‘Global Awards Are Very Inspirational’

In an interview with Lachmi Deb Roy, actor Adil Hussain talks about his love for character acting, his penchant for realism and why global recognition and awards are important for him.

Tell us about your love for realistic roles and character acting.…

I have appreciated the Western tradition of realistic acting ever since my National School of Drama days. In Indian movies, I loved Balraj Sahni’s extremely realistic performances. His craft influenced me to be a character actor. There are three kinds of actors—personality actors, character actors and dem­onstrative actors. Demonstrative actors are mime actors; if you look at Kathakali or Bharatanatyam, they demonstrate with their gestures and postures. The difference between character and personality acting is that a personality actor would sort of bend the character they are to play  to fit into their personality. Character actors, on the other hand, try to mould themselves into the screen character.

How important are awards in your career?

When I got international recognition and the Norwegian National award for What Will People Say, it felt that I am in the right direction, because I admire Scandinavian actors a lot. Global awards are very inspirational. They help actors like me who are fond of independent films—the recognition attracts producers, thinking that an actor will bring credibil­ity into a film. That’s how I get to act in good scripts.

How much importance is given to actors with international recognition in the Indian film industry?

Our film industry’s idea of acting and films they believe in are different from world cinema. All the indie films I have acted in have given me global recognition. In the mainstream genre I don’t think they give importance to international recognition. Otherwise, I would have been doing lead roles in mainstream cinema. The kind of acting style they believe in is different from the realism I believe in.

What new films are you working in?

I am working in an Assamese film, it is a remake of Dr Bezbarua, an iconic Assamese film made in 1969; I am in the lead role. My next film is set in Birmingham and it is a story of a migrant father looking for his daughter.

How difficult is Bollywood for outsiders?

I didn’t find it difficult at all. In spite of being based in Delhi, I was invited to be a part of Bollywood.

Biggest influence in acting…

My biggest influence is Dustin Hoffman; I loved Papillon. Also my teacher Khalid Tyabji, who introduced me to physical theatre. I like the craft of Naseeruddin Shah too.

Lessons learnt from the pandemic….

The pandemic has been a reflective time and it made my family realise how we have been wasting resources like water, electricity and food. It has made us realise the importance of family relationships—earlier, I had been missing out on spending time with our ten-year-old child. Yet, globally, it is extremely disturbing. I had to find an inner mechanism to stabilise myself, seeing the horror of people losing jobs and others dying. As humans we have forgotten to live our life with minimum resources; I hope we all learn a lesson from the pandemic.