Veteran actor Anupam Kher has had three major successes this year at the box office. The year started in the form of The Kashmir Files, followed by Karthikeya 2 and the recent release Uunchai. An interesting fact about these movies was that they opened low but saw huge jumps at the ticket window on their second and third day.
In an exclusive conversation with Bollywood Hungama, Kher said he would like to react on this in two ways. “One is that I am really humbled, and God is very kind, which is true. The other answer is, waah kya baat hai! This year has been the biggest because people measure success with money and box office. People say that bad news spreads like fire. I feel good news also spreads like fire. We say word-of-mouth. But for me today it’s ‘WhatsApp mouth.’”
On a more serious note, the actor said that the success of these films has also proven that we shouldn’t categorize actors. “People put actors in slots,” said Kher. “They say this person isn’t a hero and that person is a character actor. The whole definition of an actor in India is different. This is a wake-up call in the sense that we should believe that if we work hard, toh kuchh bhi ho sakta hai, which is my favourite proverb. The lesson we get from here is – break the stereotypes.”
But he believes that one shouldn’t get carried away by success. “Kings like me keep getting dethroned,” he said. “I don’t know which film of mine will do well next year. This (2022) might not happen again. This was a dream, which got fulfilled. Paon zameen par hi hai dost kyunki aaj jo hua hai zaroori nahin kal bhi hoga. I always celebrate today.”
On the whole, however, this hasn’t been a good year for Bollywood with some big films with big stars failing at the box office. Kher believes that there has been a change in the audience’s mindset in the two years of the pandemic. “They now don’t like anything fake. They want truth. There is truth in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, as in it’s an entertaining film. It’s not fake. There was also a certain amount of cinematic truth in Gangubai Kathiawadi too.”
But Kher has a slight complain that sometimes people don’t acknowledge the hard-work actors put in while performing. “People take my acting for granted,” he said. “They feel yeh toh achhi hi acting karega. But if you see, The Kashmir Files is completely different from Karthikeya 2 and that film is completely different from Uunchai. Just because I deliver it easily doesn’t mean there is no hard work in it.”
The vast difference in the subjects of The Kashmir Files, Karthikeya 2 and Uunchai also shows the range of choices Kher makes. But he tells us that he has no “scientific way” of choosing subjects. “People offer me work and I do it. The only thing is that I have made my job difficult now; I try and go an extra mile. I make sure that I put in my 100%. I don’t like being complacent. But if the script, director and technicians are not good, you giving 100% is not going to be enough. It’s a mixture of everything,” he said.
Kher played a blind doctor Dhanvanthri Vedpathak in Karthikeya 2 who speaks of Lord Krishna’s qualities with feeling and conviction. He reveals to us that the character was not supposed to be blind initially.
“Five minutes before the shot I felt if this person is giving knowledge with such passion, he should be blind. I told the director (Chandoo Mondeti) that this will make a greater impact. He got scared. The lines are so powerful that I felt if I look into someone’s eyes and say, it sort of won’t have that impact. I felt if he is not able to see, his inner sight will see it. The director was kind enough. He said, sir you have a point, let’s see how we do it. I think this played a very important role.”
Kher is now looking forward to a line-up of forthcoming films, including The Signature with Marathi filmmaker Gajendra Ahire, Satish Kaushik’s Kaagaz 2, Kangana Ranaut’s Emergency and IB 71 with Sankalp Reddy.
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