Ahead of a press conference to promote his new TV show, veteran actor Anupam Kher arrives at a five-star suburban hotel in a cool checked shirt and jeans. “I need to have a shave and trim my hair before the event,” he instructs his PR team. Staring at his shiny, bald pate in amazement, I quietly ask, “But, sir, what is left to trim?” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I fear I have breached the line with a senior actor. Flashing a youthful smile, he points to a few stray hair which, I can say with certainty, are not easy to spot. “For me, even this much is a crew cut,” he insists.
This year, Kher completes three decades in the film industry, with appearances in 480 films. In his next release, Yash Raj Film’s Daawat-e-Ishq , he stars alongside young guns Parineeti Chopra and Aditya Roy Kapur. Earlier this year, he was seen in Main Tera Hero starring Varun Dhawan and Nargis Fakhri. But the 59-year-old doesn’t like being pegged as a veteran among fresh blood. Instead, he sees himself as an equal. “This generation has a tendency to make you feel like a has-been. It’s not out of disrespect, but why would they remember something I did in the ’80s? So I want to beat them at that. My competition is with Aditya Roy Kapur,” he says.
In his talk show
Interestingly, Kher’s debut role was meant to be that of a crazy ‘disco killer’ in the cult classic
After this rocky start, Kher has consistently delivered unforgettable performances in films such as Daddy , Maine Gandhi ko Nahi Maara , Bend it Like Beckham and Khosla ka Ghosla , to name a few. He’s also directed a film, opened an acting school, written a book and done over a hundred plays. Most recently, he made a short film, I Went Shopping for Robert De Niro , in all of nine days. With his TV show, he hopes to keep adding to his impressive repertoire.
So what keeps him going? “It has to be life. I find it very fascinating. My work gives me maximum gratification. That’s what keeps me young and active,” he says, before sprinting off for that pending trim and shave.