Anupam Kher brings ‘Mera Woh Matlab Nahin Tha’ to UAE

After more than 35 years in show business and 450 films, actor Anupam Kher doesn’t really have to prove anything. He’s a certified acting powerhouse, as much in demand in Bollywood as he is in Hollywood (Silver Linings Playbook, Bend it Like Beckham). He has his own weekly celebrity talk show, he is a published author and a playwright, he runs his own acting school as well as a children’s education charity and he was recently appointed the UN Ambassador for Gender Equality.

So now at 60, it’s no longer about trying to prove anything, he says, but more about using his position to do as much as he can to help, inspire and change. To pay it forward, if you will.

“I have been blessed. I have had the opportunity to do so many wonderful things and that has brought me here, to this point,” he says.

Creatively, he says, he’s still hungry. And that working on plays such as Mera Woh Matlab Nahin Tha (That is not what I meant), in which he stars with actress Neena Gupta, feeds his soul. It arrives in Dubai for a two-day run, on October 8 and 9, at Ductac.

The Hindi play, written and directed by actor Rakesh Bedi, is about two former lovers who meet after 35 years to try to piece together the circumstances that tore them apart.

It’s had a dream run all over India and, last month, in the US. Besides the accolades, Kher was also honoured at every stop in the US: In Texas, he was honoured for his work on gender equality with the UN, and, at a separate event, he was given an Honoured Guest award by the deputy mayor. Las Vegas declared September 10 as Anupam Kher Day, and California gave him a Certificate of Recognition to recognise him as “an agent for change”.

He was also invited to Robert DeNiro’s 72nd birthday in New York, also attended by his Silver Linings Playbook cast mate Bradley Cooper and director David O’Russell.

“The love that people have for me everywhere I go is just amazing. It just shows how far my work in Bollywood has taken me,” he says.

Kher says he immediately agreed to produce the play after Bedi told him the title, even before reading the entire script. Also, the play, like all the other projects he’s involved with right now, falls in line with his passion project about gender equality.

“If you look at relationships in general, it’s always the man who ends up saying ‘It wasn’t what I meant’ and ends up hurting someone. Stories about relationships are always told from the man’s perspective,” he explains. “But here, you’ll see how beautifully these two characters end up in a situation merely by saying things or assuming what the other person said.”

Gupta, an award-winning actress, plays Hema Roy to Kher’s Preetam Kumar. She says she jumped at the opportunity as soon as she heard the story.

“Roles are drying up for people like me in Bollywood. I only get motherly roles and get given lines like ‘Have you eaten your food, child?’” she says laughing. “Times are changing, Bollywood is changing but not much for women like me. That’s why, when I read this and saw a strong character with so many shades to it, I had to do it.”

The play’s done well, she says, because people connect with it at a very personal level.

“All of us have gone through at least a few of the emotional turmoils these two people have gone through. So they can identify and connect with the characters,” says Gupta, 56, whose daughter, Masaba Gupta, is one of India’s top fashion designers.

It also doesn’t hurt that the play’s two leads are Indian National Award-winning actors, something the play’s director considers a casting coup of sorts.

“I was lucky to have Anupam not only agree to be a part of it but also to agree to produce it,” says Bedi, who’s also known for his acting roles in Bollywood and on TV.

The story for Mera Woh Matlab Nahin Tha has been with him for many years, he adds, but it’s never taken off due to other projects. “Then when I narrated it to Anupam, he immediately agreed to take it on.”

Kher, who last brought his one-man play Kucch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai to Dubai in 2012, says he wasn’t concerned if the commitment required by Mera Woh Matlab... would disrupt his already busy schedule.

“I’ve just turned down a Hollywood project and I am now looking at another really nice offer,” he says. “I am at a point in my life now where I have been blessed with opportunities to do the things I really I want to do. And I grateful.”

He’s really taking his Gender Equality ambassadorship seriously, he adds, and is planning to soon open a school for girls, to run alongside his Anupam Kher Foundation.

With his hands in so many pies, I ask him how he finds the time to do everything.

“When you love to do something, you will always have time for it,” he replies, without a pause.

Don’t miss it!

Mera Who Matlab Nahin Tha runs at Ductac on October 8 and 9. Tickets are priced Dh250, Dh500 and Dh1,000 on platinumlist.net.