Anupam stretches acting capabilities to keep going

Anupam said he has been busy with his acting school for the last few years. “I don’t want my students to go to a theatre to watch me on screen and say Oh my God! he teaches us,” he said.

He said he was doing fewer films and wanted to do brilliant work. “I want to focus on them completely.”

Anupam said his movie ‘Zokkomon’ directed by Satyajit Bhatkal and produced by Disney,releases on April 22 and it has allowed him to push himself completely. “Perhaps in the history of Indian cinema,I am the only actor who has donned two completely different realistic characters in this film,” he said.

Anupam said when he was narrated the script for the cruel uncle’s role,he made enquiries of who was playing the ‘Magic’ character who is instrumental in giving the protagonist (Darsheel Safary) super natural powers. “The producers said they are in talks with few actors for the role and when I said I wanted to do both the characters,they were horrified,” he recalled.

Anupam said he explained to the producers how the casting would be interesting. He made it clear that his was not a double role. “Here,the two characters are not related. These two characters are unlike my double roles in recently released ‘Game’ and ‘Roop ki Rani Choron Ka Raja’,some years ago.”

And,prosthetics expert Guillaume Castange was flown in from France for the purpose. “It took me five to six hours to put on the make up and it is tough shooting in National Park,Film city in Mumbai and outdoors elsewhere. But when I saw the result,the effort was worth it. Even my mother has not been able to recognise me in Magic’s role,” the 56-year-old actor said happily.

Normally,Anupam said when prosthetics is used,the character is larger than life or deformed. But here both are realistic characters. He said while donning the make up for Magic,he learnt what patience and courage meant. The veteran said he was satisfied at how the film has turned out to be and felt his fatigue vanish when he saw it for the first time.

He said he liked stories where good triumphs over the evil. “It has to be straight away. We know that in the end good will win. But,the process of how that happens makes a film interesting. Here,Magic creates a superhero out of an ordinary child,” the actor said.

Anupam said that since he had two characters,he had devoted 60 days at a stretch for it. He said he found Darsheel Safary to be a brilliant actor and experience of working with him was “frightening”. “He kept me on my toes throughout. It was pure joy working with him. I liked him as an actor.. as a child. He is a gifted boy with good upbringing. He is focused and knows his job well,” Anupam said.

He said ‘Zokkomon’ is the closing movie at the International Film Festival of Los Angeles and he would represent the film at the fest.