In seven years of his debut film, Pankaj Kapur bagged his first National Award.

In a career spanning over three decades, Pankaj Kapur has entertained the audience with his nuanced performances. At Sahitya AajTak 2019, Pankaj Kapur opened up on his first novella Dopehri. Written some 27 years ago, the story has finally made its way to the pages of a published book.

ON THEATRE DAYS

I spent 10 years (1973 to 1983) educating myself at the National School of Drama. Those were among the most wonderful years. I learnt a lot. They were the most educative years of my life.

People who were interested in acting more than the world of glamour; they came to the school of drama. We have Ebrahim Alkazi, one of the best teachers in the field of art. The way he trained his students was phenomenal. The 70s and 80s saw the rise of actors who eventually tried their hand at cinema.

I don’t look down upon cinema. It is a great medium. It is about what you do with that medium. It’s a matter of the choice you make.

ON GREATEST SENSE OF SATISFACTION

Acting is my first love. It’s the moment you realise, when you are closer to where you wanted to be – that gives you a sense of satisfaction.

If you have worked well on your character and the director knows it well, cinema can also give you that satisfaction. We are actors struggling to stay out there and trying to discover the moment of truth in that moment. In case you are able to come to that, it is joy.

ON HIS FIRST BOOK DOPEHRI

It’s a novella which I wrote – as a film, actually. It’s about a lonely woman and her self-discovery through journey of the film. So, if you go through this novella, it is very visual. I read it out to one of my close friends who asked me to get it printed. The director of National School of Drama later asked me to read it out on stage, and that’s how it became a show.

It’s not a personal tale. The idea started from Dadar. My wife’s mom used to stay in a very lonely, quiet, dingy building. When we would sit inside, we could hear people walking down the staircase. However, when I sat down to write, the first word that came was Amma Bi, and the entire story went to Lucknow. I wrote the whole story in 4 days.

A lot of credit goes to my father for anything that is related to me and my writing. He used to tell us stories about King Arthur and William Shakespeare. He would translate the stories in Punjabi because I didn’t understand English when I was young.

ON HIS BOOK BECOMING A PLAY

All of us sat down and discussed if we should convert it into a play. One thing that I wanted to tell my audience was that here is an actor who is also a writer, and a writer who is also an actor, and an actor and writer who wants to read it to his audience.

ON MAKING IT INTO A FILM

The initial idea was to make it a film. It is actually a screenplay. It is a novella but also a film at the same time – this form of literature is the best. Later, we realised that we needed to have a narrator so that we don’t lose the literary part of the book.

In the intial years, Ram Gopal Bajaj (director of the National School of Drama) happened to hear it and asked me to read it on the stage at the convocation ceremony. It was amazingly successful. Later, a friend took it to Chandigarh. They also loved it and that’s where the thought of a show came to my mind.

We re-worked on writing, reading and blocking, and then the series of the show began from there.

ON BRINGING DOPEHRI TO OTT PLATFORMS

I am a bit lazy. I haven’t put it on that platform. People reacted to the story, they laughed at it, cried with it. People were touched. Amma Bi has spent her morning and reachd the afternoon of her life (hence, ‘dopehri’). We need to give attention to the forgotten people.

ON ORIGINAL VS TRANSLATIONS

As long as the story reaches the audience, it is great. I appreciate the translation as much as the original. I, being a writer, think that those who know Hindustani should read the book in Hindustani. And for people who don’t understand Hindustani, they should go for translations.

ON HIS SON SHAHID KAPOOR

My son has been wiser than me in terms of his careegraph. He saw to it that he became a star first and then started to get all the roles that he wanted to do. I think it was a smarter move. We were trained in theatre, so we always looked for characters and interesting scripts. We had our own journey, and this generation has its own journey. But I must also say – not because I am an indulgent father – but he is his own generation’s one of the best actors and he has proven it with films like Haider, Kabir Singh and Padmaavat.

ON FILMS BEING MIRROR TO SOCIETY

Film has become a major part of our culture and it does affect us. People must also exercise their own intelligence in terms of choices. There is all kind of information available. We need to make society more responsible towards that choice. It is cinema and not reality completely. You cannot control or censor content available on Internet. To expect films to become responsbile to bring change in society is very tedious. We can make ourselves aware.