When Anupam Kher asked director Akshay Roy, ‘Why is this film important to you?’

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On November 8, Yash Raj Films release their second film (after the acclaimed Maharaj) on OTT, for Netflix again, Vijay 69. The film features Anupam Kher in the title-role of a foul-mouthed former swimming coach who enrolls for the Triathlon (an athletic contest consisting of swimming, cycling and long-distance running).

40 years after he started his acting career by playing a 68 year-old in Saaransh when he was merely 28 years of age, Anupam Kher plays what is now his real age! When I asked him how he felt doing this, he smiled and replied, “I feel I am 28!”

Produced by Maneesh Sharma for Yash Raj Films and Aditya Chopra, the film is written and directed by Akshay Roy (Meri Pyaari Bindu) and also features Chunky Pandey and Mihir Ahuja.

In an informal chat with Kher and Roy at YRF Studios, Anupam talked of his motivations to do roles that still challenge him as actor.

“Without any arrogance and out of complete humility and gratitude to all, especially to this film’s team, I have never wanted to be just another actor. If given an opportunity like this, I can’t miss it. You have to try and outdo yourself! I am now doing my 542^nd film, but if you want me to list my five best among them all, I will include this one!”

Another defining role was, of course, Saaransh itself. “I was 28 then, starting out. And people did not know me. But they all thought that I was a real old man. And similarly, if you watch Vijay 69 and can’t see Anupam Kher, it will be an achievement!” says the actor.

Kher, however, rewinds to the negative feedback he got after he signed the film. “They told me that I will be typecast! A.K. Hangal-saab was one of our finest actors on stage and screen, but still slotted on screen as an old man, and they said, ‘Aap Hangla jaaoge!’, meaning that I will be forever categorized in that mold. But years before that, I had realized that God has made us all unique, but we become ordinary or mediocre because circumstances compel us to compromise. And that is why I thought that I must have the courage to do the film. Even now, I know I am remembered as B.V. Pradhan from that film!”

Kher rightly feels that age is just a number. “My mother is 86, and has a rod in her leg, but she refuses help when ascending a flight of stairs. She does not grumble as she says, ‘I will age if I grumble!’ She is my biggest inspiration!”

The actor even learnt to swim for this role, and continued working at an outdoor location despite a fracture and a dislocated shoulder! “It was an expensive location, but I had made a commitment!” he explains when his raving director reveals the latter fact.

Says Roy, “I think my movie is not just about old people, but is about an emotion. There is a line in my film that says, ‘Humne kya socha tha hum banenge aur hum kya ban gaye (What had we dreamt for ourselves and what have we actually become)! I love all sports and my wife wonders why I even watch the game of darts, but for me, it was about connecting to my story. I did not want to write anything until I got the emotional truth about it. A typical template underdog story could not inspire me.”

Roy is wonderstruck at the single question Kher asked him when he approached him for the movie. “Instead of asking for details about his role and a script narration, he simply asked me, ‘Why is this film important to you?’”

And Roy adds, “I won a National award for a sports-based film in 2011. It still took me many, many years to make my first feature film, which also flopped. So I could connect to someone who dreams of something but his plans go awry. That was a moment of truth!”