'Performance is the key’: Zakir Hussain

Zakir Hussain 

Having made his debut in Sriram Raghavan’s “Ek Hasina Thi” in 2004, Zakir Hussain made a mark for himself among the audience by his sheer screen presence and intensity in Ramgopal Verma’s “Sarkar” even when facing veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan. An alumni of National School of Drama, he moved to Mumbai marking his arrival with roles in television serials and movies, including “Shagird”, “Singham Returns” and “Paan Singh Tomar”. Having done serials like “Firdaus”, “Kitty Party” and “Gaatha” he appeared in the TV series “Darr Sabko Lagta Hai” on &TV directed by “Gulab Gang” fame Soumik Sen.

In an interaction with The Hindu he spoke about his theatre days, changes on TV and films and his special moment with Amitabh Bachchan.

Excerpts from the interview:

On the emergence of series on the television.

Television has become a strong medium. With known actors and directors entering this industry there is vast opportunity. But as the business involves TRP more attention is paid to packaging than content. Audience is smart nowadays and for improving standard we have to develop involvement of audience by not telling them the whole thing but giving them content which surprises them to keep their involvement intact.

Tell us about your theatre days in Delhi.

It was a fantastic time while I was in NSD and after that I was at the repertory until around 1997 when I left for Mumbai. I still remember the character of Ram I played in the play “Uttar Ramcharit” while I was at the repertory which was well received by the audience. One of the incidents I remember distinctly is playing of a 70-year-old Einstein at the age of 28 which was greatly appreciated by Ebrahim Alkazi who not only saw the play but also wrote about it in one of the magazines.

Despite your versatility you were typecast.

I think of myself as a risk taker. Doing a comic role in “Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani” was a big risk but I wanted to surprise audience and I think I was successful to a great extent. I agree with the fact that I am getting the same kind of roles. This is largely because of the fact that as stories are becoming more important factor in filmmaking process, directors as well as the casting directors have ascertained certain artists within a particular character frame. So if a particular kind of character is etched in the film, they call those who have enacted similar type of roles in earlier films.

How can a character player mark his presence while sharing screen with a star?

Performance is the key. The thing is that it is not the artist alone but screenplay writer and director who can make a character strong. So I believe if the story has a a strong character then the actor can can outshine the main lead with his or her performance.

You started with “Sarkar”. Do you think cinema has changed since then? Tell us about sharing screen space with Amitabh Bachchan in that film.

I believe there is a remarkable shift in films we are producing now and I term them as story-oriented films. With a change in the format of filmmaking, our movies now are having international appeal.

On sharing space with Amitji, I acted along with him in “Sarkar” which was my first shoot. As I was doing first shot and that too was with him, there was a lot of pressure to perform to at least make the scene good enough, which I somehow managed to do. After the shot Amitji called me and made enquiries. It was one of the best appreciation I have ever received. Later I also did “Yudh”, a television series created by Anurag Kashyap, with him and working with him is like working with an institution.