The eagle has landed – this was how actor Aahana S Kumra and her batchmates reacted when actor-theatre director Naseeruddin Shah walked onto their film school campus 20 years ago. To them, he was not merely a teacher but a standard-setter.
"For some reasons he always knew if we reached unprepared,” Kumra recounts her college and theatre days. “And you could never prepare enough, because he was always over-prepared as a teacher. His favourite line was ‘There are no bad actors, there are only lazy actors.’”
The teaching phase soon shifted from the classroom to the stage for both mentor and mentee.
In 2010, while Kumra was backstage at a play, “Naseer sir approached me with a George Bernard Shaw script. ‘Take and read this,’ he said. That was the day where I finally started to act for a play and in 2011 I performed for By George, at the NCPA under his direction. And it also earned me painting from him and Ratna (Pathak Shah) maam.”
Kumra says that as his students, they all value his sharp insight into the industry’s calculated realities. “He understands that young actors rarely get second chances,” she explains. “If you say no to a producer, you’re replaced. He knows producers have inflated egos—a lost chance is often lost forever.”
{{/usCountry}}Kumra says that as his students, they all value his sharp insight into the industry’s calculated realities. “He understands that young actors rarely get second chances,” she explains. “If you say no to a producer, you’re replaced. He knows producers have inflated egos—a lost chance is often lost forever.”
{{/usCountry}}On a lighter note, she shares that he fondly calls her a “feisty cat,” and she shares new actors ask her, ‘Naseer sir ke sath kaise kaam kar sakte hain’ and she reverts, ‘Koi tareeka hain hi nahi unke sath kaam kar paane ka. It’s sheer good luck.”
On Main Vapas Aaunga, she adds, “I cried when saw him on screen no doubt it one of his best. He just loves Imtiaz Ali and calls him a rare director. Sir always enjoys portraying a Sardar character—he understands they speak with such buland awaz and as they age it becomes feeble yet authoritative.”
And what does the master think of his former student?
He told us at an event, “Ahana Kumra is one of my students and now also a good friend. Her career hasn’t gone as well as I’d hoped, but she’s been doing some offbeat films. She’s a girl with gumption, and I definitely feel her day will come. Some find success at 20, others at 30 or 40. Look at Boman Irani and Gajraj Rao. So I keep encouraging her and telling her not to get disheartened. I really believe her time will come.” (Input by Aadrika Sominder)