Gulshan Grover is an artist par excellence, and IWMBuzz caught up with him to ruminate on 23 years of Sadma: Excerpts:
What is that memory that comes flashing back to?
First of all, just last night I saw Anil Kapoor, my acting school batchmate, dear friend and brother who is responsible for getting me this film in a very strange and interesting way. The second memory that keeps flashing in my mind is meeting Kamal Hassan sometime back and he said he was remembering Sadma and the next morning again when he came on the shoot, he says whole way in the car we were listening to Sadma songs.
Sadma is one of those films that truly gave a direction to my career and changed my career and highlighted another ability of mine as an actor where I could act silently by just looking.
Anil Kapoor and I are acting school batchmates and we were every day going to producers office, film studios, looking for work. Anil Kapoor at that time was acting in a Malayalam film being directed by Mani Ratnam called Pallavi Rani Pallavi and his heroine was Lakshmi Ji (of Julie fame). Anil was going to Ooty and since I was his friend, brother and unemployed actor, he said, “Saath mein aaja. Tereko Malayalam film mein koi role dilva dunga.”
Anil bought my ticket. I went along with Anil. And in the foyer or the lobby of the hotel, there were Mani Ratnam, Balu Mahendra, and other filmmakers. Balu Mahindra, the director of Sadma was the DOP of that Mani Ratnam film. Anil introduced me to all of them. I just shook hands and I went to Anil’s room because we were going to be staying together.
He continues…
The next day or that day was my birthday.
Anil, Balu and Mani Ratnam had a conversation in the lobby that your friend has a very powerful, interesting face and he has very piercing eyes. What does he do? Anil says he is an actor. Is he an actor? Can he act? Anil praised me so much and convinced Balu. Balu had already signed an actor because Romu Sippy had suggested an actor for that role and he said I am replacing that actor and I am taking your friend Gulshan Grover as the main villain in the film. He came, met me and he said, “Your friend Anil said wonderful things about you. I like your face. I want to cast you in this thing. Can you not shave?” I said, “I will not shave for next 3 months. I have no problem.”
So, right there and then I was taken in the role. He made a trunk call to Romu Sippy saying, “I finalised another actor. I’ll apologise to the other actor and I am signing him.”
And the shooting was after 10 days in Ooty. So, after next day I left from there and came back to Mumbai to meet producer Romu Sippy, at Rooptara Studio. I got a signing amount and everything. Balu and Romu’s office told me try the costume. While leaving, not only Boney, Anil and everybody gave me best wishes. Anil was getting ready to shoot for Woh Saat Din or had started shooting. And the pants that I wore in the film is of Anil Kapoor that he gave me. I landed there and started to work.
The director, producer, and everybody else was so kind and Kamal was so wonderful to me. They all liked my demeanour, my face, my intensity. And I, as a rising actor, was very pleased that such high level achievers are appreciating me and my work. And then accidentally I was thrust upon another responsibility of being dialogue coach for Sridevi, Silk Smitha, Kamal Haasan. My senior in the theater, Sushma Kaul Ji, I think was the dialogue coach. She was very wonderful, precise, and she had done theater in Delhi and I was a junior of hers in Delhi in theater. There is something about the way I explained. So, Balu said you do this along with Sushma Ji, you go to the actors room and explain to them. In fact, Silk Smitha for days thought I was some assistant director because every time I would go with a file and make her learn the lines.
Later on when she saw that I was acting, she thought that the assistant was also given a role to play. So, most of my photographs on the sets of Sadma are holding the script and sort of running up at Balu’s gesture.
But who was the best student of amongst the 3? Sridevi, Smitha or Kamal?
Kamal Hasan is a master. He can’t be a student. He’s extraordinary. Sridevi had the best grasp in the world. I’ve not seen actor like her anywhere. You just tell her once she grasped it within a flash of a second. They were bigger achievers than me. I was just rising, a nobody. Kamal Haasan was a legend. He had done ths Sadma original Moondram Pirai. The entire India’s actors wanted to do that role. I think Romu must have got call from everybody, including you know some of very big stars.
So Kamal or Sridevi or Silk Smitha were mega achievers. I was a youngster that was given this responsibility because I knew Hindi and I come from theater background.
How did Silk Smitha come across on set as an actor and as a person?
Extraordinary, wonderful person, very simple, not that sexy thing that we were people saw on screen or made her out to be. She was a normal regular girl, you know, very humble, very nice. I think she didn’t want to go into the details of the scene, she wanted to learn bit by bit. That was the only difference. The others would go to the details of the scene. They had already performed the scene, Kamal and Sridevi, in Tamil.
How was Sridevi as an artist?
Sridevi was shy and quiet. But once you roll the camera, she was a talent bomb. She’d surprise everybody. Even Balu Mahendra would be surprised despite having directed her in the Tamil original. She was miles ahead in certain shots. She would give a shot and go to her corner.
Any trivia from the set with the while acting with you?
My scenes were mostly conversations from far off. I had lot of interaction with Kamal, Kamal, Romu Sippy and I used to go jogging every evening after packup because Balu Mahendra shot only at a certain sunlight. Otherwise, just sit in the hotel and relax. He’ll call you only at the precise moment when the sun is going to certain degree behind. He doesn’t shoot in top sun, he does not shoot with reflectors, he does not like to do makeup, you know.
So we had every evening time.
After jogging, we would sit down in the Lawn of Savai Hotel, where we were staying before going to our rooms for shower, to chat. I learned so much from him. He was extremely warm, nice and kind to me and including when I did the fight scene with him.
There was no rehearsal. Just fight. Kamal Haasan was like a bull, you know. So I said, no, I am younger, but how do I fight? Kamal said, “Don’t worry, I will take care and I will take all the physical hit. You just be there.”
After the first shot, I was a little breathless and he realised that I don’t have knee pads and elbow pads. Only successful actors had them because they were imported. So, I didn’t have them and it was not available in India. So, he gave me his own knee pads and elbow pads. He took me aside and said, “Don’t worry, I will not let you get hit.” All four of them, Balu Mahendra, Kamal Haasan, Sridevi, Romu Sippy were so magnanimous and so wonderful to me.
How do you rate Sridevi’s performance in Sadma?
Extraordinary, one of the best, world class. Both Sridevi and Kamal Haasan were extraordinary. It is once in a lifetime performance by both of them.
How did you prepare for your character?
All the prep was thrown away in the first shot. I was trying to act and he said, “cut, cut, cut”. Then he said, “Don’t act. Sit there. Your face is enough. Just turn. Just look, turn back, don’t frown, don’t make big eyes, nothing. So all my acting was taken away in the first 5 minutes of the shooting. He said, “Just come; you don’t have to do anything.” Your face speaks, your eyes speak. Rest you leave to me. That’s a true fact. When I turned and looked in that film, I realised the impact of that film when it released.
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