It is nice to be recognised by a celebrity. It's a bit bemusing, though, to be remembered when you have actually never met. Anupam Kher looks at me quizzically and says, "We have met before, right?" I shake my head but he carries on. "We haven't ever met? Are you sure?" I couldn't forget, I tell myself. He stares at me and says, "How sad is that."

As an opening line, it can't get better than that. I find myself grinning broadly. Kher's familiarity has put me at ease.

He is in Delhi to promote the second season of his celebrity television talk show, The Anupam Kher Show - Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hain, which premiered this month on Colors channel. Kher promises that his show will be different from the countless celeb shows on TV.

"I have always wanted to do a show on optimism, inspiration and positivity," he says. "So here you will hear about famous people's struggles and childhood days," he adds.

The idea for the format of the show struck him when Kher was performing on stage. His autobiographical play, Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hain, has now been running to packed houses in over a dozen countries for the past 15 years.

"A lot of people used to come backstage and ask me how I could laugh at my failures. The idea for the show came from there. If my life can be so inspiring then what if I get people who are role models on a show? I thought that when they talk about their struggles, fears or shortcomings on television, they can inspire millions of people," he says.

He should know. During its first season, the show was one of the top earners for the channel in the non-fiction format. Kher is visibly excited about the second run, and can't stop talking about the guests for the season - from the lyricist-director Gulzar to the actor Irrfan Khan and singer Sonu Nigam.

"I was very happy to have Gulzar saab on the show because I have never worked with him. I got to know that Sonu Nigam's father used to take him on a scooter to various music composers and directors. Irrfan told his mother that he was going to be a teacher when he joined the National School of Drama (NSD). Boman Irani worked in a hotel as a room service guy and Rishi Kapoor told me he couldn't dance. Every guest had an inspiring tale to share," he smiles. Not being able to interview the late President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, remains one of Kher's biggest regrets.

Dressed nattily in a grey shirt and black trousers, paired with black loafers, Kher looks like he is in command - and gives the impression that he is not the least bit bored of granting back-to-back interviews. We are sitting on the terrace lounge of a five-star hotel, with huge windows overlooking an overcast sky. The room is crowded with journalists, all sitting in different corners, waiting for Kher to flit from one table to another every 10 minutes.

The publicists have asked me to restrict our talk to the show, but with Kher - who has so much to talk about - that seems pretty much impossible. With 32 years of experience in the Indian film industry, he has acted in over 450 films and has won several awards, including two National Awards and the Padma Shri.

The 61-year-old actor has a world beyond Bollywood too. His international outings include Ang Lee's 2007 release Lust, Caution and the 2013 Oscar-winning Silver Linings Playbook. He is also a motivational speaker, much sought after by multinational companies and universities, both abroad and in India. Kuch bhi ho sakta hai - anything is possible - has almost become his life's tagline. He repeats the phrase often through the interview.

I prod him about motivational speaking. Is he becoming a new age self-help guru now?

"But I was always positive, it isn't something new" he defends himself. "My first ' kuch bhi ho sakta hain' moment was when I was selected in the department of Indian theatre in Panjab University with a scholarship. At that moment, I felt I could achieve anything."

Kher - who is from a Kashmiri middle-class family - turned to theatre after graduating in history. He and his younger brother (also an actor) grew up in Shimla. After earning a diploma in acting, he joined NSD - to which he returned in 2001 as its head.

It was at Panjab University that he met his future wife Kiran Thakar Singh, who was a year senior to him. The two acted in many plays together and were married in 1985. She had been married earlier, and Kher adopted her son, Sikander, who has also acted in a few films. Singh, of course, is now better known as Kirron Kher - an award-winning actress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Parliament from Chandigarh.

Anupam Kher really shot into prominence - winning both critical and popular acclaim - with Mahesh Bhatt's 1984 film, Saaransh, about an elderly couple coping with the death of their son. Now Kher is an institution of sorts - he runs an acting academy and a production house.

A biopic on cricketer M.S. Dhoni is his next theatrical release. Kher, who ventured into direction with the Anil Kapoor-starrer Om Jai Jagadish in 2002, is also keen to get behind the camera once again. "But it has to be a good story," he says. And, he adds, he is not signing up for a new film unless it is something that really excites him.

"I am not going to do any films for some time now. I will sign up for a new film only if there is an exceptional role for me there," he declares.

But theatre shall continue. He has shows lined up in the US through August, when he and co-star Neena Gupta will feature in Mera Woh Matlab Nahin Tha.

Where does he get all this energy from? And what is the secret behind his positivity, I ask him.

"Being positive does not mean you will not feel dejected or not have a moment of self pity. I just get out of it [self pity] by saying: You can't bog me down. And this can only happen when you love life," Kher says. "It's your upbringing. You become what your childhood has been like," he says.

The easiest thing in the world, he holds, is to feel happy. "According to me, depression is the luxury of intellectuals. The man on the street does not feel depressed. He is too busy trying to work out his life."

Optimism, he reveals, was injected into him during his childhood. "We lived in a joint family where we were 14 people staying in a small room. Banging into each other was confused with a hug," he laughs aloud. "We weren't unhappy. It was a fairy tale. We used to go to the mountains and think there was actual treasure," he adds.

His eyes brighten up when he talks about growing up with other children. Kher, clearly, connects well with the young. He once ran a successful TV show called Say Na Something To Anupam Uncle. So why doesn't he do shows for kids anymore?

"Those children grew up. And today's children have their fingertips on Google," he says. But Kher has other plans for children. He intends to open an orphanage soon. "Whenever I go to a new city, I always visit an orphanage there. The condition of orphanages in our country is unfortunately very sad," he says. In 2008, he started an organisation called The Anupam Kher Foundation which works for underprivileged children and focuses on palliative care.

Now is the time for the last question. Despite the statutory warning - I have been urged to steer clear of the crisis at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) over the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as its new chairman - I can't leave without asking him this. Last month, Kher had spoken in favour of the students who have been on a strike now for two months. That was surprising, for Kher is known to be a supporter of the BJP, the party which installed Chauhan. What does he feel about it now?

"The strike had gained good momentum but unfortunately now it has become all political," he rues. "The FTII row is a silly thing to have happened. It is all a big mess now," he says.

If the strike has not yielded results, other solutions have to be found, he suggests. "If I was a student or the principal of FTII, I would ask students to get back to work. There are other ways to resolve an issue when a strike fails. In Japan, they just do double the work in the form of a protest. FTII students should do the same."

Kher shuffles on his chair a bit, indicating that we are done. A couple and their two young kids, who have won a radio contest related to the show, rush to get a picture clicked with him. "I hope we meet again soon," Kher says. And the next time, I hope, he'll actually recall me.