Booming voice, rippling muscles; it is hard to look at Puneet Issar beyond his physical assets. He emerged on the scene when screenwriters drew a thick line between black and white and he became the face of the evil when B.R. Chopra cast him as Duryodhan in Mahabharat . Over the years, Puneet has tried to break the image trap by doing some powerful performances in films and television. He reminds us of Border where he played a genial giant Rattan Singh. However, Duryodhan hasn’t left him. “So much so that when I successfully moved to theatre with Raavan , at the end of every performance audience would ask me to recite a few dialogues of Duryodhan. I would feel how three hours of playing Raavan was not enough to erase the image of a character that I played almost three decades ago. And the moment I would say Mamashri (his pet word in the iconic series), they would burst into laughter.”
Puneet had the realisation that despite being a popular character, Duryodhan was reduced to a one-dimensional figure in the iconic series. “I am immensely grateful to Chopra sahib for giving me a national identity but I wanted to explore more.” The fact that he is well-versed with different versions of the epic, made him all the more committed. “See, I can recite Maithali Sharan Gupt’s ‘Jayadratha Vadha’, which explores the feelings of Arjun, Subhadra and Abhimanyu, verbatim. I have read Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s ‘Rashmiarthi’, which sees the events from the point of view of Karna. Even in popular culture, we have had films such as Dara Singh-starrer Jai Bhimsen which was a super hit . ”
Selfless friendship
The actor in a scene from “Mahabharat”
So, a couple of years back, Puneet started writing a play on Mahabharat which looks at the epic from the point of view of Duryodhan and Karna. “I drew from Bhasa’s Sanskrit play ‘Urubhangam’ where Duryodhan reflects on his life and deeds after his epic battle with Bhim. Here we get know him as a human with grey shades.”
What hooked Puneet was the selfless friendship between Duryodhan and Karna. “Amidst all the devious strategies, betrayals, and intrigue, this is one bond which is pure.” Plus, he has tried to analyse how negativity takes shape. “When Abhimanyu could learn the art of warfare in his mother’s womb, why would Duryodhan not imbibe negativity when the world around him declared him a curse even before his birth. The seeds of darkness were already planted.” Puneet’s son Siddhant is playing the young Duryodhan.
It makes for compelling stories, but this recent creative surge about knowing our villains leaves us with a very few heroes to celebrate. Puneet reminds that if we look back, literary history is full of such examples. “It is not a new phenomenon. Shakespeare has explored heroic qualities in his villains. See, history is written by victors and after some time it is reassessed. Every antagonist is a protagonist in his own right. It is not that we have turned Arjun into a villain. What is wrong is wrong but there has to be a layered narrative. And that is what makes Mahabharat timeless. People find its characters realistic. They could see their reflection in people even today.”
Puneet says he was advised to take a celebrity’s voice as the narrator but he refused. “We needed a character to anchor the play. Having close friends in the industry, people felt I could easily rope in Amitabh Bachchan or Shatrughan Sinha or for that Harish Bhimani to create a link with B.R. Chopra’s Mahabharat. But I wanted to create my own impression. So I have created a character called Dharti or Mother Goddess who represents the ground of Kurukshetra. She says whoever gets killed, it is ultimately her blood that is shed. Meghna Malik is playing this strong part.”
Talking about his foray into direction, Puneet says many forget that much before he directed the Salman Khan-starrer Garv , he had helmed television serials including Jai Mata Ki with Hema Malini in the lead. “Filmmaking seems more difficult but theatre comes with its own challenges.” One realises it as he talks after a gruelling 12-hour schedule which involved coordinating with different actors, working on the light design, getting the mood lighting right and fine-tuning background music. “It is tough but as they say when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” he grins.
But is there space for his kind of cinema, which is often laced with larger than life imagery and bombastic dialogues? “It depends on the subject and treatment. Films like Baahubali , Bajirao Mastani, and Padmaavat have proved how you can negotiate this space successfully.”
Puneet is now working on a web-series on the life and times of iconic wrestler Gama with his friend Salman in the title role. Having already done Sultan, it is interesting to know how he convinced Salman to return to the ring. “There is no comparison. One is a fictional character, the other is real. Salman is not only convinced, but he is also producing it,” sums up Puneet.
(Mahabharat will be staged this Saturday at Siri Fort Auditorium, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.)
