Monika Rawal Kukreja (HINDUSTAN TIMES; November 6, 2019)

Actor Anupam Kher had a “great Diwali” this year with his friends from the fraternity during his recent trip to India after a gap of four months. Kher, who stars in an American TV series, has been stationed in New York City, USA, for almost 20 months now. With a glint in his eyes, he says, “Especially when Diwali is at Mr (Amitabh) Bachchan’s house, you know that lot of people will be there. Also, in our profession, you don’t meet everybody unless there’s a function. So, it was nice to meet everyone. I realised I’ve missed them all this while.”

Kher has been a part of Hindi film industry for over 35 years, and being a Kashmiri Pandit, he has always been vocal about his concerns and views towards the community. In the 30th year of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, the actor recalls how the whole incident changed the fate of countless families.

“For me it’s not an incident. For me, it’s my being. It’s not like aap kisi kiraye ke ghar par rehte the aur aapko maalik ne nikaal diya. We’re talking about 300-400 thousand people being thrown out of their houses on the night of January 19, 1990. The scar of that wound will always be there. Sometimes the wound heals, but the memories of pain don’t go,” Kher continues, “It’s the resilience of these people that they haven’t picked up arms and become violent. They just learnt to cope with the situation. But that doesn’t mean anybody who was thrown out of their houses has forgotten all of that.”

So, was this the reason Kher hailed the government’s decision of scrapping Article 370 earlier this year? He says the decision holds no political connotation for him, and it’s a part of history. “Humein puri jadd se nikal ke faikh diya gaya tha, so that’s why for me, the abrogation of Article 370 has a completely different meaning. My mother keeps talking about it because her childhood as well as her adulthood was spent in Kashmir. For 20 years of my life, all my summer holidays were there. My uncles, aunts, grandparents, parents were there. My mother says now she wants to go back. She keeps thanking PM (Narendra) Modi that ‘ab hum jayenge, mujhe apna ghar waha banana hi hai’. So, let’s hope that it happens in her lifetime,” adds the 64-year-old.

While one wonders if Kher and his family have visited the valley since the exodus, the actor reveals that he has been there; however, “the last time when I went there, I was stopped at the airport and was not allowed to go any further. I’ve mentioned this incident in my autobiography also”.

Anupam Kher's take on the senior actor's casting debate

I don’t agree with that philosophy at all. Actors are actors. Why shouldn’t a young actor be able to play an older character? Yeh kisi ki papauti thodi na hai. Yeh kya baat hui? I was 28 when I played a 65-year-old man in Saaransh. Marlon Brando was 42 when he played Godfather — a 70 year old man. Nobody should question you; that’s your capability as an actor that you can do that part. An actor’s job is to challenge themselves. So, I don’t agree with Neena (Gupta) or Soni (Razdan) on that level. I’ve great respect for both of them and I think they have a point of view, but saying, ‘mera role cheen rahe ho’. Arrey yeh kya baat hui? All the talk about equality and all are fine, but aap actors ko yeh mat bolo ki old age ka role aapko nahi karna chahiye. Kyu nahi karna chahiye? All my life I’ve done older people’s role. I’ve played father to Hema Malini and a grandfather to Rishi Kapoor on screen. So, I don’t think that’s a fair thing to say.

Anupam Kher lashes out at Vishal Bhardwaj after he dedicates National Award to community
Ankur Pathak (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 26, 2015)

Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; October 28, 2014)

Several Bollywood actors had recently participated in a special show organised to raise funds for Kashmir flood victims. However, when the concert, Ummeed-e-Kashmir, was telecast on Sunday night on television, Anupam Kher was in for an unpleasant surprise.

While performances of all actors and their appeals for funds were aired, Kher’s speech was edited out of the show that was held in New Delhi. The actor, who is of Kashmiri origin, says, “I have not been given a proper, official reason for my speech being deleted from the show. I had spoken about Kashmiri Pandits and their sufferings when they were thrown out of the state in the 90s — something that I have personally experienced. Since there was no social media at that time, the truth never came out. So, on the show, I had said that apart from financial support, they (Kashmiri Pandits) need emotional support and love, too.”

Reportedly, organisers of the charity event told Kher that his speech was too long and had to be deleted. While every celeb was apparently allotted three minutes, the veteran actor had spoken for nearly seven minutes. “The show was edited much in advance. If my speech was not fitting into their time limit, they could have edited the poem that I recited instead of deleting my whole speech. I read out some parts of Rahul Pandita’s book, Our Moon Has Blood Clots, as well because he is the only author who has spoken about Kashmiri pundits and how their daughters and wives were raped and forced to leave the state. If they wanted to delete some portions, they could have informed me. Moreover, they could have also edited one of the performances,” he rued.

Pradeep Hejmadi, business head of the television channel concerned, said, “Hum Hain Umeed-e-Kashmir is a platform aimed at uniting people across India to raise funds for rebuilding homes and infrastructure in Kashmir and Assam, which were ravaged by floods. All comments by celebrities, who were associated with the cause, was edited to last a maximum of three minutes. Portions that were relevant to the initiative were retained for the four-hour telecast across our 35 channels.”