircar) is one of those He made a film ( ‘Vicky Donor’) which was one of the most original subjects that an Indian filmmakers ever touched. There were no changes in the script; it was complete in every sense and I must congratulate writer Juhi Chaturvedi for having in-depth knowledge of her subject. I usually change my dialogues as I believe that everything must go with logic but there I did not change anything.
You are also vocal about environmental issues. What are your plans for Diwali?
We have an association called FABGA (Fresh Air to Breath Gardens Association) where we take care of natural vegetation around us including parks so that the carbon mono-oxide levels can be controlled. Cleanliness drive begins from your home itself. On the Diwali night, our members will appeal the people around Andheri (Mumbai) to avoid burning crackers and do not pollute the world. Next morning, we will go and clean the roads of colonies littered with remains of crackers. That will not be a media photo op and the broom will be different from what people usually see with the people who come out to pose for photographs in the name of cleanliness.
