‘Actors shouldn’t speak their mind’

Actor Naseeruddin Shah has said that stars should keep their opinions on social issues to themselves as nobody takes them seriously anyway. The 67-year-old thespian was speaking at the launch of the Marathi version of his autobiography And Then One Day on Tuesday.

“Actors should connect [with people] only through their work, that’s what I feel. Because there’s nothing more effective than that. I think nobody takes an actor’s opinion that seriously,” he said.

The book, which tracks the actor’s life from childhood to the beginning of his career in Bollywood, has been translated from English to Marathi by director and screenwriter Sai Paranjape. Shah said, “I believe if you’re translating, you need to be fluent in both the languages. Your writer should be good too. I am fortunate that I got a better writer than me to translate.”

Symbol of gratitude He said he thought of releasing the book in Marathi because he always felt that there were many Maharashtrians who appreciated his work. “The kind of love I get and the kind of knowledge Maharashtrians have about my work, I don’t get to see that anywhere else.”

He added, “It took me 12 years to write this book. Because I don’t have the discipline of a writer, I used to not sit down and write every day. I wrote it for my own entertainment. I never thought it would become a book. I just started writing to recollect things in my life.”