Pankaj Kapur on foraying into digital entertainment with Abhay Deol-starrer JL50 that was initially developed as a film
Uma Ramasubramanian (MID-DAY; September 5, 2020)

Having sealed his place in cinema and theatre, Pankaj Kapur had admittedly not given a thought to digital entertainment. It took a serendipitous turn of events for the actor to foray into the web world. "I would call this my accidental OTT debut," laughs the veteran, whose web series JL50 dropped online yesterday.

Kapur reveals that the project, also featuring Abhay Deol, was initially developed as a film. "Now, it has been converted into a series. I am fine with the decision taken by the director [Shailender Vyas], producers and the officials at Sony Liv. When someone is part of a film, s/he expects it to be released as one. But when I was told by the director that it will be released as a web series, I did a rethink and felt it had the potential for a long-format story."

The four-part series sees Deol play a CBI officer investigating an aeroplane crash. The investigation takes an interesting turn when it is discovered that the aircraft in question disappeared 35 years ago in Kolkata. Kapur, who essays the role of a scientist aiding the inquiry, says the story deftly explores time travel. "The theme of time travel has not been explored through visuals; instead, it has been done in an explanatory manner. Even though the story studies time travel and the physics behind it, it has been broken down and explained for the common man to understand," he states. With JL50 behind him, the actor will soon resume the shoot of Jersey, which has him sharing screen space with actor-son Shahid Kapoor.

Pankaj Kapur turns novelist with a fiction set in Lucknow about an old woman and her buried ambitions
Jane Borges (MID-DAY; October 20, 2019)

Twenty seven years seems like a very long time to live with a story. Veteran actor-director Pankaj Kapur says his debut novel, Dopehri (HarperCollins India), which releases in Hindi and English later this month, has been with him all this time. It has aged like wine, Kapur thinks aloud, when we meet him at his Versova office. It is here that the piece of fiction, which started as an exercise in writing for a film, witnessed many lives. The room has a touch of the old. There is an antique writing desk placed on a wooden table, and dim lamps that lend the space a warm glow. Kapur, 65, points to the seating area outside.

"Before this became my office, it was my home. This is where I first read Dopehri to my dear friend, poet and writer Akshay Upadhyay, in 1992. After listening to it, he insisted that we print it. He took the manuscript from my wife Supriya, and sent it to Bhopal, where it was published in a literary magazine," he remembers. Soon after, Ram Gopal Bajaj, director of the National School of Drama, Kapur's alma mater, visited him, convincing him to read it on stage. That's how Dopehri made its theatre debut in 1996, everywhere but in Mumbai. "For some reason, people were not ready to give me their theatres, because it was a reading. I must confess, I was dejected." It would take him another 20 years, before he could bring the show to his home city. That it opened to packed houses, reaffirmed his faith in the work.

Publishing the novel was Supriya's idea. Kapur calls it "her hard work". Originally written and performed in Hindustani, the 95-page novella has been translated into English by Rahul Soni, and tells the story of Amma Bi, a lonely sixty-five-year-old aristocrat from Lucknow, who is riding into the sunset. Her only son Javed has moved to the US with his family, and she is left at the mercy of her petulant house help, Jumman. When, on the insistence of a family friend, Saxena Saheb, the only person she trusts, Amma Bi gets a paying guest, she experiences an epiphany.

"Before I began writing, I thought I'd set it in a house in Dadar Parsi Colony, where there are big, wooden staircases, and if you sit [in a home], you can hear footsteps of people, going up and down. But strangely enough, the moment I sat down to write, the first word that intuitively emerged from my pen was Amma Bi. When Amma Bi happened, the story got transported to Lucknow, and everything else flowed from there." Writing in Hindustani was effortless for him. "I have no idea where I picked up the texture of the language," says Kapur, who hails from Punjab. "The only reason I can think why it happened is that I schooled at the National School of Drama, where Urdu was an important part of theatre. Probably, while staging plays, I might have developed a sense for it."

Kapur spent a significant part of his childhood listening to his father, A P Kapur, an English professor and a delicious raconteur, who introduced him to everything from Shakespeare to popular folklore. And so, writing came naturally. "But I am not a disciplined writer," he admits. "I write poetry here and there. For me, it needs to be instinctive. I can't force myself." Even Dopehri, he says, happened organically. "I must confess this and emphatically, that Dopehri dawned on me. People will find it strange, but I wrote it in four days. I put pen to paper, and didn't stop."

Though he is as comfortable in English, as he is in Hindustani, Kapur chose not to translate the novel. "It would have been a huge burden. I wrote this 25 years ago. Any attempt to perfect the story, the way I had conceived it in Hindustani then, would have taken at least a year-and-a-half. Also, since it's a story that has been with me all along, I wanted to take a step back and let somebody else look at it from today's perspective, and give it the words that the youth will relate to."

The publishers tried a few translators, before Kapur warmed to Soni's translation. "The first version [of the translation] came from a very famous translator, and it read very well in English. But, it was far away from the original. For me, it was important that the way the characters feel and express, was retained." The two worked on it together, till they were completely satisfied. "It might take an English reader a chapter or two to get used to the language, but once you do, it's intriguing. Soni and the publishers have been sensitive to my work. In my foreword, I have said that Soni has indulged me. In Hindustani, I'd say, 'usne mujhe kaafi bardasht kiya.'"

What Kapur hopes this book will do is leave the reader nostalgic, especially of the elderly, who spend much of their life selflessly. "The pages of this book are filled with emotions: there is humour, pathos, loneliness, warmth and friendship. It's the story of our dadis and mothers, who might have had the ambition to be someone else. Has anyone ever sat down and asked their mothers, Do you want to do something for yourself? I'd like to support it.'"

Pankaj Kapur (61) & Supriya Pathak Kapur (54)

Still remembered for their work on TV, these masters of cinema are now launching a theatre company
Kunal Guha (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 10, 2016)

Pankaj Kapur and wife Supriya Pathak Kapur have found a new excuse to spend time together. Next Sunday, the couple will be launching their theatre company Theatreon. At NCPA, they will stage their first production Dopehari, a dramatic reading of a novella Pankaj had written 20 years ago. Pankaj will helm the solo, while Supriya handles production. "It's about this old woman from Lucknow called Amma Bi, and her journey from being petrified, lonely and scared to someone who realises her own worth. We see her life's events, the characters in it, and at 65, she discovers herself," Pankaj explains. Sitting at his Yari Road office, he is animated, almost childishly.

Pankaj's inspiration behind Dopehari isn't known, but Supriya distinctly remembers the events that led to its writing. "At the time, Pankaj used to tell me and my brother-in-law about his grand plans of writing something and we'd then rag him and say, 'Creativity aise thode hi nikal aati hain'. Then one day, he just went into this room and shut himself for four days and in the end, he had written this novella," smiles the actress, who earned theatrical acclaim after essaying crucial roles in plays such as Mena Gurjari and Biwiyon Ka Madrassa. Unsure of how audiences will soon respond to his writing, Pankaj says he's only testing waters for now. "The idea is to test the writing and see if it works. Then, in the future, one might even be tempted to attempt playwriting afresh so that we have contemporary plays," says the actor.

While the urge to return to a beloved medium is undoubtedly the driving force behind their latest collaboration, the Kapurs have, in the past, also intentionally mixed their personal and professional lives. "When we produced Mohandas B.A.L.L.B for our banner, Grace Films, we consciously wanted our marriage to be cemented. If Supriya was shooting in Jaipur and I was shooting in Hyderabad, we wouldn't have time to see each other or the kids. So, we decided to team up. I became the writer, director and actor. Supriya doubled up as executive producer and actor. Our kids would drop in. They'd study on the sets. We'd be together," recalls Pankaj.

Having acted in over 75 plays in 15 years after he graduated from the National School of Drama, the thespian says he is open to all genres and adds that he also plans to hold acting workshops under his new flagship. When asked about why the Kapurs had stayed away from the stage for the last two decades, Pankaj confessed to being "petrified". Supriya reveals that despite having starred in about 50 films, her husband still treats every film like it was his first. "We know that if he's beginning a film, we should leave him alone three days prior to a shoot."

It soon comes to light that the more obvious reason for the couple's theatrical return is again familial. Their younger son Ruhaan recently returned from London after having completed a course in theatre. He would share his experiences with his parents and passionately talk about the highs of being on stage. Pankaj, though, insists his son is yet to join the family business. "He doesn't want to be a part of it right now. He feels he needs to train himself a lot more before he faces the audience. My daughter Sanah is already an actress. So they will all join us at some point but let them talk about it when they feel they're ready," he adds.

Having acted in popular plays such as Ek Ruka Hua Faisla and Chopra Kamaal Naukar Jamaal, Kapur remembers the time when he left the medium to write and act in films and TV. "Not much has changed in theatre since I left it. I began my career with theatre but when I came to Mumbai and tried to work in the field, I came across people who had little commitment and would leave when they got work in TV. I've actually had a co-actor not turning up before a show at Prithvi," remembers the actor about the medium which had "no money". But today, he turns to it for the "instant gratification" that performing in front of a live audience offers and not to make ends meet. "We're doing it for passion but we don't want to be foolhardy and not be self-sufficient. If we want to stage a big production next, we should be able to support it without having to borrow," he says.

In their second innings on stage, the Kapurs were stunned by the new challenges that plague today's plays. Rising costs, overbooked auditoriums and thin margins were only the beginning. "Back then, you would get the theatre for the grand rehearsal from the morning on the day of a show and you weren't charged for it. Now if you book a four-hour-slot, you get the theatre only two hours prior to the show. If you need more time to set up the lights or for rehearsals, you have to book three slots and pay thrice the amount, and this hikes the production budget. This is creatively limiting," laments Pankaj. The actor feels that since he's selective with the kind of films he does today, he has time at hand to invest in his passion for writing. "We don't want to work too much now," says Supriya.

Despite being anxious about the audience's reaction, Pankaj is somewhat sanguine about the future. "The film industry in 100 years hasn't been able to define what will be commercially viable, so how can we? Whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability. If it appeals to the audience, both in terms of content and form, they will come to see it," concludes Pankaj.