'I believed in it'

Anupam Kher has two releases on September 5. Both relate to terrorism and its effects. They are, he tells NEHA BHATT, among the best he has ever acted in.

 

Tell us about A Wednesday.

 

A Wednesday takes its background from the Mumbai train blasts, but the story within is fictitious... I play a cop who gets a phone call from a terrorist, played by Naseeruddin Shah, saying that bombs have been planted in the city. The film is about what follows after that phone call and the events that take place between 2:00 and 6:00 pm. Though it’s a thin way of putting it, the project is primarily about how immune we are becoming to killings and how it affects our psyche. It’s a brilliant script and one of the best films I have acted in. There are certain films that one does for money and others that we do for the theory. I took up this film only because I believed in it.

 

How different is it working in a film with a non-fiction background?

 

The non-fictional background gives it an authentic feeling, but since the story itself is fictitious, it’s not something that actually happened. It’s an illusion of reality. But sometimes fiction is more real than non-fiction.

 

What about the second film?

 

I feel very lucky as an actor to have two good films releasing on the same date. The second project is Santosh Sivan’s Tahaan. I went to Kashmir after over 20 years for the shoot, so it was an emotional experience for me. The film is not about terrorism, though. I play a Kashmiri Muslim philosopher in the film. It’s a fable about a boy’s journey with his donkey, and what the Valley comes to mean to him.