THE PIONEER TALK
Well known film and television actor Kanwaljit Singh said that the time he spent at his school, St George’s at Mussoorie, left a deep mark on him and moulded him into what he is today. “I have beautiful memories of my alma mater and go back there at any given opportunity,” he said in an online interaction with The Pioneer on Sunday.
He said that he was in touch with his batch mates whom he met at the annual re-unions at the school.
The actor said that more recently when he happened to go to The Mall at Mussoorie during the peak tourist season he was “shocked and upset” at the crowd and traffic. “I vowed that I would never again go there during the tourist season,” he said .
Singh said that he had chosen to go to Mussoorie as he did not want to go to Shimla in a boarding school as his aunt stayed there and he did not want to be in a boarding school in a town where there were any relatives.
He said that his experience with the first film he had signed (Shankar Hussain) was extremely interesting as the great director Kamal Amrohi who was a perfectionist would make sure that the sets were perfect. “On the first day of shooting when I was eagerly awaiting my first scene, he came and ordered that the set should be brought down. I almost had a heart attack!”
The actor recalled that the film was made in three years . “And mind you, it was supposed to be a quickie!”
Singh said his role of Satbir in Buniyad came to him only after he remained almost hungry for three weeks in order to look slim as that was a requirement for the role. “In those days when Buniyad was being telecast , I did not have a television and not see it entirely and now, when it was re-telecast in the lockdown, I did not watch it.”
He said that he had great fun with the team of actors in the memorable film Satte Pe Satta . “We all had the time of our lives.” He said the film Shart was among his favourites from his work. From among his TV serials, he said Farmaan was his personal favourite.
Kanwaljit, who has done Hindi films and TV series as well as Punjabi films, has played the role of Mirza Ghalib on stage in Aakhri Shamma. “We had done around seven shows before the lockdown. Earlier I was hesitant as I had stage fright. But now I am relaxed on stage—I have tasted blood.” The actor has also performed in web series like Hostages. He says that web series give the makers a lot of freedom but they should not take undue advantage of this freedom. He said he would like to do more plays if they were good and made sense. “Theatre is an actor’s medium and gives an actor a lot of freedom.”
The actor, who is a byword for natural acting in the film industry, believes that actors had the freedom not to speak up on all social and political issues. “I feel about many of the issues but then I have the freedom not to comment on them publicly.”
He said he had also acted in a Bengali film which he found absolutely realistic and natural. He said that he loved Urdu verse, especially Mirza Ghalib and Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
The actor said that if Covid could not teach people how to treat nature, then nothing would. “People just have to learn from this experience, it has come to teach us many things”.
He recited one of his favourite ghazals of Mirza Ghalib—“Har ek baat pe kehte ho tum ke tu kya hai, tumhi kaho key eh andaaz e guftagu kya hai/ragon mein daudte phirne ke ham nahin kaayal. Jo aankh hi se na tapke toh phir lahu kya hai.”
Monday, 04 January 2021 | Jaskiran Chopra | Dehradun
