Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 9 (ANI): In a career spanning over four decades, iconic actor Anupam Kher has portrayed an incredibly wide range of roles on screen. He has never shied away from challenging himself, even when he knew how demanding certain characters would be.
Among the countless roles he has portrayed, two stand out as particularly challenging – those of political ethicist Mahatma Gandhi, and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh – yet he aced both with remarkable finesse.
Though his film portraying the legendary poet Rabindranath Tagore is yet to be released, one can be certain that he must have given his best to the role.
Speaking with ANI, Kher recalled what went behind essaying these characters.
“Portraying the characters of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Dr. Manmohan Singh, and Mahatma Gandhi was extremely difficult. Among them, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s portrayal proved to be the most difficult. With Gurudev Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, we have numerous references in form of archival footage, photographs, even films that help capture their essence. Their personalities belong to a bygone era, pre and post Independence, often seen in black and white,” he shared.
“But Dr. Manmohan Singh’s different …he’s someone we’ve seen in our own time, on television, in news clips, and delivering speeches. He had a very mild mannerisms. Voice was mild. And the whole persona was difficult. And it was on an edge. The character was on the edge of the blade,” Kher recalled.
Kher revealed that he spent extensive time rehearsing to perfect Dr Manmohan Singh’s mannerisms.
“I rehearsed for 5-6 months with his mannerisms. How he sits, how he walks. And when we were shooting in England, on the first day, I was rehearsing to climb and get down the stairs. So someone shot a video. And he uploaded it. It went viral. A lot of people didn’t know. It was in the interior of London, outside a house in a village,” he reminisced.
He also shared a funny anecdote about how he once prank-called a friend, speaking in Dr. Manmohan Singh’s voice and manner. His friend was so convinced that he truly believed the former Prime Minister was on the line.
“The biggest thing was that his voice had a particular style. And then that was very important. So I made a joke with my friend. So I called him in his voice… My friend in Delhi almost believed that…and that was my real test,” Kher shared.
Notably, on Thursday, Kher took to Instagram and shared a collage featuring his pictures of his look as Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, and Manmohan Singh.
“Three Characters- One Actor! Sometimes you need to keep making yourself and some other people realize your worth! Sounds good! All hail,” he captioned the post.
Anupam Kher played Manmohan Singh in ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’. The film was released in 2019. He most recently portrayed Mahatma Gandhi in Vivek Agnihotri’s directorial ‘The Bengal Files’. (ANI)
