New Delhi, July 12 (IANS) Veteran Bollywood star Anupam Kher, who has returned to directing with “Tanvi The Great” after over two decades, shared the reason why it took him so long to step behind the camera once again.
Anupam made his directorial debut with the 2002 film “Om Jai Jagadish,” a Hindi drama film. It stars Waheeda Rehman, Anil Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Mahima Chaudhry, Urmila Matondkar and Tara Sharma. His upcoming film “Tanvi The Great” marks his return as a director after 23 years.
Asked why it took him so long to make a film, Anupam told IANS: “I didn’t have anything to share with the world before. For me, making a film is about telling something I truly believe in.”
He added that as an actor, he is doing well.
“In fact, I’m reinventing myself. I’ve done some amazing work over the past seven or eight years. But as a director, I wanted to tell a story that first resonated with me, and then reflected out into the world.”
The septuagenarian went on to share as to how “Tanvi The Great” happened to him.
“When I met Tanvi, my niece, at my brother’s daughter’s wedding, I asked her, ‘Tanvi, what are you looking at?’ because she wasn’t participating in the festivities. She replied, ‘I’m looking at my world.’”
“That moment made me realize I wanted to make something about goodness. I believe in goodness. I believe in what my father used to say: the easiest thing in the world is to make someone happy.”
He stressed that “we live in a world where we are constantly made to feel that something is not right. You turn on the television and all you hear is bad news. Someone is always trying to tell you that someone else is doing better than you, making you feel smaller. So where do you find the strength to live happily?”
He said that an autistic person knows nothing except how to be good.
“When this story came to me, and my writers and I sat down to write it, it became a form of catharsis. It was a purging experience for the 240 people on set. And if it gives us that feeling, I believe it will give the same feeling to others. It will tap into the goodness within every human being who watches the film.”
He said that everyone has the potential to be good.
“And I’m not saying this as a philosopher. This belief has come at a cost — it has taken a lot of money, money we don’t even have yet. But still, for some things in life, you have to go through discomfort for the sake of what you truly believe in.”
Anupam added: “And my belief is that Tanvi the Great, and Tanvi herself, are here to make us feel differently — to make us feel good about life.”
Tanvi The Great stars Jackie Shroff, Arvind Swami, Boman Irani, Pallavi Joshi, Karan Tacker, Nasser, with Anupam Kher and Iain Glen.
The film also has two Oscar winners, the music director M.M. Keeravani and sound designer Resul Pookutty. The cinematographer of the film is Keiko Nakahara from Japan.
The film follows Tanvi Raina, a 21-year-old woman on the autism spectrum, who lives with her mother Vidya and grandfather Colonel Pratap Raina.
Inspired by her deceased father, Captain Samar Raina, an Indian Army officer who dreamed of saluting the flag at Siachen Glacier, Tanvi becomes determined to follow in his footsteps and join the army to fulfill his dream herself.
–IANS
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