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Does Waaris mark a return to television for you?
Yes, after 10 years. My last work on TV was Dastaan, also on Zee TV. In this era, when every show is a clone of the other, Waaris has a refreshing take while keeping the basics similar.
What made you accept the role?
It is a human interest story but the way it unfolds got me very excited. I am a godfather. But imagine a situation where half the family does not know that. Inheritance also becomes an issue and the parents are torn apart by the dilemma about whether they had raised their son in the right way.
Is it a good idea to bring the underworld into the drawing room?
It is not a mafiosi story. Rather it is about a family that is in an unusual business. But a lot of people outside the family know the secret. So there are emotional dynamics at play. There is no overt violence. It is there subliminally.
Yet again, you are playing a negative character…
True. Even on TV, Lankesh, the character I played in Kurukshetra, was not a good man. But Rudra Pratap has lots of shades. I get to show the other side of such a man. He is a loving father, too. For the first time, I will try to make the audience like me!
Do you like being typecast as a villain?
The image has a vice-like grip, I can’t switch it off. So I had to go away for a while to prove that there was more to me.
You started on such a promising note with films like Sardar and Drohkaal. Why has Bollywood lost you to south Indian films?
That is because the media put a mirror to my face. I was doing inane roles in big films. I was earning money but the work I was doing also made me the target of questions like why I was wasting myself. This is what happens when your passion is also your profession. Then, one day I bit the bullet. I started saying ‘no’. Two-and-a-half years ago, I reached a situation where I did not have work. I decided to expand my horizons. So I went all over looking for characters. I was blessed that I found that down south. I am blessed to have worked with the best of directors — Sandip Ray in Bengal (Bombaiyer Bombete), Puri Jagannadh in Andhra Pradesh (Pokiri), Johnny Antony in Kerala (CID Moosa 007), Dharani in Chennai (Dhill)…I can truly call myself an Indian actor today.
But you are working in Ananth Mahadevan’s Hindi film on Maoists in Telengana?
Yes...Red Alert. It should be out in December. There’s another supernatural thriller that I am doing with Seema Biswas, for a young director.
How will you manage time with a daily soap in hand?
Not just the two Hindi films, I am simultaneously doing four films in Tamil and four in Kannada. I have committed 12 days a month for Waaris. I can do the films on the other days. I have got used to a lot of travel in these last seven years.
Are you worried that if the TRPs are not satisfactory, your producer Smriti Irani might twist the tale into another kitchen drama?
I am not a soothsayer, so I cannot vouch for what may happen. But from what little I have known Smriti, she seems to be a person of conviction. I think Waaris will create new realities.