After a long and eerie uncertainty that loomed over the premises of Mumbai’s iconic Prithvi theatre, Naseeruddin Shah returned to stage as Einstein, much to the delight of theatre goers. Shah, who continues to be the theatre circuit’s mainstay, to a large extent, feels there is an undoubtedly tough time ahead for theatre in a Coronavirus world.

The 70-year-old actor says, “I fear for the existence of the large commercial spaces as well as the very small ones. But there was the plague in Shakespeare’s time, too. Theatres were shut for a year but recovered gradually. I am optimistic that’ll happen here as well. But I love being on the stage and will continue even if no one turns up.”

Shah’s propensity for being brutally honest evidently comes across as he expresses his disappointment with some of the developments that have taken place in the last few months. The actor made his debut on OTT last year with Bandish Bandits is apprehensive about the development that saw the government announce its decision to regulate the OTT space.

He says, “The I&B ministry wanting to interfere with online content is a double edged sword, we might see the same idiotic censorial guidelines that operate in movies being applied online as well.”

Shah doubts whether the move might just be a step towards an odious intent to curtail the freedom of the makers under the garb of regulation. “The intention of the I&B is actually not to limit the rampant permissiveness and obscene language on OTT but to be a watch dog for anything it perceives as ‘anti-national’ and anything these days can be branded as such — even saying that you don’t like Hindi movies,” adds the actor.

Although he ventured into the uncharted waters somewhat late, Shah’s films, nevertheless, have been the beneficiaries of OTT. And the actor does realise its numerous merits, i.e, according to him: “writers and filmmakers don’t face the pressure of casting stars or compromising their content with unnecessary songs and violence.” Yet, he remains somewhat dismissive of the fact that a completely new generation is getting to see his definitive work from the ’80’s and ’70’s. “I feel nervous about that because many of those ’70s and ’80s films were rubbish disguised as art,” he quips.

It has been a while since the iconic Prithvi theatre staged any production. After eight to nine months of eerie uncertainty, Naseerudin Shah has brought his iconic play Einstein back to the legendary stage today. Written by Canadian playwright Gabriel Emmanuel, the actor first stepped into the shoes of the Nobel laureate six years ago. Shah says that over the years the script has remained the same.

“It was a perfect script to which I have made no changes. Gabriel managed to condense a very significant part of Einstein’s life into an hour and a quarter. What emerges is a sort of line drawing of the man which is very precise and captures all his qualities, his wisdom and his sense of humour,” he says.

Einstein, it is well documented, was an ardent lover of literature and classical music. The scientist played the violin, admired Mozart's music and always kept a copy of Don Quixote on his night table. “I myself find Don Quixote fascinating and I love music though I don’t know much about it” says the 70-year-old, before he quips, “I was hopeless at physics and can’t claim to understand one millionth of what Einstein said but his puckishness and precision of expression are what charmed me. I can’t claim any affinity with him except that we both believe in the God of Spinoza.”

As for the future of the theatre community, the actor is hopeful that there will be better days ahead. But he does not negate the possibility that the road to recovery will be tough. “There’s undoubtedly tough times ahead for theatre people. But there was the plague in Shakespeare’s time, too. Theatres were shut for a year but recovered. I am optimistic that’ll happen here as well,” he concludes.

Vishal Bhardwaj has been tucked up in his Mussoorie home for a while now. He fled Mumbai some months back and has no plans to come back anytime soon. And while his plans for work for 2020, like all our plans, were derailed, he’s come up with something to do from right where he is.

“I had hoped this will be over in two or three months. But then I realised that this is not going to go away so soon. And as a filmmaker, I became very confused as time went by. How will I make the films I had planned to? How do I shoot? How do I shoot a scene in a public place? If I have a crowd in the backdrop, they will all be wearing masks. And in what time period is a film set — if it is post Coronavirus, will all characters be wearing masks? I became very confused,” he narrates the frustration of a locked-in filmmaker.

Denied the option to do what he had planned to do, he explored what he could do, where he was – in the hills, largely locked in.

“My location and my situation gave me an idea – of the sort of movie that can be made in such a situation,” he cheerfully narrates. “For a long time, I have had a love for murder mysteries. I am a big (Alfred) Hitchcock fan. He made films inside a single home – have you seen Rope? He made that film in nine shots! And that meant nine reels – each shot was the maximum length of a reel. That was the mastery of Hitchcock. And then there was Psycho, North By Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much – I loved those films!”

Then he comes to the other master of these situations, the one he is engrossed with presently.

“And I love Agatha Christie. India has a huge fan base of hers. And people of our generation, those who did not grow up with mobile phones and social media – you know we lived on novels! Summer vacation, libraries... those memories, wishing that the book never ends!”

But those with mobiles and social media – have they been able to escape her influence altogether?

“No, perhaps they haven’t. After speaking to my son and a few others, I realised that even the current generation is a fan of hers. Agatha Christie has not faded with time. Now, it so happened that about a couple of years back, there was an outreach, they wanted to bring their franchise to India. But I was busy, things did not really move ahead. But now, as we were all locked indoors in Coronavirus, I realise that there is only one type of film that can be made without too much trouble in this situation – the Agatha Christie murder mystery type. I love Hercule Poirot, I love Miss Marple. So I got in touch with them again...”

Er, who exactly is they and them?

“Agatha Christie Limited is a big estate and Agatha’s great grandson, James Prichard, is the Chairman. Did you know that after Shakespeare, she is the second largest selling author in the world? And I felt very honoured, very fortunate, that I have worked with Shakespeare’s works and now I will have a chance to work on an Agatha Christie project... So many movies have been made on Agatha’s stories all over the world. And many of her stories are already taken. Recently, the British director Kenneth Branagh, the one who made Murder On The Orient Express and Death On The Nile – he has acquired the rights for all Hercule Poirot stories, for instance.”

“Anyway, in this lockdown, I contacted the estate. We started discussing if we could make a movie in India. We clicked well, but it was a very long process. They offered me many novels, out of which I picked the first one (he attempts to keep the title a secret, for now).”

And this first film will introduce a young heroine thrown into solving a murder, who teams up with an unlikely companion to unravel the case. Future films will follow the duo as they continue investigating multiple murder mysteries.

“I proposed to the estate that I want to take two characters from the story, a boy and a girl who are not professional detectives, and make a franchise out of them – and they loved the idea! I’m going to place the story in Auli since the whole plot is rooted in mountains, and the mountains are a character in the story (fans, here’s your hint).”

Does he look at her works differently now than he did in the school summer vacations?

“When I first read her novels, I am not sure I fully appreciated her skill. Today, when I read her again, I marvel at the characters she created – you look at it differently when you are also a writer. The dysfunctionalities, the motivation – I realised that she wrote such great human dramas. Even if you take away the murder mysteries from her stories, the relationships are so deep and layered that you can still make a film on them.”

He pauses, then exclaims: “I am so excited because this gives me an opportunity to explore Agatha Christie in our context – like I have been doing with Shakespeare with Haider and Maqbool and Omkara. Place them in our social, political backdrop.”

A Hindi film based on an Agatha story?

“Bilkul! Iss mein gaane bhi honge!”

Why not a bilingual, perhaps? To sell Agatha back to an English audience, globally?

“But now the language barrier has been broken, hasn’t it? Narcos, Fauda and so many shows on digital platforms – they have broken the language barrier. It doesn’t really stop you anymore.”

Point. Has the casting been done?

“We are still in that process.”

I cannot resist a question here. Will they be genuine new talent, or will they be an extension of – well – nepotism?

Vishal breaks into boisterous laughter that pauses the conversation for a couple of minutes.

“I have a different take on nepotism. I came from outside, so I cannot be a supporter of it, right? But I don’t agree with the branding of our industry. Nobody says anything to the biggest industrialists in the country if one generation takes on the work of the earlier one. In our space, it is a very fair deal actually – your break does not make you a star. It is such a cut-throat business. Why does everyone only count the names of those who have survived and grown? Count the list of names who are from within the industry and who have failed. Woh list barabar ki hai – actually uss se zyada hi milegi aap ko. Aap nahi bana sakte kisi ko star! And if someone has talent – maine aaj tak kisi ko rukte hue nahi dekha. In our country, we enjoy commenting on cricket and cinema. And our cricketers, they don’t say anything political, anything controversial. They stay apolitical and so they largely stay out of trouble. We filmmakers speak out on things and so hamara yeh hashra kiya jaata hai.”

As a filmmaker, and as an outspoken one at that sometimes, what does he find troublesome? Online trolling?

“I don’t care for trolls. I don’t read the comments after I write something. And if (spouse) Rekha or (son) Aasman see anything about me, I have told them, if it’s something good, let me know, else don’t bother. In fact, I want to make a film on the troll army.”

That’s a smart comment, or a straight one?

“No, genuinely. I really want to make a film on them. I want to acknowledge the sincerity of their efforts, the great job they are doing, every single day. The organisation, the dedication, the commitment – hats off to them! They should be given due credit.”

What prompted you to make a macabre fairy tale in your adaptation of Titus Andronicus?
I trained in Bharatanatyam and perhaps because of that, I am drawn to rich colours and to heightened forms of expression. But then in film school (New York University's Tisch School of the Arts), I found myself focusing on the dramas of everyday life and the details that nuance an actor's performance. I fell in love with this intimate sort of filmmaking. But my desire to tell a very deliberate and stylised story onscreen remained. So when we began writing the script for The Hungry, I wanted to try to strike a balance between the two, with moments of unapologetic melodrama countered with moments of quiet and intimacy. While shooting, we realised that we were building something akin to a modern Grimm Brothers tale. So, we just went after that with everything we had.

Titus Andronicus is known more for gore and violence rather than the complexity and tragedy of Titus and Tamora's emotions. How challenging was it to adapt such a text with characters that viewers can't root for?
We wanted to make a film that highlights the futility of violence. So even though it might be difficult for some people to root for our characters, I think there is something in each of them that is very relatable.

Which adaptation of Shakespeare on screen or stage has left a mark on you?
Obviously, Maqbool! I went to see it with my friends and was blown away. It is such a cool, cool, cool film. Another Shakespeare adaptation that really left an impression is Sleep No More. It's an immersive, site-specific mashup of Macbeth and Hitchcock films done by a theatre company called Punchdrunk in New York. It's the most brilliant theatre I've ever seen.

As a young director, how did having an actor like Naseeruddin Shah on board help?
He read every draft we wrote and was really candid with his thoughts. He knew the play and understood what needed to be retained and where we could depart from the source. This was super helpful. He developed his character, bringing this really wicked blend of crass and elegance to Tathagat. To me, that's Shakespeare in a nutshell.

The few women directors who are around globally have had some success in directing independent films but they rarely helm big-budget studio films. Does the industry have a gender bias?
Bias. As a woman, you face bias in various situations. Whether you fight it or accept it is totally up to you but to deny the existence of bias or to make excuses for it is messed up to me. That said, here's the funny thing about really big-budget films. Often, because of those big budgets, they end up being rather 'safe'. And when you look at films helmed by women anywhere in the world, including India, these are stories that are fresh and alternative and audacious - the polar opposite of safe. We need these voices telling these stories.

The Toronto festival's artistic director Cameron Bailey has described you as “one of the boldest filmmakers to come out of India in years“. Who in your eyes are the bold filmmakers from contemporary India?
In Toronto, I met the Assamese filmmaker Rima Das, who was there with her beautiful film Village Rockstars. She produced, directed, shot and edited the movie all by herself. That's bold. She is the epitome of bold.

There was a time when the films of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Buddhadeb Dasgupta used to be regular at A-list film fests. Few Indian films today make it to Cannes, Venice and Berlin. Are we lagging behind?
I don't think Indian movies are lagging behind at all. Making a movie costs a lot of money. Worldwide, that money is disappearing while the cost of movie tickets is rising. This real economics of cinema has a real, direct effect on filmmakers. Despite that, we've recently seen some exceptional works made by some exceptional Indian artists. Chaitanya Tamhane, Amit V Masurkar, Kanu Behl, Neeraj Ghaywan, Rima Das, Aditya Vikram Sengupta - all their films have screened at the festivals you mentioned. India has a tradition of brilliant cinema and these guys are definitely keeping that tradition alive.

Shekhar Kapur is ready with his next, Will, a Hollywood TV show based on William Shakespeare, which airs in 2017. This year UK is celebrating the Bard's 400th death anniversary and several projects on him are in the works.

Speaking to Mirror Shekhar reveals that the inspiration for the show came from an unlikely place--one of Asia's largest slums, Dharavi. He says, “When I was young I was told that if you are bright and intellectual you will understand Shakespeare, so I never bothered reading him. It was only years later that I realised that he actually wrote for the common man, the first day-first-show kind of audience. This show is like Dharavi transported into the 16th century. It is meant for common people, the people on the street.“

Speaking about how it came to life, he recalls, “Today TV is taking over. Game of Thrones has more viewers than Star Wars. I read the script by Craig Pearce, screenwriter for films like Moulin Rouge, Romeo+Juliet and The Great Gatsby and it was fantastic. I thought it would be interesting to work together. I've directed and produced the series.“

Laurie Davidson, his Will is still in drama school, and has yet to graduate. “I was scouting for him as earnestly as I had for my Elizabeth till I found my Queen in Cate Blanchett,“ asserts the director who is currently in Mumbai to promote his documentary on Mata Amritanandamayi, Amma, which he describes as an “accidental film.“ He informs that he had gone to shoot Amma on her birthday and that's when he saw all the cameras and celebs present. He came up with the idea of making a film on her. “They asked me how much I would charge to direct it and I said nothing as long as I got to converse with her, one on one. It's turned out to be a beautiful film,“ he sighs contentedly.

"Mr Singh, how would you decipher the significance, importance and resolution of Macduff ?'' asked an English gent during my drama school days in England. "It's simple. Macduff slays Macbeth,'' I replied. Why do we unnecessarily suffer under the burden of feigning intellect, when the prime purpose of all literature is to entertain us? Mind you, entertainment doesn't only mean generating laughter.

Great writing is simple writing and vice versa, the foremost example being the only writer whose works are in action somewhere on the planet, at all times. You guessed it - good ol' Willy Boy aka William Shakespeare! Be it his tragedies, comedies or histories - his genius ensured viewers' entertainment - it's the mass 'simplicity' connect that has immortalized him. Reducing a masses writer to an expensive and limited viewership with some acclaim is not fruitful adaptation. One has lost the original purpose.

Shakespeare is so strongly relevant in the East that I feel he was an Indian mind inside a British head! An interesting successful parallel is Guru Dutt's cinema that featured brilliant comic songs and sequences to balance the somberness. As for formula masala elements like sword duels, flamboyant courtships, reunions after decades of separation, palace intrigues and politics, disguising characters (clearly playing to the gallery), Manmohan Desai stands as the mainstream parallel.

The cohesive factor among all these artists' creations was a blend of such great 'gravity and innocence' that the viewer simply believed! Sadly, the blend is disintegrating... from life as well as art! When Shakespeare played - the stage was bare, Of castle, temple, font or stair, 2 broadswords fought the battle out, 2 supers made the rabble rout, The throne of Denmark was a chair! Today, we pay heavy ticket price and view with sophistication. In the master's days at London's globe, the scenario was much like street theatre. Apart from the velvety balcony gentry (that today grabs front seats), the janta was all over the stalls - hooting, quarrelling, boozing, negotiating in grocery and flesh trade simultaneously - and amidst this ruckus, performers like Burbage & William himself kept the viewer engrossed, quite like a small town single screen cinema atmosphere, where local stories progress alongside the on-screen story.

An attempt at any literary classic must take it a level higher, artistically and commercially. I too possess few adaptations awaiting filming, but as for some that I've seen over the years (am taking liberty to express coz I paid for numerous lounge seats + popcorn), the films had interesting portions (courtesy original creator and some performers), but the creator's spirit comes and goes just like a fine rifle with a bad foresight, which keeps shooting... but missing! As Hamlet says, 'I'm being cruel only to be kind - so bad begins and worse remains behind!' 'Ye zaruri nahi ki sahitya se uthaya hoga to kamaal kar dikhaya hoga!' I'm sure the master hid a deeper meaning in his epitaph... Good friend for Jesus' sake forbeare, To dig the dust enclosed here, Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones! Well, I'd simply like to add...Amen!

Vishal Bhardwaj calls himself Gulzar sahab's alter ego, Gulzar sahab calls him his extension. While Vishal has done most of his work with only Gulzar sahab, he cherishes his working with Vishal as Vishal understands poetry and allows him to get away with his experimentation. You see them together and you can make out their love and respect for each other. Ahead of Vishal Bhardwaj's upcoming film Haider, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, we talk to Vishal and not just his godfather, but father, Gulzar sahab. Excerpts:

CONVERSATION WITH GULZAR SAHAB:
You have shot many films in Kashmir including Aandhi. What are your memories?
My daughter Bosky (Meghna) always longs to go to Kashmir as she grew up there. We used to go there every year and thus, many of her childhood memories are of Kashmir. In the 60s and the 70s, there was a tradition to picturise songs outdoor and the favourite destination was always Kashmir. At that time, it was a fantasy to shoot there and when we would sign an actor or actress they would always ask, where will the outdoor be picturised, hoping that the answer would be Kashmir. We had a regular driver there and can you imagine, his name was also Gulzar. Of course, the difference was that he was a Kashmiri. His children and grandchildren are still in touch with me. He lived in one of the bastis of Srinagar and we would go to his house to eat a meal even though we always put up in those days at the Oberoi. Many years later, when I was making Hu Tu Tu, I went to Srinagar to meet Amrish Puri ji, who was at that time shooting there, to offer him a role in the film. Kashmir was going through a bad phase at that time and I had gone after a long time. The hospitality industry had taken a beating and thus, Oberoi was operating only with one section. I told people there 'Main Gulzar ko talaash kar raha hoon'. They advised me against going out. Later in the evening, to my surprise, I found Gulzar waiting for me at the hotel lobby. He had come to know somehow that I was there. I had that kind of rapport even with the boatmen and people, who would take us to Char Chinar. On that small little land, there was a bar and a restaurant and we would have a drink there. Our films captured more of the geography of Kashmir; in Haider, it is history that Vishal has created. And that's the most beautiful part. It is for the first time that Kashmir will be shown in this kind of detail, be it of its people, places, mohallas or its journey. He has done everything I did, but in a better way. I have seen Haider. For me, Kashmir was not just a landscape. I also have a special connection with the river Jhelum, as I was born on the other side of it, in Dina in Pakistan. I knew and had a relationship with its people. Our films up till now have only showed the physical side, in Haider, he has shown the life of people that really touched me.

Kashmir has multi-faceted beauty. It is the only place where you will find a village to a hill station to a kasba to a waterfall to a jungle and that's the beauty of it and that is why, rightly so there is the famous proverb, that if there is a paradise on this earth it is here, it is here, it is here.

What does Vishal mean to you personally?
Can you imagine so many years back, I shot Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi Shikwa Toh Nahi song at the very same spot that he has shot Bismil song. In that song, I was looking at the presence of somebody to be there, without whom my life was not complete. So somebody came on that location to shoot on that location after 20 years and that is Vishal. Meri kami poori ho gayi. His shooting at the same location independently shows how souls meet. He is my son, my extension. It isn't easy to define the relationship I share with him. He is like a son, a brother, a disciple, a colleague, and a companion. It's a sharing of souls that is difficult to define. There are few relationships that you can't define. Vishal is the closest in that. It's a bond of belonging. Actually you will reduce it by defining it. It may sound very clichéd. A rose will not be the same if you peel off its petals. A rose will remain a rose only when it is together with all its petals.

Your view on Vishal's work?
As a director, he is in pace with the time and is reflecting it very strongly  Thematically, I have said that before and even technically, his films will be treated as text books in film schools after 15 years. That's the big quality of his films. I have a difference of opinion with him, when he says that he has adapted Shakespeare though. I don't feel that they are adaptations. I feel they are original films. They remind me of my times and not of the ancient times. Yes, in his films there is a basic structure of placing of some characters from Shakespeare, that he has taken, but I don't know what else has inspired him. A story is an adaptation only with its characterisation. His adaptation, which I concede as he insists, is that of the common people and common struggle of my times as against in Shakespeare's plays that pertained to the feudal system and the monarchy and therefore, reflected their issues. Shakespeare was a great playwright and writer and I don't mean to take away his greatness, but in our democratic times, talking of the common people like Vishal does, is more closer to Munshi Premchand than Shakespeare.

Your favourite song from Haider?
There are two. The most popular one is Bismil. My favourite one is So Jao, the grave diggers. It has a depth and a philosophy behind it. Vishal and me differ in our expression. While he thinks it is black humour, I call it a philosophy.

The recent floods in Kashmir have done so much damage in reversing the trend of positive tourism...
It's a tragedy that has happened to people. It's actually an international affair, not a national affair. Since this is closer to us, we feel the hurt even physically, though emotionally you feel the same for any such international calamity. In Assam, every year it has been happening. Why should writers only from Assam write about it and not writers from others parts of the country? Military did a lot in Kashmir, but when political people start taking credit for it, it hurts a lot.

CONVERSATION WITH VISHAL BHARDWAJ:

What does Gulzar sahab mean to you?
My existence is because of him. What will you be without your father? Gulzar sahab is very emotional, but we all know that he is also very strict. If we make a mistake he needs to be harsh right? I feel in all these years he has disciplined me. And that's how I have learnt about life. I have learnt the value of time, the habit of coming on time. Delhi se jo bhi aata hai, woh punctual nahi hota hai. We all conveniently give the excuse of traffic when we reach late in Mumbai. But I have never seen him using that excuse and he still reaches early everywhere. We all feel scared if he calls us some where as we all know that he will reach ahead of time, so we need to reach 15 minutes before him. He told me one thing that I want to remind him that he taught me 'Never accept your own mediocrity' and that has become my mantra for life.

You have only worked with him mostly. Any special memories?
We have made so many of our songs in such strange places. We have made so many songs roaming around travelling together. Whenever we are travelling together, a song is made. We were writing antras of Ibn-e-Batuta standing in a line at the airport. We have made songs in a bus. I remember my first meeting with him. The first meeting was very special even though it is far away and looks like a fairy tale for me today. He was to come to a studio to compose an ad jingle and called me from Bengali sweets house in Delhi as he was not able to find the way to the studio. I asked him to wait there and went to pick him up. I remembered his entire collection of poems by heart and was obsessed with his poetry. Nobody has his kind of expression. Subconsciously, my fascination of Shakespeare comes from his film Angoor that to me is loosely based on The Comedy Of Errors. Ijaazat was my most favourite film. You always ape your father. Look at my kurta. I am also wearing white. I wear one more colour, that is black. Someone told me you are his alter ego and that is why you wear black.

Between the both of you, who is more stubborn?
Gulzar sahab said, 'I can give you my last word on that. Mujhe yeh maloom hai ki agar koi mere khilaaf bolega, toh yeh uspe patthar marega. I know he will take care of me. Yeh meri taraf hai.'