Anupam Kher tears into those criticising his Rabindranath Tagore avatar: ‘I will not waste my time…’

Delighted to portray #Gurudev #RabindranathTagore in my 538th project. Will reveal the details in due course. ये मेरा सौभाग्य है कि मुझे गुरुदेव को पर्दे पर साकार करने का सौभाग्य प्राप्त हुआ है! जल्द ही इस फ़िल्म की अधिक जानकारी आपके साथ संझा करूँगा! 🙌🙏🫶 pic.twitter.com/qnLqduSPq3

— Anupam Kher (@AnupamPKher) July 7, 2023

“My look as Rabindranath Tagore went viral because of the work that my whole team has put in it. But I was very amused by some people saying, ‘Oh, leave Rabindranath Tagore alone, and nobody should do this’. I got to know about this reaction when my PR team sent it to me,” Kher told Hindustan Times.

“Around 99% of the people who I sent the image asked me why I am sending them Tagore’s picture. There are 86,400 seconds in a day, and if someone says such things for 10 seconds, I will not waste my other seconds thinking about it,” he added.

After Kher shared the picture, Bengali actor Swastika Mukherjee took a veiled attack on the former and tweeted: “No one should play Robi Thakur. Leave the man alone.”

A number of Bengalis echoed her thoughts as they dropped similar comments on the post. One of her followers wrote, “No one should play Rabi Thakur for a purpose,” while another added, “Bengal knows him well, rest of India not so much. His story should be told and cinema is a good medium. But all depends which phase of his life is being depicted. If it’s just the latter days at Shantiniketan then that is very less of a story.”

No one should play Robi Thakur.
Leave the man alone.

— Swastika Mukherjee (@swastika24) July 9, 2023

Claiming that people put out such “negative views” for grabbing attention, Kher said: “They want to be noticed by their negative views instead of their work. Aap criticism ke liye notice hue toh kya hi notice hue (There is no upside to getting noticed for criticism). I also want to ask if that concerned person is Tagore’s spokesperson. Going forward, people will tell us not to make any project on Gandhi ji? I found it to be an absurd point. What do you mean leave Tagore alone? It had no meaning. I didn’t even know the name of the person (Swastika). When I got the message from my team, I asked them to focus on the appreciation that is coming our way because it took my team almost two months to create the look, and took me three months to get that expression right. There is no one in the world that doesn’t get criticised. I can live with it.”

Without revealing further information regarding the project, Kher noted: “I don’t even want to discuss it because it is such an idiotic thing to say. This way people will stop making projects such as Oppenheimer and Schindler’s List. People should stop making documentaries. Such remarks hold no importance to me. I have a lot of energy but I have no time to waste on people who are random and who have nothing to do but to get noticed by criticising somebody.”