Actor Manoj Bajpayee mentioned that, Aks was a very, very important film in my career. This film I signed in 1999, I think, and right after Satya and Shool and Kaun. Anurag Kashyap told me that Rakeysh Mehra is willing to meet me and when I met him, I heard the first narration till the interval and somewhere it was very, very clear that I’m going to be part of it.
It was a very challenging role?
I could see that, you know, it is going to challenge me to approach this character Raghavan very differently. Also, since there were no dialogues, I had to create all of it in my head.
Aks was a very tricky take on Good Versus Evil?
But evil is a very vast subject. Evil can be anything. Evil is attractive, evil is enticing, is greed, is brutal, is heinous, is clever. It’s somebody who has the ability to charm anyone and to attract anything or anyone. So I had to get all of it into this character. Someone who has done so much of Siddhi, someone who can see the future.
Your character was constantly metamorphosing?
It becomes very evident to the audience that it’s difficult to really outdo this character. And to get all of these elements in this character, I kept on improvising, kept on improvising in my own apartment in front of Rakeysh Mehra and we kept on adding things, you know, day by day. By the time it was ready for the dialogues, one day I performed it in front of Kamlesh Pandeyji just to give him an idea as to how I’m thinking this evil character will be.
Your character embodied the philosophy of the imperishable soul?
The whole na marta hai, na koi marta hai, this is something that I thought about while I used to rehearse in my house. It was a tedious journey of six months of finding the character, and I must tell you that this has been one of the most enriching experiences of playing this character, of being part of a film that’s truly ahead of its time.
You could say that, since Aks didn’t do well?
They want a film to do very well on the first day itself. So, yes, we were ahead of time in doing something remarkably revolutionary at that point of time. And today, when each and every one talks about us, they have seen it in many other places. The generation of today’s actors, they keep giving the example of Aks.
How would you rate Aks in your repertoire?
I would rate it as one of my extremely best and imaginative performances. But our thing is that we always undermine our efforts in this industry. If someone, some film or some performance has done something which is path-breaking, we don’t really acknowledge it, recognize it in public. And I know this and I have come to terms with it. But to tell you the truth, this was our joker. And that too, 24 years back. But Aks will live on.
Do you think Aks would work better now?
Raghavan is immortal. I personally feel that one should really adapt it to present times. Not remake it. One should really adapt it in today’s time. It has a great potential for that.
What was it like working with Mr. Bachchan?
It was great working with Mr. Bachchan. The first time and many times before the shoot I met him. It was very, very important for me, for my awe of him to go away so that I could look at him as a character. And I succeeded in doing that. And thanks to Mr. Bachchan for making me very, very comfortable. Rakeysh Mehra for really holding my hand. Kiran Deohans was the cameraman who created magic on the screen. Anu Malik and all the music people. And Gulzar Saab’s lyrics. I think it’s extraordinary. It’s out of the world. A film is a story. But at the end of the day, if there is a lot of imagination from all the departments involved, it becomes a classic. A masterclass. A masterpiece. So, I’m so grateful for everything when it comes to Aks.
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