Most definitely! There are so many platforms available now like short films, multiplexes, film festivals and NetFlix… all these things have made it easier for actors like me who are not interested in doing ‘hero’ roles, but want to play lead roles. Is it easier being an actor now even if you aren’t a hero than it was a decade ago? With them, the story is the star and they as actors, always serve the purpose I would credit Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri and, later, Pankaj Kapur, who have proved that talent can make one a lead actor.
![bangla old movie actor adil bangla old movie actor adil](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JKqdKQG8PgY/maxresdefault.jpg)
I have been mentored by some great people and one of the biggest lessons I learnt came from a great Japanese actor called Yoshi Oida who says that a good actor will always prepare the ground for his fellow actors… in the process you end up acting well. I am also against going ahead of somebody using manipulation. I believe that anything that needs me in it will come to me. I always feel that you deserve what you get, including pain and pleasure.
![bangla old movie actor adil bangla old movie actor adil](https://static.dw.com/image/53277049_6.jpg)
I don’t have any agents… I don’t ask for roles. But then again, you will not find me lobbying for a role. But everywhere else, I have only been given serious roles. In Assam, people never gave me a serious role. I don’t know why people don’t cast me in comedy! (Laughs) I am actually a comedian who has been made into a serious and intense actor. You started out as a stand-up comic and yet you haven’t done comedy in films at all!
![bangla old movie actor adil bangla old movie actor adil](https://cdn.risingbd.com/media/imgAll/2015October/Actor-Adil-Hossain1443964473.jpg)
I learnt all about the history and the art of acting. I got into NSD and that place shaped my ideas about acting, through very gifted teachers like Khalid Tyabji, Naseeruddin Shah, Anamika Haksar and Robin Das. That led me to enquire where I could learn acting and someone told me about National School of Drama. Then I saw Hoffman again in Rain Man and Kramer vs Kramer and I was like, ‘My god… this is what I want to do!’ I wanted to change myself to play different characters. When I watched it, I was surprised by how they felt not like actors, but like real people. But things changed in 1983 when I watched a film called Papillon, starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. I know! But honestly, I wanted to be a Bollywood hero! I would mimic Bachchan’s voice… I was a stand-up comedian for many years. You grew up watching commercial cinema and yet the films that you do are anything but masala potboilers… And then once I won a big trophy for acting in school and I could make out that my father was very proud. I just felt that time stood still for me… it felt magical. In 1971, I did my first play and I loved it…. I felt like Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan when I walked out of that cinema hall. When I watched these films, I dreamt that one day I would be there! I loved films like Yaadon Ki Baaraat and Jugnu and then (Amitabh) Bachchan sa’ab ki filmein. Goalpara, where I grew up, had a lot of clubs and I grew up watching plays in my childhood and, of course, Bollywood films! Dharmendra and Hema Malini were favourites (smiles). Taking a few steps back, what made a young boy from small-town Goalpara in Assam want to be an actor?Īssam is very vibrant culturally… there are plays staged and musical bands and groups perform regularly. It’s a film that teaches us not to hold on to grudges. My Indian counterpart is played by Paoli Dam. This film has two different perceptions about what happened with a family during Partition. I have seen two of my brothers come together after a lot of differences. It’s about reconciliation and that’s a subject very close to my heart.
![bangla old movie actor adil bangla old movie actor adil](https://static.toiimg.com/thumb/msid-81326112,imgsize-438785,width-400,height-300,resizemode-75/81326112.jpg)
I was narrated this story a few months ago and I was very moved by it. And yes, he was a stand-up comedian once!Ī film called Maati, co-directed by Saibal Chatterjee and Leena Ganguly, that I will be shooting for in Taki and then Bangladesh. t2 caught up with the 53-year-old prolific actor - Hindi to English, Assamese to Bangla, Tamil to Malayalam, French to Norwegian, he’s done them all - to talk about his roots and his craft. Adil Hussain poses for t2 at The Lalit Great Eastern (Rashbehari Das)Īdil Hussain - who has left his mark in films as diverse as Ishqiya and Life of Pi, English Vinglish and Parched - is in Calcutta to shoot his new film Maati.