Anupam Kher is absolutely an actor par excellence. In his career spanning over four decades, he has always tried to reinvent himself as an actor. Kher has never turned away from experimenting with his roles and has portrayed a wide range of characters on screen. While some of those characters have gone on to become critically acclaimed, others have received tons of love from the audience. Among the characters he has played on screen, he has also portrayed the roles of M.K. Gandhi and former Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. Even though the film in which he has essayed the character of Rabindranath Tagore has not been released, the actor recently spoke about taking on such difficult roles.
In a conversation with ANI, Kher mentioned that portraying these legendary humans on screen has been a difficult task, but the most difficult has been playing the role of Dr Manmohan Singh.
He said, "Portraying the characters of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Dr Manmohan Singh, and Mahatma Gandhi was extremely difficult. Among them, Dr Manmohan Singh's portrayal proved to be the most difficult. With Gurudev Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, we have numerous references in the form of archival footage, photographs, and even films that help capture their essence. Their personalities belong to a bygone era, pre and post Independence, often seen in black and white."
The actor further mentioned, "But Dr Manmohan Singh's different... he's someone we've seen in our own time, on television, in news clips, and delivering speeches. He had very mild mannerisms. Voice was mild. And the whole persona was difficult. And it was on an edge. The character was on the edge of the blade."
Talking about how he prepared for the role, Kher recalled that he had rehearsed for close to 5-6 months. From practising and learning how Dr Singh walked to how he sat, Kher had tried to be true to character. He also spoke about how when they were shooting in England, he was practising to climb the stairs just the way Dr Singh did, and someone from the crew had taken a video and uploaded which became viral on social media, and fans could not make out if this was reel or real.
The actor also shared a fun anecdote. He said that he once prank-called a friend with whom he spoke in Dr Singh's voice and mannerisms. Kher's friend was convinced and thought that the ex-PM had actually called him.
Anupam Kher mentioned, "The biggest thing was that his voice had a particular style. And then that was very important. So I made a joke with my friend. So I called him in his voice... My friend in Delhi almost believed that...and that was my real test."
The actor essayed the role of Dr Manmohan Singh in the film 'The Accidental Prime Minister', which was released in 2019. He recently played the role of Mahatma Gandhi in Vivek Agnihotri's 'The Bengal Files.'
