Anupam Kher on returning to direction: I was waiting for a story to inspire me

After a gap of 22 years, actor Anupam Kher is donning the director’s hat again for his next, Tanvi The Great. The first time he did it was for the 2002 release Om Jai Jagdish. Ask him what made him wait so long to take up this role again and he shares, “I was waiting for a story to inspire me, to make me feel that I should share it with the world. Om Jai Jagdish wasn’t my story. I was acting at that time, and I was just excited to be a part of films in another aspect. But after that, I decided that if I had to direct a film again, the story should come from within me.”

The 69-year-old informs that the idea of Tanvi The Great came to him about four years back and he has been honing it since with his team of writers. He also reveals that the film is a musical, and as he wanted, he was able to have Oscar winning composer MM Keeravaani be a part of it. He says, “We have been working on the music for the film for last one year. It was around his Oscar win last year when I called him. In 10 minutes of hearing the script, he said yes.”

Kher has been flying to Hyderabad every two to three months to finalise the film’s music. “For me, it was very important to have the music of the film ready before I started shooting. It helps the film stay true to itself. Mr Keeravaani is also doing the background score because I can’t have a different person doing it.”

The shoot of Tanvi The Great started earlier this month. Ask Kher how he has changed as a director since Om Jai Jagdish and he says, “I have seen more life. The kind of cinema that I want to make, it has joy and heartbreak. And now I am eager to tell the story of Tanvi. It has stayed with me, and everyday still, I think about it.”

The actor-director keeps on challenging himself with different roles on and off the screen. Revealing the secret behind it, he responds, “I feel when you don’t have the fear of failure, you can keep on experimenting. I come from a Hindi medium education, and I have written 3 books in English. I run an acting school, I have worked in an American medical drama and stayed in New York for it for three years. It’s very important to keep reinventing yourself and that’s how I have always dealt with my life. At 27, I played a 65-year-old man, so I have always looked at life in a different manner.”

Ask Kher if the legacy behind his name ever bogs him down in taking risky decisions, and he responds, “I am comfortable being the person I am. I think to be yourself is the most difficult, yet also the easiest thing in the world. That’s what even Mr Keeravaani said. When he was asked about our film and his experience of working with me, I was very touched and surprised when he said, ‘collaborating with Anupam Kher is like being yourself all the time’. To hear these words from such a legend, is truly an honour.”