Shakti Kapoor was one of the best students at FTII, I was a back-bencher: Naseeruddin Shah

Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah will be seen playing the lead in Zee5’s upcoming show Kaun Banegi Shikharwati. The artiste has been working for over 40 years and has played a wide range of characters.

Asked about his criteria for agreeing to play a role, he told Cinestaan, “I should feel like doing it. There is no way I can elaborate on that, except that I go by instinct when I am offered something. I either feel like doing it or I don’t. And there may be many reasons for feeling like doing it. It may be a very good part, a director you wish to work with, something funny [in the content] or a wonderful location. It could be any one of those or others.” 

He added, “But in some way, I should feel like doing it. When this one [Kaun Banegi Shikharwati] came to me, I just felt like doing it.”

The show stars a line-up of actresses such as Lara Dutta, Soha Ali Khan, Kritika Kamra and Anya Singh. Asked what difference he sees in their working style as compared to his own, Shah said jokingly, “They draw inspiration from their mobile phones, I don’t.” 

During the course of the conversation, the artiste was asked whether there is any role he feels he hasn’t done yet and he is eager to play. “I think I have done almost everything I wanted to do as an actor,” he said. “I don’t really have any such desires left. I want to be part of projects which will be fun and have a chance of being remembered and saying something more than a simple story.” 

Shah also narrated an interesting tidbit about his days at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). “I am very grateful for the kind of opportunities I have got,” he said. “Incidentally at the film institute when I studied I was given the least chance of succeeding in the film industry. And as it turned out, I am one of the two who have survived out of the 32 in our class. The other is Mr Shakti Kapoor. Shakti was one of the best students in the class. I was like a back-bencher.”

Also starring Raghuvir Yadav and Cyrus Sahukar, Kaun Banegi Shikharwati will be streamed on Zee5 from 7 January 2022.