Hailing from Golpara, a small town in Assam,  Adil Hussain has made a mark for himself in his 15-year-long acting career. Adil, who has worked in Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Hindi, Norwegian and French cinema, is a two-time winner of National Film Awards. We caught up with the actor at IFFI. Excerpts... 

You have worked in theatre, TV and cinema. How do you look back at your work done in all these mediums?
Theatre is my most favourite medium. Not because of the performance part of it, but the preparation involved, which I miss while doing cinema. While staging a play, you are involved from its inception. You meet the co-actors, rehearse with them for eight hours for three months, and then experiment with a new idea. One starts growing organically.

You create an emphatic and non-judgmental relationship with your co-actors. I played Othello from 1999-2008. If you play a character for such a long period, you don’t play the role, the role plays you. This is the reason I miss theatre.

Stagnancy of an actor, the boredom that sets in can be dispelled by doing theatre. You don’t need to consume sleeping pills, or alcohol or go to a psychiatrist. If you really love acting, then go back to theatre. That is what I have to do now.

What do you think is ailing our mainstream cinema?
The problem with Indian culture of filmmaking is that we celebrate mediocrity. There is money, there is fame but the filmmakers are not thinking differently. The genesis of this problem lies in our education system. Its intent is to help us get jobs and feed our children. There is no scope for understanding why we are born, what is our purpose in life, who we are and where we are supposed to go. There is no recognition for skills in vocational fields.

In this society, no one talks about the essence of a film but how much money it made. If money earned by a movie determines the quality of an actor, then we have a serious problem, which is happening right now. We have become a market society.

What bearing does your strong views have on your professional career?
I do have a strong opinion but I have empathy too. PR companies try to be my publicists. But I refuse to pay anyone to be in news. That is the last thing I will do in my life. If I am not considered news worthy by the media, then it is not doing its job. I am doing my job, which is acting. In fact, I am here at the IFFI Film Bazar for the premiere of my film Pareeksha, which has been directed by my friend Prakash Jha.

You have played very strong characters in all your movies. Today, we are seeing character roles taking centrestage in Hindi films. Do you see a change here from the hero culture?
It’s the twilight of the beginning of ‘achche din’ in films. People are being exposed to world cinema, especially the metro audience. People are seeing better cinema. They want to see credible work, close to reality. This is a good sign.

You have traditionally played serious roles. How was it playing a comic role in Zed Plus?
I am a trained clown. I have done years of clowning. I never got to play a serious role in Assam because I was a stand-up comic. Then I did Ishqiya. Everybody thought I was a serious actor. I kept on getting serious roles. Then suddenly I returned to comedy with Zed Plus, for which the credit goes to director Dr Chandraprakash Dwivediji. I have done another comic film, Good News, which is coming up in December.

You have worked in international films. What is the difference between them and us?
There is no difference in terms of talent. Talent matters only 20 per cent for achieving excellence. Rest 80 per cent is intent, which is lacking in India. There is a chalta hai attitude. Hence we are producing mediocre films.

Coming from North East and making it big in Indian cinema, what has been the impact of your success in Assam?
There has been an amazing response. I entered acting for myself, not for North East. In the process, I saw and became a fan of Indian cinema. Then I got exposed to foreign cinema and quality actors. I then decided to be an actor like them.

I come from a town where newspaper comes three days late. The people from my hometown have started thinking that if I can do it, they too can.
However, when they see me, many of them are actually seeing only the tip of the iceberg. They don’t see the hard work that I have put in. That is also a problem.

When they feel inspired from me, they need to understand that they too have to go through the same grind to polish themselves. One has to go through a lot of pain, learn new things, and unlearn to find one’s own path. It’s a long process. I am not even in the middle of the process. I am possibly near the beginning.

You have been very vocal about social issues through your videos and comments, for example the Assam floods. Do celebrities have social responsibilities?
I ask this question to myself as well. Am I an actor or an activist? If I call myself an activist, then I will take to streets with a placard and raise slogans. But I don’t feel like doing this, hence I am not an activist. But when I have to say something, it has to be through my art.
When I play a role so credibly that even though I am playing a picky husband of Sridevi, you empathise with me. That is my social responsibility. You don’t hate me, you understand me.

What is in your wishlist for 2020?
I have been preparing for a play for the last few years. It is about conversation between Arjun and Lord Krishna based on the Bhagvad Gita rendition. It would be a mono-act play where I will be performing the roles of both Arjun and Krishna. That is my dream which I hope to fulfill in the New Year.