I have reached a landmark: Anupam Kher on Padma Bhushan

Terming it as "the biggest honour" of his life, actor Anupam Kher described being chosen for Padma Bhushan as a "landmark" and said he felt "humbled, honoured, happy and ecstatic".
"I have reached a landmark, it is a day of great happiness," Kher, who has been chosen for the country's second highest civilian award, said on the sidelines of the last day of the Jaipur Literature Festival here today.
"This gives you a sense of determination that you have to do more for the society than be an actor all my life. I feel humbled, I feel humbled, honoured, happy and ecstatic and I want to thank my country India for giving me this biggest award of my life," Kher said.

The 60-year-old actor recollected his journey from childhood when his father used to feed his family of 14 with a meagre salary of Rs 90, besides recounting various struggles in theatre school and days as a struggling actor in Mumbai.
"...I feel that if the son of a clerk of the Forest Department gets a Padma Bhushan, then anything can happen. When you are given an honour like this, your sense of responsibility increases towards the country, its citizens, students and towards oneself.
The actor said he had notched up a great deal over the past 31 years -- 497 films, 150 dramas apart from writing a book and now runs an acting school.

"This gives you a sense of determination that you have to do more for the society than be an actor all my life. I feel humbled, I feel honoured, happy and ecstatic and I want to thank my country India for giving me this biggest award of my life," he said at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

Speaking at a session at JLF, the actor said he was "amused" with the intolerance debate, terming it "a joke" and stated that only the rich, the intellectuals and ones who roamed around with bodyguards feels unsafe in the country.
"I'm very amused with this intolerance debate. I think people talking about intolerant India is a joke. Some of them may be my colleagues, the fact that they can make statements like this is a proof enough that there is freedom of speech," Kher said at the Jaipur Literature Festival here.

"It's ironical, that the issue of intolerance is being felt by the rich, the intellectuals, the ones who move around with bodyguards. This is our population," he said.
Kher said he had not seen anybody returning their awards when 4 lakh members of the Kashmiri Pandit community were forced out of their homes who are living like refugees in their own country for the past 26 years.
Dismissing talk about him joining politics, Kher said he
did not plan to do that "at least for next 5 to 6 years."
"Just because some other actors used platform of Bollywood to get into politics, doesn't mean I have to do that."

"Why can't somebody as an individual and a citizen of country, who has a face thanks to my movies, talk about his point of view? That is what freedom of expression means. I don't have to belong to a particular political party to be able to say that," he said.
Late last year the actor had led a march to Rashtrapati Bhawan to protest against voices being raised against "intolerance."
"We all vote for a particular party, so that means we believe in one party, that is why we vote for them. Everybody is politically inclined to one party or the other.

"I don't need to join politics. Over 16000 people came to attend my march. It was a symbolic gesture of using my fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression to say that I live in a country which is beautiful."
Kher who has been open in his admiration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi said "What's wrong in being a fan of the PM? I'm not a fan of a criminal."
"If I have taken a certain stand, then I have stuck my neck out. I say what I believe, because at the end of the day I have to live with myself. Tomorrow if I am dejected by the Prime Minister, I will say that maybe I was wrong. But I want to give him 5 years. Whenever hear talk, I feel very good," Kher said.

Talking about the slew of criticism against him on social media, the actor said," We are in times where everybody has an opinion and they will give that opinion. People have abused my parents and I haven't blocked them. But we used to get criticism earlier as well. It is just that now they have more platforms to do it. People have now got into the profession of trolling.