You do movies which grab headlines and then there is a lull. These are trials and errors. You have to keep trying to survive and find your space. I don’t mind it since I don’t want to settle into a comfort zone. So I keep trying. Through these trials, I have created my space. Are you trying something different with your next movie Hindi Medium? This is a little over-the-top comedy about what might appear to be incredible situations to those who are not aware of what goes into getting school admissions. Getting admission in a proper school, which mainly means an English-medium school, has become a big concern these days. This is a movie that can entertain the parents and children alike. Currently, I am also shooting for another movie, Raita, directed by Abhinay Deo. In some of your movies such as Madaari, you have tried to say something more than just entertain. It gives an edge to an actor if an important communication with the audience takes place through the story. Stories are reflections of your society. But unfortunately commercial cinema does not carry that kind of responsibility. It’s important for me that my life experiences and job interact. Otherwise, there is no growth. I don’t know about others. I like to reflect on my experience and life through these stories. According to you, what is the ideal role of cinema? In the cinema of the ’50s and the ’60s, the makers were eager to tell stories. They entertained the audience as well as told them about life experiences. The main desire then was to tell stories and one could go to any length to tell those stories. The directors and actors were driven to tell a story. Right now, we lack that. Cinema has turned into a medium to become popular and famous. As a thinking artist, do you intervene and try to improve the storytelling? I intervene through my choices. I pick the stories which give me an opportunity to reflect life. I can’t hold anyone by the collar and say, ‘Why are you not telling a story properly?’ I can only do my job the way I think it should be done. Recently, you worked on the Netflix mini-series Tokyo Trial. Tokyo Trial deals with an important subject (It follows the trials of war crimes of the Japanese military by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East after WWII). I play the judge Radhabinod Pal’s character (He was one of the judges of the tribunal). It became very tedious to research on Pal as the legal language is completely different. I used to take so much time to read 10 pages and make sense of it. However, it was a fascinating experience. Is it your inquisitiveness that makes you take up such roles? My inquisitiveness as well as my belief that certain things should be shared through stories. You play comic as well as intense characters with equal finesse. How do you manage this? It is easier to do so when you have a good script. I have been waiting to do an out-and-out comedy and the right script for so long. If I had taken up a script I could not relate to, then it would have been difficult for me. Have you ever been offered a Golmaal kind of comedy? Oh yes. Not a Golmaal but those kind of comedies and franchise movies. But I did not pick those as I thought it was not the right time then. I could have done those for money but that would be so boring. Right now, I’m focusing on the movies I have some kind of connection with. You said that you could have donated your organ for Vinod Khanna. It was a very spontaneous reaction. I have never met him. You are going to complete 30 years in the industry next year; Salaam Bombay released in 1988. I don’t count years. During my second year at the National School of Drama, I shot for Salaam Bombay. It was not a beginning. More like life showed me a glimpse of the film industry. Banegi Apni Baat (started in 1993) was my proper entry into the industry. After so many years, do you see yourself as an outsider in the industry? I consider myself to be an outsider in the society. I have been feeling like that all my life. I had no connection with the industry when I chose to become an actor neither did my parents want me to join it. No one could have imagined that I would be in this profession. Initially, I was very conscious. I tried to fit in and that pushed me further back. I realised that I should take it easy and I would eventually find my space.
