As an actor, I am looking forward to playing Gattu. I have been in the industry for over a decade and done many roles but Gattu is the one who got me immense popularity. It is said to be the most loved character on TV.
As a creative director of the show, the excitement doubles. It’s a great feeling that people are waiting for the show’s comeback. However, with excitement comes reponsibility.
As the expectations will be high this time round. We have to maintain the essence, the speciality of the show and at the same time bring an element of freshness to it.
The sets certainly look new. Yes, we have renovated the entire set, got in new furniture and a fresh colour scheme. The rangoli is new, even the visual of the first part of the title-track is new. The actors will also be wearing new costumes. Gattu will always be wearing a whistle around his neck. Earlier, his habit of mismatching the shirt buttons with the holes had caught on with the kids, now I think they will be hooked onto the whistle (Laughs). New characters and story tracks have been added but the core values of a joint family will be retained.
Is Lubna Salim no longer in the serial because she is doing a NDTV show? She is not in the show due to some personal problems. Now we have Anjali Mukhi playing the role and I must say she is a fabulous actor. Even the guy who was playing her son has been replaced. Earlier, Jay Soni was playing Jigar, now Shakti Arora is playing it. The rest of the cast remains the same.
You have taken off from where it had ended. Sort of. We had ended the first season with Baby’s engagement. Now we will take that forward with discussions about her marriage. Was it easy getting back into the character of Gattu?
It is a very difficult role. I had done a lot of homework for the role the first time round. I had visited a children’s home in Mumbai where I saw a separate section for autistic children. I went there a few times, observed their gestures, how they react, their behaviour when they are alone, the way they laugh etc. I tried and captured their feelings and this helped me to some extent. However, Gattu is not really an autistic child, he is a 28- year-old man with a low IQ and an eating disorder.
How do the kids react when they see you off-screen? It is amazing. Kids ask me ‘Kya Gattu kaisa hai, school nahi gaya’. They speak to me as if I am their best friend. They pull my cheeks and punch me in my stomach in a friendly way, but frankly that irks me. Forget kids, even elders act familiar with me. I tell them I am not a child, I am a 40-year-old man! But there’s this incident that will always stay with me.
In one episode, I was shown to be craving for pav-bhaji, and I don’t have the money to pay for it. Next day, around five kids turned up on the sets offering their tiffin boxes. They even gave me Rs 20 which they had contributed from their pocket money so that I could buy pav-bhaji. It was unbelievable, but touching.
Have you consciously kept away from films now? Yes. After Jo Jeeta Hai Sikander, wherein I played Aamir Khan’s friend, I did a few films like Naaraaz and Andaz, but then I was getting typecast. When I did the serial Dekh Bhai Dekh, I realised that TV had a wider reach as both the serial and my character Kareema became quite popular.
I did a few more serials like Tara, in which I played an effeminate character, the first of its kind on television. I played a parallel lead in Ek Mahal Ho Sapnon Ka as Raju and even that character was interesting with numerous shades. In Office Office, I played Patel the peon, the manager, the channel head etc. My line Do baatein ho jayegi was quite a rage.Then I got this oppportunity to direct Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai and Instant Khichdi. I had learnt the ropes of direction from Mansoor Khan, whom I was assisting in Jo Jeeta...