New Delhi, Mar 27: When you work with a director multiple times, you start to understand how they look at the world and you feel secure, says actor Kumud Mishra about why his collaborations with filmmaker Anubhav Sinha always turn out to be special.
Sinha is among the filmmakers for whom the “Thappad” actor will turn up even for a single scene. Others on his list are Anurag Kashyap, Imtiaz Ali and Nitin Kakkar.
“If you work with someone for years and when you read the story, you get the idea what the director wants from you. Your prep begins with reading the script… If you have any doubt, you have a discussion and it is not just about that particular character but about the world he inhabits.
“We (actors) are always self-centred and we approach our characters like that — me, my character, my scene and how do I look in that scene? But the director looks at the whole world. So when you work with a director where you know how he looks at the world, you feel very secure as an actor because you are just a part of that world, you are not that world. It is a huge relief,” Mishra told PTI in an interview.
The actor was most recently seen in Sinha’s critically-acclaimed “Assi”, also starring Taapsee Pannu, Kani Kusruti, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub and Dia Mirza, a film whose title means 80 in Hindi and represents the number of sexual assault cases reported every day in India. “Assi” released in February.
Over the years, Mishra has become a regular presence in Sinha’s movies, featuring in the director’s critically-acclaimed titles “Mulk” (2018), “Article 15” (2019), “Thappad” (2020), “Anek” (2022) and Netflix series “IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack”.
The duo first met for a film that is yet to come out. He met Sinha again when the director was working on “Mulk”.
The film, which explored the alienation of Muslim community through the story of a family caught in a terror plot, was almost complete but Sinha still wanted him to cast in the role of a judge.
“I initially said no as I thought there was not much in it. But when Anubhav sir is convinced about something, then you cannot escape. I did that role and after that we have worked regularly.”
In “Thappad”, Mishra earned a lot of acclaim for his portrayal of an empathetic father who stands by his daughter when she decides to divorce her husband after being slapped. But the actor considers it among the most challenging roles of his career.
“I found it very hard to get into the character in ‘Thappad’… ‘Ek accha father’ ( A good father), it is such a generic term. There is nothing like a good father, it is just one part of an individual… I was struggling a lot but I was not able to tell him anything… It was my personal struggle.”
Mishra said Sinha’s process of filmmaking is quite unique as the director involves everyone in it.
“If he has a doubt, he will ask for your opinion or if he is shooting and you are around… He called me and asked my opinion but I said, ‘hmm’. I was lost in my own character (‘Thappad’) and he thought I was not happy. I don’t know how he got this in his head. But he told me later,” Mishra recalled.
Mishra said he found the ‘sur’ of the character after he performed his scenes with Ratna Pathak Shah, who played his wife in the movie.
“She is a great actor. I was struggling till then but when she started saying her lines, everything fell into place for me. When Anubhav asked me later, ‘Are you not happy with this character? I said how can this be possible, I was struggling to get into this character. So maybe I couldn’t express myself. I was lost in myself,” he recalled.
In “Assi”, Mishra portrayed Kartik, a man haunted by the sexual assault of his colleague’s wife, prompting him to question the failures of both legal and social systems.
According to the 58-year-old actor, Sinha’s cinema always sparks discussion and that is important in a society where the space for discussion is shrinking.
“I think there cannot be a bigger reward for a filmmaker than a film sparking conversation, whether it was ‘Article 15’, ‘Thappad’, ‘Bheed’ or ‘IC814’. That, in itself, is a big advantage… There is always a discussion, sometimes people get divided also but it is very interesting because we are living in a society where there is no space for discussion.
“But in a beautiful society there are always different ideas, discussions, we agree on some things and we don’t agree on some. So we leave it open until our understanding becomes more mature. Anubhav’s films are compelling in the way they reignite important conversations,” Mishra said.
The actor has collaborated twice with both Kashyap (“That Girl in Yellow Boots”, “Nishaanchi”) and Ali (“Rockstar”, “Amar Singh Chamkila”), and three times with Kakkar for his comedies “Filmistan”, “Jawaani Jaaneman” and “Ram Singh Charlie”.
His character of Khatana Bhai in “Rockstar” still lives in public memory, especially the dialogue where his character scolds Ranbir Kapoor’s Janardhan Jakhar and tells him there is no art without pain and heartbreak, is popular on social media.
Reminded about that scene, Mishra said he had fond memories of working on the 2011 film.
“If you really look at the dialogue, it’s beautiful writing. If some other actor had said that dialogue, it would have had the same effect. I am not generalising, I am sure I must have done a decent job, which is why people still like it. But if something is popular on social media, it does not mean that you have arrived.
“For me, ‘Rockstar’ has always been a special film. I don’t worry a lot about the end result, the process is more important for me and I enjoyed this one a lot. Whether it is Ranbir, Imtiaz sahab or Irshad Kamil (lyricist), the whole team was great. And Imtiaz sahab is an extraordinary guy. I really loved working on this film,” he said. (PTI)
