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| Anupam Kher with Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri |
Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri take the couch in tonight’s episode of The Anupam Kher Show (Colors at 8pm). A t2 sneak peek…
Anupam Kher: Let’s start from the beginning. Naseer saab, kitne saal ho gaye aapko acting karte huye?
Naseeruddin Shah: Professionally ya bathroom included? I would say, about 50 years. Perhaps even a couple more. Because I was 14 years old when I started out….
Anupam: You were in Standard IX when you acted in The Merchant of Venice?
Naseer: Correct. That was the day I realised this is where I belong. To be honest, I was a very bad student. Main class mein hamesha last aata tha. I never understood physics, chemistry, geography or trigonometry. Besides literature, I wasn’t interested in any subject. Our school organised a lot of good plays, but I never auditioned for it because all the academically good students got the roles. Then four of us friends decided to take matters in our own hands and we enacted scenes from The Merchant of Venice. Mr Geoffrey Kendal (Jennifer Kendal’s father and Shashi Kapoor’s father-in-law) was my hero, he came to teach at our school every year. He was my inspiration.
Anupam: You were a very shy child…
Naseer: That’s true. Perhaps when I imitated Geoffrey Kendal, it was my route to escape from reality which I hated. I was a bore, I had no friends. My brothers on the other hand, one was a scholar and the other a champion athlete. Dono taraf se main hi maar khata tha, na main ye tha na main woh tha. The youngest brother in the family is of no use to god, man or beast! (Laughs)
Anupam: Did anyone suggest you change your name in the film industry?
Naseer: Yes, during Nishant (1975) someone said: ‘Yeh toh bada lamba naam hai’ to which I said: ‘Shatrughan Sinha chhota naam hai kya?” (Laughs)
Anupam: Om and you were classmates at NSD (National School of Drama)?
Naseer: Yes, Om came from a very humble background in Patiala. And the growth I saw in him during those three years, in his confidence, in his abilities — it was incredible. I was the same actor in the past three years... surely I should have improved.
Anupam: Naseer saab bataa rahe thhe you started off from a lower middle class family. How did you think of becoming an actor?
Om Puri: It was a coincidence. Theatre was like any other extra-curricular activity for me. When I was in school, I actually wanted to join the army. Only in college, I started acting. Then I started getting paid for theatre.
Anupam: There are a lot of people in your life who helped you..
Om: Arre, mujhe maa-baap ne sirf paida kiya tha, mujhe paalaa hai mere doston ne, ek mere bagal mein baithe hain (points to Naseer).
Anupam: How did your friendship start?
Om: I found it difficult to converse in English at NSD because I was from a Punjabi-medium school. Waise bhai jaan (looks at Naseer) convent school se thhe, toh inki angrezi bahut achhi thi. I had a major complex. The director at NSD wanted to find out what was wrong with me because of my inferiority complex. He called me and said: ‘It’s fine, you converse in Hindi. To grasp English, read papers every day, converse with your friends in English, even if you’re wrong it’s okay.’ I followed his advice and now I have done some 22-23 international films in English! Naseer: Who would have thought after so many years that I would get the role of a Punjabi from Delhi and he would get the one of a Muslim from England?
Anupam: Naseer saab, did you ever have a complex? Naseer: Yes of course, I felt inferior because of my looks. But there were people like Shatrughan Sinha and Amitabh Bachchan who had just entered the industry at that time and looks weren’t the only important thing. Character faces had also come in. But I knew my face wasn’t that of a filmstar, and I had learnt to accept it. You are as handsome as you feel. There is a picture of Om and me from the NSD days... Shabana Azmi looked at it and said: ‘Do aise badsoorat insaan, kaise ye actor banne ki jurrat kar sakte hain?!’(Laughs)
