Daddy Cool

ANSWERS usually trip off his tongue like lines from a well-prepared actor. So it8217;s worth noting that Anupam Kher hesitates for the brie...

ANSWERS usually trip off his tongue like lines from a well-prepared actor. So it8217;s worth noting that Anupam Kher hesitates for the briefest of seconds when asked if he8217;s interested in a political career. That second taken, he replies with equanimity, 8216;8216;Not really. I8217;m interested in the politics of the country like any other citizen. But I suppose you should never say never, and you never know five years from now what I might be doing.8217;8217; Because five years from now, as he8217;s been saying on stage for the past few months, 8216;8216;Kuch bhi ho sakta hai.8217;8217;

Some things we can be sure of. Five years from now his current three-year term as chairman of the film Censor Board will be over. Ditto his four-year term as chairperson of the National School of Drama NSD. Gurinder Chadha8217;s Bride and Prejudice would most likely be a distant memory that may even have changed the course of his acting career. And oh yes, five years from now or at least sometime in the future, Kher8217;s buddy, Bollywood director Satish Kaushik, is convinced that 8216;8216;he will be an important national figure8217;8217;.

That8217;s an unusual projection. But Kaushik8212;a friend from his days as an NSD student in 1975-788212;elaborates, 8216;8216;Anupam is not just creative and intelligent, he knows how to deal with people, and how to stay in touch. He also has tremendous leadership qualities.8217;8217; So? 8216;8216;So, I don8217;t know whether the post he will hold will be political or not,8217;8217; he continues, 8216;8216;but I am sure it will be of great importance.8217;8217;

When Kher performed his autobiographical play Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai in Delhi last week, the audience included Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Rajya Sabha MP Rajiv Shukla. They certainly aren8217;t among the city8217;s regular theatre-goers. Does this have something to do with his networking abilities? 8216;8216;I think it has something to do with my credibility as an actor,8217;8217; Kher shoots back.

The people skills were very much in evidence even while he was teaching acting at the Bhartendu Natya Academy BNA in Lucknow after leaving NSD. 8216;8216;He shows interest in you as a person,8217;8217; says current NSD Repertory chief Suresh Sharma, Kher8217;s student at BNA. 8216;8216;Even now, if you call him he makes it a point to return the call. We have had teachers and students at NSD who are now in films who do not bother to extend that courtesy.8217;8217; Film journalists will vouch for the fact that this is a rare quality among Bollywood stars.

Ask him if he8217;s close to the BJP after all, he8217;s bagged two important government posts during their time at the Centre and Kher replies, 8216;8216;Since these are government appointments, it suits people to say that I have friends in the government. I8217;m just glad no one has said I don8217;t have the ability to do either job.8217;8217;

That hasn8217;t happened yet. But there are those who feel he must focus his enthusiasm. 8216;8216;He8217;s very energetic,8217;8217; says theatre director Kirti Jain who is on NSD8217;s governing body. 8216;8216;He clearly wants to do a lot of things, though I8217;m not sure what.8217;8217; Feroz Khan, his director in Kuch Bhi, describes him as 8216;8216;continuously charged and positive8217;8217;, but adds this caveat, 8216;8216;As a professional he8217;s slightly distracted because he8217;s doing too many things at the same time.8217;8217; How do you break that to a man who says, 8216;8216;There are 24 hours in a day and the body needs only six hours of sleep8217;8217;? Anupam Kher would have an answer to that one too.