As told to Saptaparna Biswas (BOMBAY TIMES; April 4, 2020)

I was out for a late run when the Coronavirus lockdown was announced. My first thought was for my parents, and how I was going to keep them calm through these three weeks. Now, my typical day begins with planning the meals for the day with baba and maa. My parents are 90 and 75 years old, respectively, and it is very important for me to keep them actively engaged in these days of lockdown. Like many people of their age, they get anxious after listening to the news, especially about the fatalities in their age group. Due to their increased vulnerability to infection, I have neither stepped out of the house, nor allowed anyone inside since the lockdown. Our house-help has been given leave as well.

The best way to keep them engaged is by doing the two things Bengalis love the most — cooking and eating! The first two days, I prepared the dishes they liked. Soon, baba started taking an interest and cooking with me. Now, all of us cook together. This has helped us keep the negativity at bay. It is also heart-warming to see my parents taking care of each other. Though he can’t stand for long, my dad prepared paayesh (kheer) for maa one day because no sweet was available.

Besides cooking, the most important thing for me right now is to complete a script that I have been working on. I have a self-imposed deadline to finish it before the lockdown gets over. It is a political thriller set in Mumbai, Delhi and Kashmir. I am also re-learning Hindustani classical music and doing yoga.

My biggest takeaway from this period is that I have learnt to value people more. All these days of staying away from the people who I used to meet every day has made me understand that I should have probably given them more time. I wish everyone comes out of this with more love, care and understanding — and hopefully, gender roles will cease to exist and people will learn from this phase. Once the period of social distancing is over, the first person I would want to meet is my friend Sanjay Suri and have a nice coffee with his family and my godchildren.

Set to play a cuddler in an upcoming short, Sanjay Suri aims to distance from the profession, the taboo associated with it
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; November 7, 2019)

Diversified tastes of movie-goers have given an impetus to filmmakers to give a go at the unconventional. After offerings based on pre-mature balding, erectile dysfunction and mental health issues, an upcoming short, Call Him Eddy, is set to showcase the life of a professional cuddler, to be played by Sanjay Suri.

Call Him Eddy is being helmed by Sanjeev Vig, who shot to fame with the award-winning Rogan Josh, starring Naseeruddin Shah.

Coming off projects like Inside Edge, Leila and Raazi, Suri alludes that while the concept is alien in India, the act of cuddling should be considered as seamless as buying a cup of coffee. "Why can’t there be a Starbucks for hugs," he asks, before adding, "Cuddlers are people who get paid to give platonic snuggles to clients. We all snuggle with someone or something, be it a spouse, child, parent or even a pillow. Why is it odd to consider it a real profession? We pay for tons of other services that make us feel good, like eating, shopping, spas and even accessing a shrink."

On his 150th birth anniversary, authors of two new books on the Mahatma discuss how cinema and music of the time, drew inspiration from him
Jane Borges (MID-DAY; September 29, 2019)

As historian, Lakshmi Subramanian has always been curious about the peculiar—researching odd-ball stories, where previously unrelated facts come together to create a whole. Her new book, Singing Gandhi's India: Music and Sonic Nationalism (Roli Books), is an exercise in that direction. Yet, when she was first approached to write a book on Mahatma Gandhi and music, Subramanian recalls her response as being a "resounding no". "My initial reluctance was partly informed by a sense that Gandhi would have had very little and substantive to say about music per se; and about the complex public history that music threw up in the 20th century. Equally, I was convinced that Gandhi would have unproblematically endorsed the bhajan as it had emerged as a form of marking an exclusive Hindu identity," she shares, in an email interview.

London-based journalist Sanjay Suri (right)'s tryst with the Mahatma in his new book, A Gandhian Affair: India's Curious Portrayal of Love in Cinema (HarperCollins India), was more organic. "I did not set out to research Gandhi," he admits. The book, he says, grew out of watching hundreds of Hindi films over many years. "Gandhi just kept popping out of them."

Where biographies and academic texts have been forever been engaged with examining Gandhi, the leader, and his role in pre-independent India, close on the heels of his 150th birth anniversary, Subramanian and Suri have explored how he culturally influenced the nation.

A Song For The Community
It was only after Sumbramanian, a professor at the Humanities and Social Sciences faculty of BITS Pilani in Goa, decided to engage with Gandhi's relationship with music that she realised "that not only had he a lot to say about sound and its use in politics, he was curious and inquisitive and inconsistent making his writings a treasure trove for a student of history".

In the book, she writes of how Gandhi was moved, when he first heard 'Vande Mataram' [written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee] in 1915 in Madras. "You have sung that beautiful national song, on hearing which all of us sprang to our feet. The poet has lavished all the adjectives we could possibly do to describe Mother India," he told the assembly.

Gandhi, she says, saw music as one of the many tools to infuse a feeling of community. "I think Christian singing made a deep impact on Gandhi and the idea of a congregation had definite appeal. This was evident in his experiences in England, and while in South Africa, congregational singing became a form of political communication. The idea was to feel a oneness that went beyond narrow self-interest and work around a moral basis for political action. Prayer, music and spinning were all tools of individual self-regeneration and community building," says Subramanian, who read his collected works in great detail to contextualise her research. Her work also helped quell any misgivings about Gandhi propagating religious music. "At no point did he equate the Hindu religion with music of a particular kind; nor did he espouse the cause of devotional singing in public as an essential feature of the Hindu religion."

Subramanian, however, admits that Gandhi, unlike his contemporary Rabindranath Tagore whose contribution to music nationalism was immense, was not a "rasika". "He did not appreciate the technicalities or even profoundness of the classical traditions in India, but as an inquisitive person responding to debates and public discussions was not unaware of the emerging discourse on music reform and revival. He responded to the emotional dimensions of music and certainly insisted on a trained teacher for his ashram experiments," she says, adding, "He listened to music with great attention and was convinced that it had the power to move millions and to still them into contemplation."


The hero (Dev Anand) of Kala Pani (1958) finally declares satyagraha as his way of securing justice

A Moral Code For Cinema
Suri, on the other hand, discusses how Gandhi's values and virtues were so deeply enmeshed in the Indian psyche that the heroes of Hindi cinema—at least till late into the 1970s—sub-consciously replicated his virtuosity. They did it in two ways, he says. "One, and always, at pivotal points through the scripted story path of the hero. These are the decisive moments when choices have to be made. Those turn out always to be moral choices of a kind—rejection of wealth and a turning away from sex. It's these moral values that turn the plot, and which then give this phase of cinema that feeling of sameness. The hero is always confronted with those temptations, and it is the rejection of both that establishes him as heroic. Those are the very two temptations that Gandhi, the man most sought to overcome," says Suri, who has previously authored, 1984: The Anti-Sikh Violence and After.

He adds, "Secondly, countless invocations to Gandhi himself surface—images of Gandhi show up in one scene or another particularly when the moment of truth comes. These images didn't just happen, in this carefully crafted business of set by set, scene by scene."

According to Suri, Gandhi was far too complex a figure and his experiments in life were both controversial and fascinating. But cinema didn't grapple with any of that. "The Gandhi brought into this cinema is a man identified by a few broad strokes: the one who turned away in his personal life from wealth and sex, the vegetarian who believed in non-violence and who found strength enough through that bare simplicity to take on the greatest power on earth and to dislodge it."

The Hindi film, he feels, that first broke out from this Gandhian narrative was B R Chopra's Ek Hi Raasta (1956). "The hero [Sunil Dutt] is a junior manager killed by a corrupt employee. So she [his wife, played by Meena Kumari] marries his rich boss [Ashok Kumar], and repeats the love song she had sung with the first hero on his bicycle with the second hero in his long American convertible, the kind that ran only in studios. Through a look at the top 10 films of every year from 1948 to 1959, this was the only striking exception to the dominant pattern," says Suri, adding, "We would have to wait for Manmohan Singh to come along for the hero to come into wealth without guilt." While the fascination with Gandhi seemed to have petered out by the late 1980s, Gandhi is once again resurrected in Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006), where he literally becomes the alter ego of the protagonist, Sanjay Dutt, getting him to propagate the now famous, Gandhigiri.

Did Gandhi ever reciprocate this adulation bestowed to him by cinema? "From what is known, Gandhi seemed to have thought very little of it. But in the invocations to him that followed, in the resurfacing portraits and dialogues, in the binding spell his ideals would have on the hero, Gandhi found a career in Bollywood far from his own world."


Shammi Kapoor, the hero of China Town (1962) is led away from romancing to the path of seeking justice under the watchful eyes of Gandhi. Pic courtesy/A Gandhian Affair by Sanjay Suri, HarperCollins India


The innocent man, played by Raj Kapoor, on the run in Jaagte Raho (1956), finds refuge at last under the blessings of Gandhi

Deepali Singh (DNA; July 29, 2019)

Last year, Sanjay Suri presented the Cannes Palme d’Or winner, Japanese film, Shoplifters, to the Indian audiences. Now, the actor and producer is back with celebrated Chinese director and screenwriter Jia Zhangke’s film Ash Is Purest White, starring Zhao Tao and Liao Fan. Set in contemporary China, it’s a love story with an intriguing plot. Sanjay tells After Hrs that he is excited about bringing world cinema to India. Excerpts…

What’s the thought behind the title, Ash Is Purest White? 
Ash is created with fire and purity only comes at a high temperature. It doesn’t remain mediocre anymore. The title is relevant to the film and theme. It’s about the deep love that goes beyond mediocre love. It’s a Chinese film and we are distributing it here. It’s a theme that one can relate to. Characters, sometimes, undergo challenges and emerge victorious. Here, it’s in the context of love, about a woman standing up for a man she loves. It’s about loyalty and patience.

What appealed to you about the movie?
It works at various levels. The characters and the situations they go through. The whole treatment works at a sub-conscious level. It has travelled to festivals and was selected to compete for the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. The protagonist is in love with a gangster but she stands up for him and sacrifices everything for him. So, it’s not about good or bad. It’s about acceptance. We liked the film and there was an opportunity to release it in India. It’s set in contemporary China and it’s a window to another culture. While a lot of Indian films are being released in China, a festival gem from there is being released here. Last year, we did something similar with the Japanese film Shoplifters.

With world cinema being brought to our doors, do you think the Indian audience wants to see stories that go beyond their culture and country?
I’ll tell you something. It’s not now. When I was growing up, one could watch regional cinema on Doordarshan. In the early ’80s, I have seen Malayalam films, Bengali movies, etc. With the privatisation of channels and dependence on advertising and branding, it just became more populist. Then we were literally starved of even Indian cinema, forget world cinema. So, the audience is always ready. You switch on any radio station now, it’s only Bollywood. There is nothing wrong with that, but what about the diversity? I have made independent films; it’s a challenge to put these films out.

Do you plan to continue bringing films from other cultures to Indian theatres?
Yes, the idea is to have continuity. Next year, it will be an Egyptian film and we hope to bring more. What we are lacking is a destination for these films. Where do we go and watch them? Now, with OTT platforms, one can see them there but the experience is something else in the theatre.

Everyone keeps talking about how these days, content is king…
(Cuts in) But distribution is God (laughs)! Smaller films don’t have budgets. Ticket prices are the same. People have to navigate through traffic and find parking space to go and watch a film in a theatre. It’s a challenge but people are doing it and continue to do it, which is heartening.

On the acting front, you have been more active on the OTT platform rather than movies.
Yes, I did a couple of web shows, with the last one being Leila. I think actors like me, who have done alternate films, are finding it quite comforting to work on OTT platforms. There is a diversity of stories and also characters. In films, it still comes down to box-office decisions. In the digital space, there is still democratisation of numbers. Everyone loves a Narcos and Pablo Escobar but half the people don’t know the actor’s real name. In a way, it’s the characters that work, which is great.

Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi released in 1999. It’s been 20 years for you in the movies…
Without a Rs 100 crore movie! Thirty-eight films, eight as a producer, one National Award. I’m not complaining!

You’re often named among the most underrated actors in the industry. Do you feel you’ve not received your due?
Initially, that was a thought. Once I started producing, I realised that casting is often economics based. You do need talent but economics also comes into play. I’m sure the right opportunities will come my way. I’m quite happy doing what I do. But yes, I would love to do more.

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 29, 2019)

Jhankaar Beats started out as a script writing exercise for Sujoy Ghosh. A self-taught writer-director, he decided one day to write a film. The problem was he had no idea what story he wanted to tell. After much brainstorming he decided it would be about people, life and music.

“As a Bengali I was hooked on music and I am a RD Burman fan. He was a genius composer and I liked him as a singer too. I still remember the craze his 'Mehbooba Mehbooba' had become after Sholay released. It was playing all over, and so was another very different composition, 'Mere Naina Sawan Bhado', from the reincarnation drama, Mehbooba, sung to perfection by Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar. But his repertoire is too vast, you can’t handle it in one film, maybe a few hundreds. So, I thought, why not speak about the influence of his music on different people at different points in their lives... From a couple waiting to fall in love to another expecting a second baby and a third who are on the verge of divorce,” Sujoy reminisces about his directorial debut which released on June 20, 2003, seven days before Pancham’s sixty-fourth birth anniversary.

Point out to him that 16 years later, the film still brings a smile on people’s faces and he quips, “That’s the only place I feel I have succeeded and it’s thanks to the magic of R D Burman’s music, it gives you a warm, happy feeling. His songs can be played in any situation, from a competition to the church and an evening with the wife, it’s almost like therapy for believers like me.”

The title is an instant hook and Sujoy flashbacks to the age of remixes when music companies would add some ‘jhatak’ instrumentation to original songs to make them popular with the aam janta. “I remember a sentimental Mukesh-Asha Bhosle duet, 'Hum Donon Milke Kagaz Pe Dil Ke' (Tumahri Kasam), to which they had added some jhankaar beats and given it a totally different flavour, one of my favourites. That’s how the title popped up in my mind,” he reveals.

The film’s ensemble cast was also a surprise for everyone but Sujoy. Almost two decades later, he points out that for Deep he needed a nice guy with a pleasant face since he was going to sing all the songs and Sanjay Suri fitted the bill. “As his better half, Shanti, I wanted someone who was a wife, daughter, mother, friend all rolled in one, someone who for us Bengalis is the eponymous boudi (sister-in-law) who has the keys of the house tied on her pallu and whose 'no' is law even for someone like Rahul Bose’s hot-headed Rishi. Juhi Chawla was that person as not only was she apt for the character but was also a star. I have to thank her then manager K S Sanjay who set up a meeting with her and she kindly agreed to do the film if I agreed to cut out one scene,” he recounts. Which one, you prod. “Of a gigantic, fluorescent condom dancing,” he confides with a twinkle, pointing out that while many remember Vidya Balan from Kahaani, it was Juhi who was his first ‘pregnant’ heroine. “I’m obsessed with pregnancy, a woman looks so beautiful when she is on her way to becoming a mother,” he says dreamily.

He found his young Cupid-struck couple, Neel and Nicki, in the tall, lanky, somewhat awkward Shayan Munshi and Rinke Khanna who was recommended by sister Twinkle. And in Rahul Bose he had his perfect Rishi. “Rahul seems like this intense, serious guy, but he has a very Brit sense of humour and cracks jokes when you least expect it. I remember when I took the script to him, he told me that he would not lip sync to the songs. But then he did, that’s Rahul,” Sujoy says fondly.

However, before he could roll with Jhankaar Beats, the initial journey with his first film script was disheartening. For three years he approached every filmmaker and nobody could understand what he was trying to say through a story where “nothing really happens”. Sujoy admits that he was also handicapped by the fact that since this being a first for him, he did not know how to give a narration. Then, just when he was beginning to despair he found a producer with a vision in Pritish Nandy who not only greenlit his slice-of-life script, but also surprised him by suggesting that he direct the film too. “Having now turned producer myself, I know just how difficult it was for him to take this bold step. It takes just one person to see your vision and believe in your dream for a Jhankaar Beats to happen,” Sujoy signs off from London.

After 12 years Sanjay Suri and Onir go solo with the actor collaborating with Samir Soni on his next
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 7, 2017)

After co-producing five films with Onir—My Brother Nikhil (2005), Sorry Bhai (2008), I AM (2010), Chauranga (2014) and the recently released Shab (2017)—Sanjay Suri has gone solo with his upcoming production titled My Birthday Song. Making his directorial debut with this psychological thriller is Sanjay’s long-time actor-friend Samir Soni.

“The film is set in Delhi and my character, an ad filmmaker, celebrates his 40th birthday. An incident at the party spirals into something bizarre. I had discussed the script with Samir a few years ago and after he gave me a narration, I agreed to act in it on the condition that he direct it himself. We eventually ended up producing it together,” informs Sanjay.

He is quick to add that his professional partnership with Onir hasn’t fractured. “It’s just that after 12 years we decided to explore creative opportunities separately. It was a conscious decision but there’s been no fight, no fallout,” he asserts.

Sanjay who was last seen in Saket Chaudhary’s comedy-drama Hindi Medium, goes on to insist that Onir and he have enjoyed a beautiful working relationship and continue to be friends. “But we needed to get out of our comfort zone. I see it as a healthy sabbatical,” states the 46-year-old actor-filmmaker, admitting that certain genres that excite him may not interest the 48-year-old Onir. Is there a possibility of them reuniting in the future? “Yes, but we will see how it goes,” Sanjay keeps it short.

MUMBAI MIRROR (February 2, 2017)

Actors Anshuman Jha and Sanjay Suri will get together again to solve the curious case of the missing girl Mona Raheja in India’s first social media whodunit-thriller Mona_Darling. The duo was last seen in the award-winning film Chauranga last year.

When asked how and why he decided to cast these two actors in the roles of Wiki Pedia and Dean, director Shashi Sudigala, who has been an associate to Nagesh Kukunoor on Iqbal, said “Wiki is confident yet awkward. I had pitched Wiki to Anshuman in 2011 because I had loved his work in LSD--Love, Sex And Dhoka. It’s amazing that he still looks the same. He is one of the most solid young actors in the country and brings a certain amount of honesty to every character he portrays,” he said.

He added, “I saw Sanjay in Chauranga and felt that there is a lot more to explore in him as an actor. We needed a strong stable personality for the Dean and Sanjay suited the bill. They will both surprise you in Mona.”

Produced by First Ray Films & presented by Vashu Bhagnani, Mona _Darling uploads in Cinemas on February 17, the Valentine’s weekend.

MUMBAI MIRROR (January 11, 2017)

Nora Fatehi and Sanjay Suri are set to team up for actor Samir Soni's directorial debut, a thriller titled My Birthday Song. A source says, “Nora plays an NRI travel agent and aspiring filmmaker who returns to India to follow her dreams. She happens to attend Sanjay's character's 40th birthday party, when both their lives take a mysterious turn.“

Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; January 6, 2017)

Sanjay Suri, best known for his roles in Jhankaar Beats and My Brother Nikhil is all set to step into the shoes of Chandramukhi, metaphorically, in Ekta Kapoor’s web series Dev DD. It is a bolder and feminine version of the classic story written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and Sanjay gives a masculine twist to the character of Chandramukhi.

“Yes, it is the male version,” laughs Sanjay adding that when he was approached for the role, even he wondered what his character would be playing as the original Chandramukhi is a courtesan. He says, “My character Anurag completely breaks the notion of Chandramukhi, but the essence is retained and the importance remains the same. It’s a complex character, yet very intense. Anurag is not always at the receiving end in the story, which is contemporarised.”

He explains that some natural characteristics that come with being a man will seep into the character and give another layer to it. “How this guy comes into contact with the protagonist Devika is different, his trajectory is different,” he adds.

Unlike in the films where Chandramukhi’s past is unknown, Anurag’s past will be explored. He says, “Everything seems right in his life, he ticks all the boxes, but he is carrying certain baggage. There are some things in his life that he prefers to keep at the back of his mind, but those come to his mind when he meets some people (read Devika). He is a mix of strong and weak and becomes an important part of the protagonist’s life.”

The actor says shooting for web series is more liberating as an artiste. “Though the grammar is pretty much the same for a film and web series, here the narrative becomes edgier. When you are shooting for a film somewhere it becomes restricted because you have the burden of the release — how difficult or easy it will be — and the subjects you can touch upon in the current environment. On the web, it is more democratic, you can explore characters which you would not easily touch upon in a film. Language is not a barrier. Writing is different since the attention span is shorter for this audience and the plot points are changed,” elaborates Sanjay.

The series to be streamed on Alt Balaji is directed by Ken Ghosh.

Garima Sharma (BOMBAY TIMES; September 28, 2014)

Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; June 9, 2014)

Actor- producer Sanjay Suri was recently approached for a role in the television show, Tumhari Paakhi.
Sources maintain that he quoted an exorbitant amount as his fee for a cameo per episode. Taken aback, the makers opted for another actor instead. Suri was to shoot for the show in Singapore.

Says a source, “Sanjay demanded a lakh as fee per episode. He was slated to feature in about 20 to 22 episodes, 15 of which were to be shot in Singapore. When the makers approached him, initially he told them to wait. Later on, when contacted, he demanded over a lakh.” The telly producers felt it was too much considering that it was just a cameo. “Finally, Indraneil Sengupta was signed for the role,” says the source.

Sanjay says, “ Money would be discussed if I was open to doing the show. I was approached by my agent, but never said yes to any show so don’t know anything about this bit.”

Producers Sumit and Shashi Mittal who are currently shooting in Singapore remained unavailable for comment. The show features Iqbal Khan and Shraddha Arya in the lead roles.