Kamal Haasan at ITC Sonar on Thursday. Picture by Aranya Sen

Sitting on the sofa in his ITC Sonar Calcutta hotel suite, Kamal Haasan is a picture of serenity. The warm smile flits through the thick facial hair and he listens to every question like he is soaking in the instructions of his director. Nobody, repeat nobody, can say he is 55! In Calcutta on Thursday for a whirlwind trip to promote his magnum opus Dasavathaaram — Shringar Films is releasing the Hindi version called Dasavatar on April 17 across the country — the legend talks about everything from his doting daughter to his love for Stanley Kubrick to the change in Bollywood cinema. Here’s Kamal Haasan unplugged...

The Tamil Dasavathaaram released in June 2008. Why is the Hindi version releasing this late?

(Laughs) I know! That’s the producer’s (Venu Ravichandran) thing. It was a very big hit down south. It’s the biggest success he and I have seen in our careers. He had distributed the film in the whole of Tamil Nadu. And that’s a big logistic battle. He won that and probably he was languishing on the victory a little long (smiles). It’s not that we weren’t ready with the Hindi version. We were ready with it.

Is the Hindi version any different from the original version?

Of the 10 characters I play, some are different. What was a Telugu character in the original is a Bengali character in this one. It’s more or less the same thing... only the personalities have changed.

Will you call it a dubbed film?

You can’t call it a dubbed film. They (producers) are calling it a direct second version of the original. That’s not true but at the same time to call it a dubbed film is also not true. We have let characters speak their language in the film. So an American speaks in English, a Punjabi speaks in Hindi, a Japanese speaks in his mother tongue.... In the original, they all spoke in Tamil.

At this stage of your career do you only do films which challenge you as an actor?

I don’t get involved in a sort of modus operandi before starting a film. What I try to do is think from the perspective of the Indian audience. I am an audience, may not be a typical Indian audience, but I am an audience. So I do films that I want to see. That is how it veers away from the beaten track.

Kamal Haasan in Dasavathaaram

But what are the films that you, the not-so-typical-Indian, want to see?

I am a fan of Stanley Kubrick. I am a fan of Peter Sellers. So there it is, in a nutshell, where I could have got the idea of Dasavathaaram from. Dr Strangelove is an inspiration but it is obviously not about that. And Peter Sellers has done multiple roles in many films. And above all that I come from the land of Sivaji (Ganesan) Saab. He has done nine in Navaratri which Mr Sanjeev Kumar did as Naya Din Nai Raat. It was never an aim to create a record or anything. It was done as casually as we could afford.

But you have always done multiple roles from Appu Raja to Hindustani to Abhay. Where does this fascination for playing different characters in the same film come from?

It is all in our tradition, the bahurupee tradition. It has always been there, even in our classical dance. The same dancer plays Raavan and Ram. He just twirls around and he is Ram. One more twirl and he is Raavan. That’s coming from those times.

So you look at cinema as an extension of our traditional art forms?

Oh yeah! It’s a very versatile medium and it’s only growing. It’s ambidextrous and it’s multiplying, because of the platforms. I won’t even call it ‘films’ anymore... the British rightly call it Museum of the Moving Image or MOMI. That’s what you have to call it now. Today you can’t even call a still camera a still camera. Because it also does moving images. Right now I have graduated to digital moviemaking. My new film will be shot with the RED camera at 4K capture. And it’s even going to get better.

Playing 10 roles for one film must have been a logistic nightmare...

It was... it was a huge logistic problem and that’s why it took so long. This one was really out of the box. There is make-up which stays for a certain time. And there are sequences where five of my characters come together. So one scene takes a minimum of five days. There’s no short cut to that because I can do just one make-up a day. And there are five-six scenes like that. So even a small scene would take five days to shoot.

Which of the 10 roles was the most challenging?

I think, challenging wise, the one without the make-up. Because there’s nothing supporting the character. But the role which was most challenging was not visible — the screenwriting was most challenging. I enjoyed it a lot. It is the most enjoyable film I have written.

You have cast Mallika Sherawat in one of the roles, there’s Himesh Reshammiya as the music composer. Was it a conscious effort to make Dasavathaaram a pan-Indian project?

Yes, it’s there right in the writing. That’s why there is a Pranab Kundu (the Bengali character). That’s why there is a sardar singer like Daler Mehndi. That’s why there is a Maharashtrian eagle warrior.

The rest of India has never really warmed to a dubbed or second version south Indian film. What are your expectations from the Hindi Dasavathaaram?

I don’t know (laughs)! I can only hope that it does as well as it did in Tamil. Even if it’s 50 per cent it’s going to be a very big hit.

For a long time now, you have consciously stayed away from the Hindi film industry. Why? And do you plan to come back?

Yes, it’s been a conscious decision. Now it’s changing. The snob factor’s gone now. As a matter of fact, I am now envious of the kind of work that is being done in Mumbai. Hindi films now are getting into the kind of groove I always envisaged them to be. Tamil Nadu has regressed. Maybe multiplexes coming to Tamil Nadu will change that.

What are the Bollywood films which make you think so positively about the industry?

Many films including the one I am remaking in Tamil and Telugu — A Wednesday!

Are you aware of the Bengali film industry? Is it regressing as well?

I know of some friends in the industry like Rituparno (Ghosh). There was a time when we used to say Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala and in that order. Now, that’s all gone. Even Kerala has regressed to regular kind of films but it’s still better than the other southern states. Some of their ideas are still maverick and the public supports that. I am not aware of Bengali films that well but I think all the regional markets have changed.

What are your other films in the pipeline?

Rajkamal Films, my company, is making a Hindi-Tamil bilingual which would release simultaneously and not like Dasavathaaram (laughs)! Then there’s a Walt Disney film called 19 Steps.

When we spoke to your daughter Shruti a couple of days back she said that she is proud to be your daughter and she has no problems with the tag “daughter of Kamal Haasan”. What do you think of it?

That shows her confidence. But it’s so unfair to start a career like that. I had no such baggage. She is being happy and kind and owning up to her pain. But I think she can be judged on her individual talent rather than reflecting or ricocheting from some other surface. I also believe she can choose her career well. She has that about her.

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