After eight long months, Naseeruddin Shah stepped on the stage at Prithvi Theatre once again. This time, to perform Gabriel Emanuel’s Einstein that’s directed by actress-wife Ratna Pathak Shah. The Coronavirus pandemic forced him to stop doing what he loves the most, and he admits that there were “major withdrawal symptoms”. In a conversation with BT, he spoke about how he coped with staying away from the stage for a long time, taking live performances into the digital world and gearing up to perform for a smaller audience in current times. Read on…

I would think it is definitely the longest I’ve stayed away from the stage, and it felt like cold turkey. The only other time I’ve not been on stage this long was while shooting The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), which was a colossal bore to shoot (and later to watch), but what made it bearable was that I was making an obscene amount of money from it. I spent those six months memorizing The Prophet.

I missed it so much that I visited Prithvi Theatre just to be there and because I felt like hugging that stage. I have to say that there were major withdrawal symptoms. Whether I missed directing or acting more is hard to say because acting gives meaning to my life, but guiding young actors has become a sort of mission for me now. In fact, at times I enjoy it more than acting myself, and when you see youngsters achieving their true potential, it’s far more gratifying than doing it yourself.

Nothing can compensate for the high of being on stage in front of people, but performing without an audience has its own challenges and advantages. In time, we will conquer the challenges and figure out the advantages fully because performing online does seem to be an inescapable part of the future.

The Prithvi regulars, despite missing going there, will probably hesitate a bit to venture out, but for us, it means giving our best even if no one is present.

We have announced Aurat Aurat Aurat for December 19 and 20, and depending on the actors’ and technicians’ commitments, and availability of theatres, we will announce more shows and launch into the new ones. In fact, I have already done the basic spadework for all the projects and have even started working on a solo piece about Clarence Darrow (famous and controversial American defense attorney).

Hailed as the ultimate James Bond, Sean Connery played the suave and macho British Secret Service agent with such finesse and style that the actors who took the franchise ahead often struggled to fit into his suit. The actor headlined seven of the spy thrillers, but that apart, he was also seen in a number of noteworthy films like Marnie (1964), The Hill (1965) Murder On The Orient Express (1974), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), The Untouchables (1987) for which he won an Oscar and Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989), among others. He retired from acting in 2006. Connery, 90, died peacefully in his sleep in the Bahamas on Saturday.

His final film was The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), which was based on the comic book series of the same name by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill. The film saw fictional literary characters come together to save the world. While Connery essayed the role of Allan Quatermain, Naseeruddin Shah featured in the movie as Captain Nemo. The actor spoke to Bombay Times about being in awe of the Hollywood actor and his interaction with the legend that left him impressed.

“I saw Dr No when I was in school, I had read a couple of Bond books by then, and I thought Ian Fleming had described Connery — just like one feels that the description of Rhett Butler is actually that of Clark Gable! He was the ONLY Bond for me. My only reason for watching the Bond films after he quit playing the part was because of the actors playing the baddies, not because of who played Bond,” says Naseer.

Sean Connery was known to wear his celebrity status with class and ease. Talking about his interaction with the Hollywood actor while filming The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Naseeruddin Shah says, “I expected him to be a person happy in his own skin and confident enough to not indulge in starry behaviour of any kind and he didn’t disappoint me there! All of us, his co-actors, were certainly in awe of him, but he never displayed any sign of entitled behaviour. He didn’t need to, he was perfectly happy sitting around in his undershirt sans his wig, with us all and scratching himself and breaking wind! He often asked us things about ourselves, which was touching — celebrities are never interested in others, they’re always waiting to be asked things about themselves and are happy to hold forth about themselves even if not asked. Sean was an exception. On the shoot, he’d never leave the set, and even when he wrapped early, would always return after shedding his costume and stay on the floor cueing the other actors, something that is unthinkable for any of our 'bankable' stars I would suppose.”

The film’s shoot did have a few hiccups and was met with mixed reactions when it released. Naseer remembers, “The shooting wasn’t fun, it was a heavily CGI dependent film and involved long hours of waiting, and it went on into the bitter Prague winter. Sean and the director (Stephen Norrington), an arrogant unsympathetic upstart who’d made one hit in his life and probably hadn’t even read the books, which the characters in the film were based on, were unfortunately at loggerheads all the time. So, a loaded mood, which occasionally threatened to turn unpleasant, was frequent on the sets. All these problems do show through in the film. I found it pretty unwatchable. Sean deserved a better farewell film.”

The two actors did meet in Las Vegas later. “I met him once after the shoot, at the premiere in Las Vegas, but it would have been too presumptuous to try and stay in touch with him,” shares Naseer.

When asked whether playing James Bond limited Connery’s scope to explore other characters, Naseer opines, “Bond made him a worldwide name and that kind of thing must have negative fallout of some kind sometime so that he will be remembered mostly as Bond, but he had enough guts to not play safe and did manage to explore many acting possibilities. I like all his performances even though his Scottish accent doesn’t leave him, whether he’s playing an Arab or an American! He’s the ultimate ‘personality actor’ like Clint Eastwood though far superior as far as acting abilities go.”