Were you a fan of cinema while growing up?
At that point, we didn’t even know what ‘fandom’ was. Films and the people in them would seem like extraterrestrial creatures. We would all plan our days around the two hours of programming. We were all under the impression that films can only be made in Bombay, and it’s not a place we can go – because we don’t know anyone over there. We didn’t know anyone could try out.
The plays on Doordarshan felt like a ‘saner’ ambition to have. When I was in my 11th grade, I had this friend who would do theatre in Mandi House. One day he comes up to me and asks, “Theatre karega?” I asked him what “theatre” was. He repeated himself, “Naatak karega?” Which is when I was reminded of all the plays on Doordarshan, so I agreed. We went to Mandi House, and I started rehearsing with him and that’s how I landed my first play.
What did you study in college?
I did my B.A in Political Science (Honours) only for the sake of a degree – I was told this would be the easiest course to do along with theatre. I went to this college near Dhaula Kuan called Ram Lal Anand College – it was a place where all the kamzor (weak) students would gather.
Is that when you got inspired to join the National School of Drama (NSD)?
Yes, I was doing many plays by then. And since, Mandi House is a hub where you have NSD, Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts, it’s an all encompassing environment. You’re watching a lot of plays, and slowly you’re discovering your own level as an actor. I joined NSD in 1990 and I graduated in 1993.
Who were your contemporaries from that time?
Adil Hussain was my batchmate, Ashutosh Rana was a year junior to me. So many of them are still working today.
What year did you come to Mumbai?
It was a magical time. There weren’t enough homes (in Bombay) at that point, and who would really dare to come down with no assured work in their hands? How were we going to survive during months when we didn’t get any work? It was a big risk. In my opinion, this Delhi-Bombay flux happened primarily because of two films.
In 1982, when I’d begun theatre, Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi was being shot in Mandi House. I remember the shoots took place over a whole month. At that time, the cream of NSD actors like Pankaj Kapur, Naseer sahab (Naseeruddin Shah), practically all of them worked on Gandhi, in however small a role. The pay was great, because apparently they had minimum wage. So, if an actor was making Rs 100 per day, a foreign production like Gandhi would pay Rs 1000 per day. This allowed a bunch of these 30-40 actors to earn money, and make their move to Bombay – because they’d accumulated enough money to last a few months.
I think that happened again because of Bandit Queen (1994). A majority of everyone who acted in Shekhar Kapur’s film, we’re all contemporaries. A bunch of these actors earned enough on that film, which would allow them to survive for around 7-8 months in Bombay. They all moved, and they’ve all struggled a lot to reach where they have.