Naseeruddin Shah in A Wednesday

Both are institutions of acting. After a hiatus of 19 years, thespians Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher have come together for UTV’s A Wednesday.

Naseer and Anupam started their careers in two separate decades. While Naseer become an actor to reckon with Nishant in 1975, Anupam Kher took a couple of years to make it to the marquee with Saransh in 1984. Both eyed the same kind of roles and there was almost a healthy rivalry between the friends.

They acted together Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (1983) but Anupam’s entire track was deleted, and the film went on to become a cult film for Naseer.

Anupam, after starring in 31 films, and Naseer, after starring in 55 films, came together in Subhash Ghai’s Karma (1986), followed by Pestonjee, as two friends set in a Parsi milieu in 1988, and then in Rajiv Rai’s Tridev (1989).

Over 146 films, Naseer become the king of parallel cinema with landmark films like Manthan, Bhumika, Aakrosh, Bazaar, Mandi, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. He tried his hand at popular cinema in films like Masoom, Umrao Jaan, Sarfarosh but his heart remained in roles with an edge.

Over 285 films, Anupam Kher after beginning his career with alternative cinema become a mainstream father and uncle for all Rajshri, Yash Raj and Karan Johar films, a father with a smile and a young attitude for all the glossy flicks.

Finally after 19 years, both of them have liked a script together. In fact one of the main factor for both of them coming together was that the ‘other’ was working in it.

While Naseer plays a cold, calculative terrorist who will not stop at anything, Anupam Kher plays a police commissioner who has to stop the terrorist at all cost.

It was also for the first time in 23 years that Naseer travelled by a Mumbai local train for a scene in A Wednesday. The last time he had boarded a Mumbai local was for Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro.

“We had booked one entire compartment of a CST-Kalyan bound train to shoot the sequence which was to be shot with Naseerji,” reveals A Wednesday director Neeraj Pandey. “He was very excited while shooting for the sequence because he had boarded the train after so many years.”

A Wednesday traces the journey of a police commissioner fighting a threat from a terrorist and trying to locate bombs planted across Mumbai.

Naseeruddin, the terrorist, travels in Mumbai local transport — trains, buses, autos… and has planted bombs across the city in various undisclosed locations.