“Nobody becomes an actor because they want to serve art, says Indian cinema veteran Naseeruddin Shah. “They become actors because they want to be noticed, to be successful, to be known.
Known for his performance rather than glitzy stardom of Bollywood, the 59-year-old actor finds that work entails compromises.
“I’ve done a hell of a lot of terrible movies, Shah, who was visiting Cairo last week, told Daily News Egypt.
Shah was bitten by the acting bug much before he joined the National School of Drama in Delhi. He then attended the Pune Film Institute, where he was spotted by filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who cast him in 1975’s Nishant that marked his first major break.
Roles in acclaimed films like 1980s “Sparsh made him a household name in his home country while international productions such as Mira Nair’s Golden Lion winner “Monsoon Wedding and Danny Leiner’s 9/11 drama “The Great New Wonderful introduced him to the international audience.
In his only big-budget Hollywood venture, “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Shah played Captain Nemo alongside screen legend Sean Connery in 2003. He makes no bones about the whys, “I was being paid so much money that it didn’t matter.
He laughs, recounting the experience, “It was a bore! It was a huge bore!
Co-acting with the Scottish-Irish James Bond was exciting. Shah imitates the slurry Connery dialect, reminiscing about Bond movies he watched.
“The thrill of meeting Sean Connery wore off after a while, said Shah, who nevertheless reserves special respect for the actor. “Among all the stars I have met in my life – and that includes Indian stars, he said, “I found him the most accessible, the most down-to-earth; a person you could always have a conversation with that wasn’t about him.
Yet, even Connery’s presence in a nearby trailer was no consolation as they waited endless hours before scenes were set up. “Six long lonely months in Prague; it wasn’t fun; nor was watching the film.
“But it satisfied my curiosity about big-budget Hollywood movies, Shah said, conjuring collapsing monuments, large crowds and action sequences.
“League also gave him a taste of his earlier aspirations to break into British and American cinema. Shah speaks of his schooling in Nainital in India’s Uttar Pradesh where he was introduced to a range of films from “On the Waterfront to “Mickey Mouse.
Actors such as Spencer Tracy and Charles Thornton, says Shah, will “never be forgotten because they were so great, unlike some of our greats in India. He notes Anthony Quinn and Peter O’Toole as “actors I idolized and wanted to be like.
He accepts a comment about the resemblance, “Yes, there is a lot of Peter O’Toole there. Yet Westward aspirations have waned. He mentions the turban – or waistcloth-toting roles he’s been offered, and resolved not to play after “League.
“I don’t think an Indian would ever gain acceptance in the West of the kind I have gained here (in India), muses Shah, “not only because the competition is so stiff, but also because there is a bias.
“Quite clearly, there is a bias, he repeats, noting an overseen Egyptian actor. “A person like Omar Sharif was an anomaly, really.
Even in Richard Attenborough’s “Gandhi, it was the English Ben Kingsley that depicted the Indian man of peace.
Shah was asked to audition for the role in London. Following “a screen test which did not happen, he returned to India to find newspapers announcing him as Attenborough’s lead. Yet Shah knew differently.
“This whole natak (act) was basically just to create a bit of news, to pre-empt objections that would arise when [Attenborough] was casting an Englishman.
A regular performer at the Prithvi Theater, Shah also teaches acting at the Whistling Woods film school in Mumbai.
The actor also tried his hands in directing in 2006 with “Yu Hota to Kya Hota (If This Happened Then What Would Have Happened), a film he finds could do with much improvement.
“I think Hindi films have a great opportunity, but I think we’re blowing it. Citing films such as “Khosla Ka Ghosla (Khosla’s Nest) and “Oye Lucky! Shah rues that “worthwhile films aren’t getting to the West.
As for “Slumdog Millionaire, while technically proficient and a good first-watch, Shah says that Danny Boyle’s Oscar winner owes its success to the bombings in Mumbai which prompted curiosity in the “underbelly.
In the last couple of years, Hollywood studios have taken notice of the massive Indian film market, the biggest in the world; setting up branches in Mumbai and producing home-grown film targeted to the local audiences. “Bollywood is the flavor of the month, and it will last a little longer, said Shah, “until they get fed up of the fact that these films have no content.
“I mean how much confectionary can you take?
Shah notes that the public is often blamed for the filmmakers’ aesthetic failures. “These movies reflect of those who make them, not the public.
“It’s tragic that our filmmakers in Bombay don’t feel any sense of responsibility, says Shah, “That’s true of all, A.L.L. in capitals, big filmmakers in Bombay.
“Not one of them has an original thought in his head, Shah continued, “Not one of them is the slightest bit bothered about improving the quality of cinema. All they’re interested in doing is making a few more sackfuls of money.
While poor content unnerves Shah, he does not necessary wish to be cast in ‘serious’ roles. “I always get cast as the morose or the intense or the mad, passionate guy or the committed lawyer. People don’t think of me in light-hearted parts.
His forthcoming movies however provide a relief. In a comedy called “7 to the Palace by David Kaplan (“Year of the Fish ) Shah plays a taxi-driver-cum-chef who helps a young man get his Indian restaurant into shape. He is also currently working on another light-hearted Bollywood flick, “Ishqiya.
Shah considers his cameo in the hit Pakistani film “Khuda Ke Liye (In the Name of God) as his best achievement “as an actor, and as a Muslim. In it he plays an Islamic scholar who in a court verdict overturns common misconceptions of Islam – ranging from the treatment of women to the place of music in Islam.
The movie provides the most progressive interpretation of Islam, says Shah, and that too in a country as challenging as Pakistan. No one else, says Shah, has dared to do the same, “It was very brave.
