May 7 (Punjab Khabarnama) : Actor Anupam Kher has come forward to react to his colleague Ratna Pathak Shah’s comment referring to acting institutes in India as shops. He says she is entitled to have an opinion, but wonders if she would say the same thing about National School of Drama (NSD).
During an interaction with Pinkvilla, Anupam, who also runs his own acting school, spoke about Ratna’s comment, saying he doesn’t feel the need to justify anything to her.
Anupam’s reaction to Ratna’s comment
When asked about Ratna’s comment, Anupam said, “I don’t have to react. It’s her point of view. Main Naseer (Naseeruddin Shah) ka bhi ek interview dekh raha tha. Woh bhi bol rahe the ki…” [I was watching an interview of Naseeruddin Shah, he was also saying that…]”. He went on to question, “I think both of them are from National School of Drama, will they call National School of Drama a shop?”
Anupam wondered if the comment was made out of bitterness. “So kabhi kabhi aadmi bitterness se kuch baatein bolta hai. Kabhi kabhi aadmi philosophy mein bhi kuch baatein bolta hai. Kabhi kabhi aap isliye bhi baat bolte hain, taaki woh savaal ban sake koi [Sometimes people say something out of bitterness. Sometimes they say it philosophically. Sometimes you also say something so that it can become a question],” Anupam said, adding, “But it is not important for me to sort of justify. What they think, they think. It’s a shop. It’s perfectly alright.”
Despite the differences in opinions. Anupam asserted that there is no bitter feeling towards each other.
“I look at the goodness in people. Even the worst person will have a good side. I remember when I took my first car out for a drive, Naseer saw me and showed so much warmth,” he recalled.
The actor continued, “He said, ‘Wow, Anupam you finally bought a car’. I can’t forget the warmth he showed towards me. For me, the gesture is important. He may say anything against me. But that is his genuine reaction which i will always think of and remember”.
What did Ratna Pathak say
In an interview back in 2022, Ratna, who has been an actor for over five decades, opened up about her love for acting, and her disappointment on how there are trainers for actors in the country.
“You know actors getting ready, going from place to place, going into the wings, waiting for their entry, technical crew moving around – I loved all that. So I used to be very happy backstage. But when I actually started acting myself, I realised I don’t know how to do it at all. I mean I was okayish, but I was certainly no good. I didn’t know how to act, quite honestly. I was doing what I had seen my mum do, and what I had seen other people do,” the Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai actor told Pinkvilla, adding, “But that wasn’t good enough. So that’s one of the reasons I went to the NSD, because I wanted to train and learn how to become a better actor. Unfortunately, there were no acting teachers in the National School of Drama (NSD)”.
Talking about the present state, the actor shared, “That’s one of the big tragedies in India. We have created no trainers for actors. Almost everyone who is running a shop just now, and I used the word shop. It’s not an acting training institute, they are shops. Those guys are making money, cheating young people. I mean, the kind of stuff that goes on in these acting shops is appalling, and kids are paying lakhs for that. But NSD was not like that. So we got trained in theatre and I learnt a lot, but about acting I didn’t learn much at all.”
Anupam’s busy work schedule
The actor, who will complete his 40th year in the Hindi film industry this year, was last seen in Kaagaz 2. He will be next seen in Anurag Basu’s Metro… In Dino alongside Sara Ali Khan, Aditya Roy Kapur, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Ali Fazal, Konkona Sen Sharma, Pankaj Tripathi, and Neena Gupta.
