Yogesh Mishra | yogesh@bollywoodtown.in
Gaurav Chopra is one of the most renowned Bollywood and TV actors. He is best known for his amazing performances in the hit TV series Uttaran and Sadda Haq. Recently, he received praise from the audience in Sunny Deol’s Gadar-2 and director Durgesh Pathak’s critically acclaimed movie Lakeerein. In an exclusive interview with Yogesh Mishra, he spoke about the differences he feels while working in cinema and TV, his role model in Bollywood, his favourite movie, his view point on OTT being a threat to cinema, his future plans, and more.
Can you define yourself in one line?
I am a passionate student of life in the arts.
Apart from TV series, you have worked with movies too. What are the differences between these two different sides?
There’s no major difference, from my point of view, between platforms. There is always a difference to understand for an artist in terms of the story, tonality, and who the target audience is for that particular story. So even on the same platform, for example, on television, if you were to play something at 10:00 PM, the tonality would be slightly different on another channel at 7:00 PM. This is like a finer understanding of the audience’s taste and aesthetics. And it’s got nothing to do with your own aesthetics as an artist. It’s to cater to and entertain the taste of who is watching you rather than what you would like to do. There’s not much difference in terms of what I do. I just try to understand who the audience is.
Your recent movie, Lakeerein, was critically acclaimed. What actually inspired you to say yes to this film?
Sometimes an artist has to say yes because of his own social responsibilities towards the subject. The character was very, very challenging and had many kinds of shades. But I knew this was a small set-up, and I knew that this was not something that I could do hoping for some kind of huge commercial success; that this was not a professional move; this was more of a creative and socially sensitive decision to say yes and support a cause.
Who is your role model in Bollywood, and why?
My role model is Mr. Dilip Kumar. I think that he has established a school of performance. I would like to believe I’m a student at that school, and I would like to follow whatever he has set as an institution, not just on screen but even off screen. The eloquence and the way with words, the grace and the lack of materialistic pursuit in terms of a creative artist who always came across as something that he did with his heart and not with his mind, and that his work was selective and all was good.
Which Bollywood movie or song touches your heart?
It’s a difficult question to answer to say just one form that touches my heart. There are so many, so many forms that touch my heart, and it’s really very difficult to say. I do like, you know, the sense of cinema and music that Guru Dutt saab had. And even though these are really old films, it’s still something that sort of creatively inspires me, and just the emotional outpouring that Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool had on screen still sort of creatively and emotionally inspires me, even the music.
What do you do when you feel low?
When I feel low, when I feel high, when I’m happy, or when I’m working out, there are different types of music that I play. In fact, if you are a close friend, you would know that if you came to my house and heard this particular type of music, that would give you a sense of what I’m doing and how I’m feeling.
OTT platforms are the fastest-growing medium of entertainment. Do you think, in the long run, this can be a threat to the big screen?
I don’t think any new platform is a threat for cinema. Cinema is cinema. It will always remain a cinema. People will always want to go and watch and experience cinema. There might be a shorter, smaller screen format that might appeal to people in terms of convenience, in terms of inexpensive entertainment, and because of good resolution, good quality music, and good presentation on these platforms. I think that there will be a separate segment of cinema that will be watched here, and people will make the effort-the physical effort of traveling and going to a cinema hall-when they feel the film deserves it. Otherwise, they might watch it on a smaller screen, and it is alright. I think different types of entertainment require different types of presentations and cinematic experiences, so it’s all for the good. It’s all changing, and I’m sure every kind of film and story will find its own screen and its own deserving audience.
What are your future projects?
It’s been a busy year. There have been two films and one OTT show. Rana Naidu on Netflix, Lakeerein, and its promotions, and you know, the work has been hectic. My next film will be next year. There are some three or four scripts that we are putting together and saying yes to, and the first one will probably be a biopic, but we will start working on it next year. It requires being short at a particular location, and in the summer, that is. So, there will be a body transformation again that will be required. So, I’m just taking it a little easy before all of that.
Any message for the readers of Bollywood Town magazine?
To all the readers of Bollywood Town, thank you for your time. Thank you for wanting to know what I have to say. I’ve been around for some years now, and I keep thinking about whether I had thought that I would last for this long, and I can’t seem to remember. And for me, the achievement is not mine. The achievement is yours. The fact that you’ve given me the fuel to run for this long, and the fuel of love rather than affection, as an artist who tries different kinds of stories and characters, I am always at risk of disappointing my audience. But they are so generous and so loving that they would give me all kinds of reactions but still endorse everything that I say and do, so thank you again, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance.
