Tell us bit about yourself? Where you come from? What you studied and how you became an actor? What are your influences?

I started acting at a very young age, during elementary school. As a child I was fascinated by the stand-up comedian who used to perform each year during the Assamese Festival of Rongali Bihu. I would invite the neighbours’ kids to watch my version of stand up comedy on a make shift stage constructed out of some broken beds on the back veranda of our house. I learnt by imitating popular Bollywood actors. I decided to become a professional actor when I was 16 years old.

I almost became a stand up comedian in Assam after joining Dhrubojit Kishore Choudhury’s troupe. Choudhury shaped my early philosophy. He convinced me that performances are much more than entertainment; they should come from a deeper calling within. He emphasized creating a deep bond with the audience. Meanwhile I began to get opportunities to act in films, television and radio plays, and also recorded several audio versions of our stand up comedy performances. These sold like hot cakes throughout Assam making us very popular.

I joined the National School of Drama, New Delhi in 1990 and met another extraordinary performer and teacher Khalid Tyabji. Tyabji was the second person who influenced me deeply. His way of life and his quality of performance drove me to re-examine the intentions behind my acting. His dedication and the low profile he kept inspired me to leave behind my original aspiration of becoming a hero in Hindi Films and led me to dive headlong into learning the art of acting .

In 1999, I played Othello in ‘Othello- a Play in Black and White’ directed by Roysten Abel. The production went on to win the Fringe First and my performance received rave reviews in the Scotsman and in the Independent in Britain. Over the next ten years we staged Othello throughout Europe, Africa and India. These performances were the means for me to practice and fine tune my acting skills.

During this long journey I met one more Person to whom I owe the rest of my life, my co-actor in Othello, Dilip Shankar. He helped me redefine the meaning of acting, action and being an actor and the relationship of this to life. In addition to my role in Othello, I have acted in movies such as ITI SRIKANTO, FOR REAL, ISHQIYA, GANGOR, LIFE OF PI, AGENT VINOD, LESSONS IN FORGETTING AND NOW ENGLISH VINGLISH. I have also acted in the TV series, Jasoos Vijay.

I have also taught at the NSD and the Royal Conservatory of Music and Drama in The Hague and the Drama School of Amsterdam

You are suddenly doing a lot of film work (some very commercial stuff too), tell us more about what you are doing? How is it different from what you have done in the past? why did you stay away from cinema in the past or did you?

It’s interesting that I am doing a lot of the work I wanted to do before I met Tyabji. I did not enjoy acting in films as much as in theatre. I felt it was not challenging enough. Most film-making remains in the realm of so called naturalism, but even when films transcend the boundaries of naturalistic acting they cannot, in my opinion, facilitate an actor with the ability to take off and fly. Most film directors lack an in-depth understanding of the art of acting. In contrast, the stage is an empty space in the kind of theatre that I believe in. An actor needs to create everything with his/her bare body. It is the actor’s body and vocal sound (not necessarily text) that are the only means with which a universe of possibilities can be created. The actor offers everything to the audience; it’s a joyous offering given with gratitude and love. The possibility of doing this kind of work held me back from acting in films for many years.

Things change and these days I have opened myself up to acting in films. Thankfully I did not need to go to Bombay to look for this opportunity – it found it’s way to me. The values, ideas, opinions I had about the film world needed to be confronted head-on and challenged. Scary and potentially dangerous as it may it sound, that confrontation has made me lighter and I laugh openly, frequently now than ever before.

What was it like working with Ang Lee on Life of Pi? How was it working with international co-actors like Depardieu?

What immediately struck me about Ang Lee is his humility… genuine humility. His being is very quiet. His quality of listening to the other is very intense, thus he manages to pass on instructions to the actors, apparently verbally, but not quite. I seemed to have understood what he wanted from me even if the words were not uttered. His whispering into the ears of actors, communicates in a deeper level. He is a silent co-musician of a complex orchestra who also has the added responsibility of being a conductor. He is a co-creator in the most profound sense of the word.

Depardieu is ripe. Seasoned and most relaxed actor that i have ever met. The funniest experience that I had with him was that he improvised words in french which I did not understand, in spite of my request to him not to improvise or speak any extra words than what were written in the script, since I only learnt those specific French words written in the script, after several grueling sessions with a French friend of mine.  During the take, he uttered words totally unintelligible to me and I missed the cue. Ang Lee comes to me with a suggestion that I must not take a pause before I respond to Depardieu’s question. I could not point my finger to Depardieu’s addition of unintelligible french words which were not in the script, so I said to Ang, “Lets go for another take, please”. As Ang left for the director’s seat I growled at Depardieu with a smile, “You did not give me the right cue, Gerard”. He said in heavily accented English, “No, no, no, no I gave you the cue”. I said, “You did not say ‘el mam’”. He says, “Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, I forgot!” We laughed loudly. Ang must have heard this conversation over the wireless microphones we were equipped with and must have grinned his trademark childlike smile. Second take was perfect!

Why are you doing Sunrise? What is it that attracts you a low budget film like this?

After I read the script I realized that I did not notice more than four words spoken by the character that I am supposed to play. And I did not find it contrived. I read it again in order to find faults in the situations around or with the protagonist and did not find any either. The journey of the protagonist is scored with nuances and subtlety. The writing explores the inner complexities of the role through apparently mundane repeated actions, but I noticed the opportunity of exploring the reality behind these repetitions. The complex and unpredictable relationship of the protagonist with his wife and the others are equally challenging. The choice made by the protagonist to massacre so many people at the end is very far away from the choice that I would make (or so I think !!) and is challenging for me to truthfully enact and to arrive at emotionally. And the story depicts one of the most grim and brutal realities of humanity. It is a story devoid of love and innocence . It makes me desperate to believe in love and beauty. I admire the writer-director’s honesty and straight forwardness .

I am earning enough money by doing big Budget movies to decently support my family and myself so that I can also act in movies that tell a story with passion, compassion , truthfulness and honesty. Often these themes and attitude of creating a work of art do no attract sponsors.

What’s your goal or aim as a creative person?
My goal is to create myself according to the vision that I have glimpsed in my quietest moments several times in the past few years. What is that vision ? To explore to the fullest all my emotional, mental , physical and deep psychic energies and to embrace them with gratitude and humility – Love them and transcend them, to fly away into the infinity ha ha ha ha ….it sounds very selfish, yes it is “Selfish” but not selfish….What ???