A while back, actor Anupam Kher flew to the USA to shoot for his upcoming project, Shiv Shastri Balboa. On the completion of the shoot, he decided to stay back and tour Dallas, Atlanta, San Jose, New Jersey, Indianapolis and Washington for Zindagi Ka Safar, his first live show amid the Coronavirus pandemic.

He says, “When we were shooting in New Jersey, a lot of Indians would come to the shoot. This pandemic has given us a strange sense of insecurity and uncertainty. Apart from the fact that I’m actor who they’ve been watching, they wanted to talk to me because they wanted some kind of reassurance about life.”

Kher’s two-and-a-half hour long show in Dallas ran house-full as the topic of first generation NRIs and generation gap struck a chord with his South Asian audience. “I didn’t want to do a star night or a meet and greet or a regular play. I wanted to have a chat. I primarily spoke about my life but people saw a glimpse of their lives too,” he shares.

The show saw Kher, 66, playing clips from his films, discussing books penned by him, philosophies he lives by and playing antakshari with the audience. Calling it an overwhelming experience, he says, “I recreated a scene from Saaransh (1984) because they requested me to do so. It was difficult to recreate a scene from a film that released 37 years back. It made me burst into tears.”

Joining Kher was Jugal Hansraj, his Shiv Shastri Balboa co-star. “I needed someone I was comfortable with; who was a listener and could ask me questions at the same time,” he ends.