Anupam Kher’s 540-film career hasn’t made stardom a burden

Anupam Kher has spent more than four decades in front of the camera and has over 540 films to his name. But as he returns to the stage for a 45-day theatre tour of the US and Canada, the 71-year-old says he has no interest in carrying his stardom like a weight.

Speaking to PTI in Washington during a break from a script reading session with director Gajendra Ahire, Kher said the danger is distance. “If you live in an ivory tower, loneliness is frightening. I don’t. I live a very normal life,” he said. The actor pointed to the everyday texture of touring North America — lobby shops, sushi bars, buses — as part of what keeps him grounded.

A stage return that feels close to home

Kher’s new play, Jaane Pehchaane Anjaane, blends humour and music to examine loneliness and modern relationships. Written and directed by Gajendra Ahire, it brings several neighbours into one middle-class frame.

• A widow and a widower learning to reconnect.
• A young paying guest navigating a new city.
• A woman coping with a mid-life separation.

The production also marks Swaroop Sampat’s return to theatre after nearly two decades. It has been presented in the US by Houston-based Star Promotion Inc, run by Indian-American Rajendra Singh.

Why the loneliness theme is timely

Kher sees the play as more than a comeback vehicle. He told PTI that phones and the internet have created what he calls a loneliness epidemic, and that “smiles and hugs are replaced by emojis”. Many countries, he noted, now treat loneliness as a public-health issue, and India is part of the same shift.

That is a useful yardstick for an industry that sometimes confuses distance with mystique. Kher’s position is that accessibility is not the opposite of stardom; it is the part that keeps an actor emotionally available for the roles he plays.

Over his career, Kher has balanced film work with stage, from Saalgirah and Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai to Mera Woh Matlab Nahi Tha with Neena Gupta. He said that after working on Shakespeare, Brecht and stylised plays, he now chooses material an audience can instantly recognise — the kind where a father can say, in effect, “this is my story”.

Source: Hindustan Times

■

#Anupam Kher#Bollywood#Bollywood theatre#Jaane Pehchaane Anjaane#loneliness#Swaroop Sampat