For Anupam Kher, “it’s just the beginning”, as he completes 40 years in Bollywood this year. Calling it a “dream run”, the actor, who marked his debut with the film Saaransh (1984), adds, “People try to write you off on the basis of the number of years you’ve spent in an industry. But I have started doing my best work now.”

Kher says he has evolved as an actor and person over the years. “Initially, I would do everything for competition or to be called the best. But now, I am not a part of any race. In today’s time, people have to prove their worth with every film. It has become a box-office-dominated film industry. We are dominated by numbers, including how many followers you have or how many crores you make.”

Besides Indian films such as Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006), A Wednesday (2008) and The Kashmir Files (2022), the 69-year-old has also worked in the West in films such as Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and the TV show New Amsterdam (2018).

“It was challenging, as I am a product of Hindi medium and I think in Hindi. I was petrified, because I don’t think in English. I was the first actor to do such varied roles. I did mediocre roles also, but I also did Saaransh at the age of 27,” he says.