I was delighted when De Niro winked at me: Anupam Kher

For Anupam Kher, working alongside Hollywood veteran Robert De Niro was a dream come true. The former Censor Board director will be seen in the Hollywood movie, Silver Linings Playbook, alongside actors Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro. Kher reveals that that the character is not the stereotypical character that the West sees for an Indian. “I play the character of Dr Cliff Patel, who is Bradley’s therapist. The movie is about dysfunctional people with a twist in the end.”

The 57-year-old expressed the excitement he had while working with Robert De Niro. “I didn’t have many scenes with him, but it was surreal experience working with him in those that I did. He is someone who I adored as a student of acting, and this De Niro is also the old De Niro, the classic one. It was wonderful, like anyone who has an icon. There was one scene where I had only two lines, and there was De Niro. At one point, he looked at me and winked at me, and I was delighted.’’

Anupam Kher also extracted a promise out of the veteran actor to visit India. “He has promised to come to India. And I think India is now gaining a lot of popularity in the West as a country to be visited, and not only because of the Yoga or the meditation thing but also as a market.”