“Playing a politician on screen is the easiest thing to do. There are so many of them in real life that you just have to pick who you’d want to emulate,” says Vipin Sharma about his “intense role” in Sudhir Mishra’s next, Daas Dev . The actor, best remembered for depicting a disgruntled father in Taare Zameen Par, will be seen as a ruthless and a scheming politician who is, “a catalyst to all the major twists in the plot,” and takes the story forward. “The roles I enact are never black or white but come with a variety of emotions. Every individual has different sides to them which makes them complex and in this case, his ruthlessness is propelled by his own set of rules,” says Sharma, adding that his own “intuition and observation” went into sketching this character rather than borrowing it from an actual politician.
Daddy issues
Sharma who was last seen in Baaghi 2 (he played Disha Patani’s father) admits that he gets more calls for essaying a father than any other character. “I don’t want to keep playing nameless daddy roles. Even when I play one, the idea is to make them distinct from the ones I essayed in the past. I try to imagine their idiosyncrasies and give them their individual character attributes. While the industry is quick to typecast an actor for their own convenience, it is up to me to diversify and showcase my talent,” he points out, adding that even when he plays a villain, he tries to make it relatable for the audience.
A product of the National School of Drama, the actor’s fascination with cinema began in childhood when he would look forward to his weekly ritual of watching a Sunday feature film on Doordarshan. “I grew up in a slum which had no electricity so I would tag along with my friends to homes of the affluent where their mothers worked,” he says. But the film that changed his life was Vinod Khanna’s 1973 film Achanak . “I couldn’t imagine a feature without songs and that intrigued me,” he reminisces. Unfortunately, on that Sunday, he wasn’t allowed inside to watch it and in frustration, he broke their gate. “I would berate myself for our poverty and our helplessness. It was then that I decided that those who weren’t letting me watch TV would one day watch me on TV,” says Sharma.
The actor started testing waters by performing during Ram Leela and also worked for small theatre groups before getting into the National School of Drama. After graduating, Sharma worked with Ketan Mehta and Shyam Benegal for a while before getting disappointed with the acting scene in the country and taking up a job at Canadian Film Centre in Toronto. Despite being applauded for his acting skills, he didn’t feel confident and his lack of English speaking skills exacerbated the feeling. “Growing up in slums made me under confident. I remember when I was 14, I stood outside Doordarshan office for three hours as I didn’t have the courage to inquire about an announcement,” he recalls.
In 2003, Sharma was in India when Maqbool released and his good friend Irrfan Khan informed him how the Indian cinema was becoming more content driven. “Deep inside, I was aware that eventually I would like to get back to acting. So, I decided to enrol in an acting workshop in Canada which followed the Meisner technique developed by American theatre practitioner Sanford Meisner,” Though initially, he was sceptical of the methods, he immersed himself in the course for 30 weeks. The workshop helped him work on his spontaneity, which he would later inculcate in his roles.
Second innings
Sharma returned to India when he learnt that his friend Amol Gupte was working on a film. “He and I had assisted Ketan Mehta on Mirch Masala . In fact, I helped him audition the last ten kids for Taare Zameen Par and Darsheel [Safary] was one of them. I auditioned for the Hindi teacher’s role but when I read some portions of the script, the child’s father seemed much more interesting,” he says. On enquiring about the role, he was told that his skin colour wouldn’t match with the child but Gupte later relented and gave Sharma a chance. “The next day when I went in for an audition, Amol wasn’t around. So, I requested his assistant to tape it. Coincidentally, Aamir Khan watched the tape and he liked my performance,” he reveals.
In the last few years, Sharma has been noticed for his performances in films such as Paan SinghTomar , Gangs of Wasseypur, Sahib, Biwi and Gangster and Inkaar among others. Though he didn’t have a major role in Gangs of Wasseypur, he managed to impress in his limited screen time. “The most number of memes came out of the two scenes I was a part of,” he says. Another role close to his heart is from Solomon’s thriller John Day . “I played a corrupt police officer, who isn’t a bad human being. He doesn’t even realise how the system made him unethical. It was an interesting character to explore and after Taare Zameen Par, my most fleshed out part,” he adds.
