You didn’t go to any of the solidarity rallies in Mumbai because people will say you’re doing it to promote your film?
Silly people will anyway say silly things, which is ok... I keep reading some idiotic writer somewhere writing **** about me. But I felt there was no need for me to go and create confusion, because, as much as I may like to just go there normally, it won’t be normal – there will be channels, and I will be saying the same stuff. I am also as angry and as upset, but I am a little older so maybe I’m a little more controlled... I didn’t want to just hang around there. If it’s about solidarity, I know we’re all together. If it’s about sadness, we’re all very sad. I think the youngsters who went there and made a statement, that was important. I stand by them, even if I wasn’t personally there. Also, I don’t usually go and speak in public. I only come out in public and chat about my work when my film is releasing. So I felt that even if I go out and attend an event, people will misconstrue it. In a serious thing like this, I felt we didn’t need diversions, like oh, why is this actor saying this, why has this director gone here?
RGV?
Ya, I mean whether it was callous, not callous, all that can be discussed, but suddenly, for 2-3 days, we were subjected to complete movement away from the things that need to be addressed. And I’m not much for rallies and marches as it is.
Why is that?
I don’t know, I’m not made like that... I personally would’ve been just a noise and not a voice there, it would just have distracted from the fact that all the young people are standing together.
You’ve said you’ll support a non-communal party if the youth create one.
Ya, I will support it, I’ll be hundred per cent supportive. But when I say support, I don’t mean I’ll participate in politics. I’d always speak in good terms for a secular, younger party.
You’ve said that if we want to win this time, let us not allow ideological stuff to come into our way. How do you define winning this time?
Let me simplify. Whenever we hear, so and so person said, so and so religious sentiment should not be allowed to blossom, we should clearly ostracise that, say we’re not for it – we should not take it lying down, not say yeh toh chalta hai. The first thing we need to maintain is the beautiful secular nature of our country. I am such a big star in supposedly a Hindu-dominated country. How more secular can you be? But agendas of organisations – political or otherwise – become non-secular. The whole ideology of governance should be economic development, removal of poverty, and to achieve it, security, and education. We talk about them, but don’t go any further. There is no other ideology or agenda, there is no relevance of Islam or Hinduism or Christianity here.
In the same city, Raj Thackeray kept playing up a divisive agenda for months. Nobody asked him to shut up?
I think now people will. There is a togetherness that is brought by real fear, you know, we’ve suddenly experienced real fear.
Fear at the doorstep?
No, not doorstep, it’s come within our houses, its not doorsteps, that’s when there’s something happening at the borders. This is inside our bedrooms. Now we know what fear is. Now we all have a common enemy. People will raise their voices – come on, we’ve seen people shooting at us and killing us on the roads, you can’t scare me anymore by throwing a few stones at my shop, can you? That is a plus – if I can call it a plus. We’ve seen real attacks, real fear, and when you’ve seen it and lived through it, every other effort to bully or arm twist will look like just that, arm-twisting, it won’t seem like an attack.
Do you now need to think more seriously about the Indian Mujahideen threat, warning Muslim actors against working in Indian movies?
See, it’s a reality that now, everybody personally will also have to change the way they live and work and move around, pay attention to security... That all is one thing. But anybody saying, I should not work in cinema? Come on! If somebody tells me that religion doesn’t allow me to act in movies, I think it’s a little strange, because I don’t think when these tenets were given down, they were making movies, neither is there any reference to this in the Holy Book that I have read. No religion has even told anybody that work is wrong, any kind of work.
You’ve said that five years down the line, ‘I may do things in more detail but I’m not ‘selfless enough’ to be a politician.’ Currently, politicians and ‘selfless’ don’t make for a combo, do they?
I’m not talking about any specific existing politicians or pointing fingers at them. It’s difficult to run a house, and these people have to run a whole country. It’s a huge job, and whoever takes it on has to take it on with the realisation that he will have no time for himself, for family. Even my job as an actor, which is .001 per cent of a politician’s, leaves me with very little time. And I wish to have a little more time, to maybe write a book, to work a little more on my characters, to play with my kids. I don’t think I am ready to give it all up. So what I mean is that I am not so selfless that I give up my profession – which I’ll have to do if I take up the role to be a politician. And I find it very strange when people ask me, why aren’t you in politics? I find it like being asked why I am not an astronaut.
A politician’s is a very specialised, a completely full time job. How am I, a 43 year old man who wears make up and goes out to do shooting in the morning, be cut out to do this? So when I am asked this question again and again, then like the government, I say, five years later, please ask me. If I go to show my films to Soniaji or Mr Vajpayee or if they come over... everyone wants to know, am I joining politics? I say, come on, guys, I had dinner with Laxmi Mittal the other day, does that mean I am becoming a steel baron?
AR Rahman once called you an Ambassador Of Islam. You’ve been a national icon for over a decade – (“20 years!”, he reminds). How do you tell the youth who idolise you, connect to you more than to any politician, that there isn’t a necessity for bitterness, for angst, in living out your faith? What is your perspective for someone to be an ambassador of, or a model for, any faith?
First, being a model for any religion is not the right thing to do. That is something I am completely against. Religion is just a language, to seek the truth, and my language is what I’ve been taught, and each language stands as a self-sufficient one. There’s no need to say that my language expresses the truth better than yours. I’m very clear that my message to youngsters would be, there’s no religious icon that you need to follow. We’ve iconic books, we have iconic tenets – if we are able to imbibe them, within the perspective of modern education, that is the best way to be. Obviously there have to be some changes because the world is different now – so you don’t have to marry four times because that is not the call of the day. Read the books, if you want, in English, so long as you understand them better, and keep them close to your heart. Because these are personal things. These are as personal as your father’s spectacles that he has left behind... Like when my father died, I kept his specs. And I meet Karan and I see that he’s got his father’s specs too. But I never turn around and say, Karan, my father’s specs are better than your father’s specs! These are emotional attachments – so we just need to keep it personal and appreciate the fact that we have a little token of their memory. Religion to me is as personal as that – as the memories of your parents. And you don’t compare these memories – I remember my dad more than you remember your dad, my dad was better than your dad – how can you do that?
So how does something so personal lead to public conflicts?
Religion actually is discipline – it’s a way to do things. We’ve taken it to a level where we confuse religion with spirituality, that practicing religion is how you become spiritual. No! You become spiritual by believing in the power of the Supreme Being who created the world, whatever name you give it. And religion is a discipline which will help you, guide you, maybe help you understand the Supreme Being’s power faster than you otherwise would. I’d tell youngsters now that we need to create a new religion, a new discipline. And that new religion is work. Working with honesty, and working hard, in the improvement of the place which you call your own – which is your country. That is all. Work hard, earn from it, live well, make a happier world for the closest of your associates, friends, families. Take care of your small world – if you do that, slowly, the world will be taken care of...
The person who is anti- a community or religion, he not only does not understand that community, he does not understand his own. That’s because the only reason for being insecure with somebody else’s community is that you are not very sure and secure about yours.
So long as you are secure in the knowledge that my discipline is ok, and its working for me, you don’t need to impart it to someone else or force them to it. As long as I am not stepping on your toes by practicing my discipline, I think we should let everyone be. I think we need to be more self-obsessed, more self-assured, more self-sustaining.
Silly people will anyway say silly things, which is ok... I keep reading some idiotic writer somewhere writing **** about me. But I felt there was no need for me to go and create confusion, because, as much as I may like to just go there normally, it won’t be normal – there will be channels, and I will be saying the same stuff. I am also as angry and as upset, but I am a little older so maybe I’m a little more controlled... I didn’t want to just hang around there. If it’s about solidarity, I know we’re all together. If it’s about sadness, we’re all very sad. I think the youngsters who went there and made a statement, that was important. I stand by them, even if I wasn’t personally there. Also, I don’t usually go and speak in public. I only come out in public and chat about my work when my film is releasing. So I felt that even if I go out and attend an event, people will misconstrue it. In a serious thing like this, I felt we didn’t need diversions, like oh, why is this actor saying this, why has this director gone here?
RGV?
Ya, I mean whether it was callous, not callous, all that can be discussed, but suddenly, for 2-3 days, we were subjected to complete movement away from the things that need to be addressed. And I’m not much for rallies and marches as it is.
Why is that?
I don’t know, I’m not made like that... I personally would’ve been just a noise and not a voice there, it would just have distracted from the fact that all the young people are standing together.
You’ve said you’ll support a non-communal party if the youth create one.
Ya, I will support it, I’ll be hundred per cent supportive. But when I say support, I don’t mean I’ll participate in politics. I’d always speak in good terms for a secular, younger party.
You’ve said that if we want to win this time, let us not allow ideological stuff to come into our way. How do you define winning this time?
Let me simplify. Whenever we hear, so and so person said, so and so religious sentiment should not be allowed to blossom, we should clearly ostracise that, say we’re not for it – we should not take it lying down, not say yeh toh chalta hai. The first thing we need to maintain is the beautiful secular nature of our country. I am such a big star in supposedly a Hindu-dominated country. How more secular can you be? But agendas of organisations – political or otherwise – become non-secular. The whole ideology of governance should be economic development, removal of poverty, and to achieve it, security, and education. We talk about them, but don’t go any further. There is no other ideology or agenda, there is no relevance of Islam or Hinduism or Christianity here.
In the same city, Raj Thackeray kept playing up a divisive agenda for months. Nobody asked him to shut up?
I think now people will. There is a togetherness that is brought by real fear, you know, we’ve suddenly experienced real fear.
Fear at the doorstep?
No, not doorstep, it’s come within our houses, its not doorsteps, that’s when there’s something happening at the borders. This is inside our bedrooms. Now we know what fear is. Now we all have a common enemy. People will raise their voices – come on, we’ve seen people shooting at us and killing us on the roads, you can’t scare me anymore by throwing a few stones at my shop, can you? That is a plus – if I can call it a plus. We’ve seen real attacks, real fear, and when you’ve seen it and lived through it, every other effort to bully or arm twist will look like just that, arm-twisting, it won’t seem like an attack.
Do you now need to think more seriously about the Indian Mujahideen threat, warning Muslim actors against working in Indian movies?
See, it’s a reality that now, everybody personally will also have to change the way they live and work and move around, pay attention to security... That all is one thing. But anybody saying, I should not work in cinema? Come on! If somebody tells me that religion doesn’t allow me to act in movies, I think it’s a little strange, because I don’t think when these tenets were given down, they were making movies, neither is there any reference to this in the Holy Book that I have read. No religion has even told anybody that work is wrong, any kind of work.
You’ve said that five years down the line, ‘I may do things in more detail but I’m not ‘selfless enough’ to be a politician.’ Currently, politicians and ‘selfless’ don’t make for a combo, do they?
I’m not talking about any specific existing politicians or pointing fingers at them. It’s difficult to run a house, and these people have to run a whole country. It’s a huge job, and whoever takes it on has to take it on with the realisation that he will have no time for himself, for family. Even my job as an actor, which is .001 per cent of a politician’s, leaves me with very little time. And I wish to have a little more time, to maybe write a book, to work a little more on my characters, to play with my kids. I don’t think I am ready to give it all up. So what I mean is that I am not so selfless that I give up my profession – which I’ll have to do if I take up the role to be a politician. And I find it very strange when people ask me, why aren’t you in politics? I find it like being asked why I am not an astronaut.
A politician’s is a very specialised, a completely full time job. How am I, a 43 year old man who wears make up and goes out to do shooting in the morning, be cut out to do this? So when I am asked this question again and again, then like the government, I say, five years later, please ask me. If I go to show my films to Soniaji or Mr Vajpayee or if they come over... everyone wants to know, am I joining politics? I say, come on, guys, I had dinner with Laxmi Mittal the other day, does that mean I am becoming a steel baron?
AR Rahman once called you an Ambassador Of Islam. You’ve been a national icon for over a decade – (“20 years!”, he reminds). How do you tell the youth who idolise you, connect to you more than to any politician, that there isn’t a necessity for bitterness, for angst, in living out your faith? What is your perspective for someone to be an ambassador of, or a model for, any faith?
First, being a model for any religion is not the right thing to do. That is something I am completely against. Religion is just a language, to seek the truth, and my language is what I’ve been taught, and each language stands as a self-sufficient one. There’s no need to say that my language expresses the truth better than yours. I’m very clear that my message to youngsters would be, there’s no religious icon that you need to follow. We’ve iconic books, we have iconic tenets – if we are able to imbibe them, within the perspective of modern education, that is the best way to be. Obviously there have to be some changes because the world is different now – so you don’t have to marry four times because that is not the call of the day. Read the books, if you want, in English, so long as you understand them better, and keep them close to your heart. Because these are personal things. These are as personal as your father’s spectacles that he has left behind... Like when my father died, I kept his specs. And I meet Karan and I see that he’s got his father’s specs too. But I never turn around and say, Karan, my father’s specs are better than your father’s specs! These are emotional attachments – so we just need to keep it personal and appreciate the fact that we have a little token of their memory. Religion to me is as personal as that – as the memories of your parents. And you don’t compare these memories – I remember my dad more than you remember your dad, my dad was better than your dad – how can you do that?
So how does something so personal lead to public conflicts?
Religion actually is discipline – it’s a way to do things. We’ve taken it to a level where we confuse religion with spirituality, that practicing religion is how you become spiritual. No! You become spiritual by believing in the power of the Supreme Being who created the world, whatever name you give it. And religion is a discipline which will help you, guide you, maybe help you understand the Supreme Being’s power faster than you otherwise would. I’d tell youngsters now that we need to create a new religion, a new discipline. And that new religion is work. Working with honesty, and working hard, in the improvement of the place which you call your own – which is your country. That is all. Work hard, earn from it, live well, make a happier world for the closest of your associates, friends, families. Take care of your small world – if you do that, slowly, the world will be taken care of...
The person who is anti- a community or religion, he not only does not understand that community, he does not understand his own. That’s because the only reason for being insecure with somebody else’s community is that you are not very sure and secure about yours.
So long as you are secure in the knowledge that my discipline is ok, and its working for me, you don’t need to impart it to someone else or force them to it. As long as I am not stepping on your toes by practicing my discipline, I think we should let everyone be. I think we need to be more self-obsessed, more self-assured, more self-sustaining.
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