Click to play videoNaseeruddin Shah, it is well known, does not care for awards and therefore he was not surprised when A Wednesday did not pick up any trophies this season. The actor who was tipped to play the Mahatma in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi reveals that that role was never destined to be his. The fifty-eight year old actor who will be seen next week in both Firaaq and Barah Aana says he enjoyed Slumdog Millionaire but can't understand why we are all behaving like it is an Indian success story.
Rajeev Masand: Naseeruddin Shah welcome to Now Showing. I am keen to talk to you about A Wednesday. Why in your opinion was the film and your performance in the film pretty much shut out of all the awards recently? And this despite the fact that it was not only the best reviewed film of last year but also a bonafide box office success.
Naseeruddin Shah: Yeah...by the time we got to the shop, the shop was closed, let's put it that way. These awards are a joke and anyone who takes them seriously needs to have his head examined. Which in turn means that a lot of our film industry needs to get their heads examined. But for some reason, people feel happy when they win them. I suppose it is the appreciation that they receive. Also, they like to get together and pat each other's back, praise each other, give each other awards. They make sure that everybody is pleased, everybody is satisfied. In ten years' time, there will be another award called Best Actor in the role of a Cruel Aunty and there will be another award called Best Actor in the role of a Crooked Cop and so on - there are going to be like 200 awards. Because everybody has to be pleased you see.
Rajeev Masand: What do you think of Slumdog Millionaire?
Naseeruddin Shah: It's a Bollywood movie made in English. I don't enjoy Bollywood movies too much, but I enjoyed this one. It was a different take on the 'underdog shall triumph' formula, the feel good formula. I enjoyed it. I wouldn't see it a second time and I don't think that it was the best film of the year.
Rajeev Masand: There is this common perception that it's going to do a lot of good for Indian talent.
Naseeruddin Shah: I mean what's wrong with us? We are celebrating it as if we have made it, as if we are responsible for it, as if we financed it, as if we made the film possible. We are all behaving in that way. Everybody knows it's not an Indian film, it's not been made by an Indian, it never occurred to an Indian to make Slumdog Millionaire, it never occurred to an Indian to make Gandhi either for that matter, but we ran to lap up the accolades when they started coming.
Rajeev Masand: What's your opinion of all this talk about crossover and of Indian actors getting an opportunity of crossing over. You have worked in American productions. Is it a big deal?
Naseeruddin Shah: It's not a big deal. The money is a little bigger and that's about it. Otherwise it's the same old story. In fact for those who have tasted stardom here it's even sadder that such people should try and now grab roles in the West because what they are going to get is not what they are going to like, I can promise you.
Rajeev Masand: Is that why you didn't pursue any mroe opportunities there?
Naseeruddin Shah: Yes, because you are confined to one tiny little cabin of Indian actor - the maharaja, the cook, the terrorist, the baira (waiter) and so on. That's all you will get. Anything which requires wearing a turban.
Rajeev Masand: It's 27 years since Richard Attenborough's Gandhi. Hypothetically if you like, do you think ever think what if you had been Gandhi? You were a contendor, you were almost there.
Naseeruddin Shah: No. See first of all, I realised quite quickly that I was never in the running for it seriously. Ben Kingsley had been cast. I didn't speak to a soul about it. The rumour had it that I had got the part, it was on the front page of the newspaper. This is when I was going to London. I read it and I thought this means that I have got it. I got to London and he didn't even screen test me properly. It was a farce. I drove around in a Rolls Royce for three days and I stayed in this hotel on Oxford Street. It was the first time I had been to London and I had a blast. He gave me money to spend, then took me to Shepherd Studios where I met Ben Kingsley and the moment I saw Ben Kingsley, I said "Oye, forget it!" So far I had been very cocky because I had been thinking - "where is he going to find an actor who looks like Gandhi ji. And there he was - Ben Kingsley. And some perfunctory kind of test was conducted and I was given a ticket back home. But I knew Ben Kingsley looks more like Gandhi ji. And I met him, talked to him for a while, watched his audition and I saw he was very good.
Rajeev Masand: Could you have been better?
Naseeruddin Shah: I don't think so. Not at that time. I couldn't have delivered at that age. I was too young.
Rajeev Masand: Thank you so much for talking to us.
Naseeruddin Shah: Thank you.
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