‘I don’t take myself seriously’

HYDERABAD :  How best can one know actor-producer-teacher and author Anupam Kher? As a doting funny-cute father in 1991 Bollywood film Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin or his first role at the age of 28 playing an old grieving man in the movie Saaransh? But the city is going to remember him for his wisecracks during a session organised by FICCI-Flo Hyderabad chapter. He was speaking on the theme ‘The Power of Positivity’ as part of the organisation’s annual general session 2020-2021. The National School of Drama (NSD) graduate had the attendees in splits. 

The audience burst into laughter when he got down from the dais to pour a glass of water to a lady in the audience, who was yawning.  “I don’t take myself seriously. People who take themselves are quite comical. You can’t have correct answers all the time. You should be prepared to make a complete fool of yourself and be all right with it. Once I asked my grandfather how we are happy when we were so poor. He replied, ‘because happiness is the cheapest thing, you don’t have to pay a price.’ I look at life with a funny way,” he added talking to Usharani Manne and Apurva Jain, Chairpersons of FLO and YFLO respectively. 

Talking about his better half actor Kirron Kher he joked, “Once you accept that your wife is more artistic and sensible, life becomes easier and this is a universal truth for any bald man. She’s got long hair, I am bald. It’s beautiful to acknowledge the brilliance of the other person. We are real with each other and don’t indulge in roleplay. It’s mutual respect which binds you stronger. My wife says rubbish if I don’t do a good job. And that’s what you need. Honesty.” 

He came to Mumbai for work as a 27-year-old bald man in 1981 and somehow ended up meeting Mahesh Bhatt to play the role of a broken man in his sixties. “Mahesh told me that I was good. I ended up responding, ‘No, I am not just good -- I am brilliant’. This established me as an actor,” said the 66-year-old veteran actor. 

He’s written three books. His latest is ‘Your Best Day is Today!’ which he penned it during the lockdown and shared, “When I was coming back from the US, just before the lockdown started, I was thinking that things will be different India. When I reached Mumbai I was horrified to see an empty airport and deserted roads. It looked like a Will Smith movie. For the first time, I heard the chirping of birds at a time when death became statistic. The book became my memoir of one year. It has hope. Hope sustains life. It’s beautiful to be alive and celebrate life.”

— Saima Afreen saima@newindianexpress  @Sfreen