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Perfecting Comedy
An actor par excellence, Pankaj Kapoor has been around on television since the early days of soaps and comedy shows. Generations who have grown up on Karamchand and Zabaan Sambhaal Ke are still hooked to his Office Office, that was earlier being shown on SAB TV and from this week will be aired on STAR ONE as Naya Office Office. In a free-wheeling interview withScreen the versatile actor speaks his heart out. Excerpts: Why this change of channel and how will it help?
(pauses) Though we had already aired 80 episodes, there were many people who had heard a lot about Office Office but were not able to see the same. All said and done, SAB TV has a limited reach. STAR One is a popular channel which mostly caters to some light-hearted programmes. With the serial switching over to STAR One, the producers want to reach a wider audience and get more popular. Are there any new changes, both in presentation or the characters?
There will be no change in the presentation and the basic premise: exploitation of common man in all quarters will be there as long as the serial is on air. All characters including Mussadilal, Bhatia, Pandeyji, Shukla, Usha and Patel will very much be there except thatPatel played earlier by Deven Bhojwani will now be essayed by Vrijesh Hirjee. Tell us something about a particular problem you have dealt with?
In one of the upcoming episodes, we have tried to expose the electronic media in a satirical manner. Mussadilal plays the president of a traders' association who is against the promulgation of 'VAT' by the government that has put them to a severe loss. One TV channel sends its crew and records the interview promising that it would be shown the same evening on the channel. In their glee of being shown on TV, Mussadilal and his friends tell everyone to watch the news that night. But to their amazement nothing of the interview appears. To find out what happened, the entire group of traders go to the channel's office. To their utter disbelief they are given a couple of rates: one for the afternoon transmission, one for prime-time transmission, etc. What follows ends in an uproarious set of cosequences. The gist of the serial is 'laughing at one's ownself.' While the saas bahu sagas are ruling the TRPs, why do you think Office Office was being rated the most successful show on SAB TV?
Everyone can relate to the situations that have been shown in Office Office, especially the common man. After a long day at work when one comes back home, this humourous serial appeals to the masses more than the family dramas, for the simple fact that the character of Mussadilal is the representative of the common man. The audience relates to this character and everyone sees himself as this character. It is said that doing comedy is very difficult. Comment.
It is very difficult to do comedy. To make an audience laugh at your antics is a difficult task. One has to be exceptionally good at what he is doing to get a favourable response from the viewer.
You've tried your hand at parallel cinema. And after that small screen serials like Karamchand, Zabaan Sambhaal Ke, Philips Top 10 and Office Office were all comedies. Was this intentional?
It wasn't intentional. Apart from doing comedies, I have also done varied roles. I thought I might get slaughtered in mainline cinema. I might have had to do roles of a villain, an uncle or the typical typecast roles, which I did not want to. In the serial Kab Tak Pukaroon, I had a very serious role that was about the life of one man and went on for 26 episodes on Doordarshan. Then, the serial was rated the second-best serial. I have also played characters like Phatichar. The storyline was very good, but unfortunately it did not run for too long. I did a serial called Lifeline with Vijaya Mehta in which I played the character of a guy who was an MBA returned from London. Then came Zabaan Sambhal Ke, which was very popular. I also did Mohandas B.A.L.L.B that was a serious detective serial. As regards doing comedies, most of the roles I have played of late have been comical because the common man relates to comedies more easily. Which has been your most challenging role till date and what kind of preparation went into it?
For an actor, each role that he is given is challenging. For me, I think the character I played in Neem Ka Ped has by far been the most challenging role of my career. Also, the characters I played in films like Raat, Rui Ka Bhoj and Ek Doctor Ki Maut have been extremely tedious and difficult. All these roles required the actor's understanding of the characters he was playing and for this there is no set method of enacting them. Acting according to me it is "selective realism" because you pick the life of a character and portray it on stage. The characters you play have to be believable and communicable. How do you plan your schedules? How many days in a month do you shoot?
(smiles) I usually do one serial at a time. Till last year, on an average, I used to work around 15 days a month but now I have increased it to 20 days. Do you ever suffer a burnout due to your hectic schedules?
Television is very taxing. We generally work one-and-a-half shifts on a day-to-day basis and the conditions that we work in are not very good. Hence, I do feel tired at the end of the day but since I don't take too much of work at a time, it's not that bad. When you're not working, what do you do?
I am holidaying and spending time with my family, I spend a lot of time writing scripts. Besides, I love listening to music, specially the Sufi kind by the likes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and others.
An actor par excellence, Pankaj Kapoor has been around on television since the early days of soaps and comedy shows. Generations who have grown up on Karamchand and Zabaan Sambhaal Ke are still hooked to his Office Office, that was earlier being shown on SAB TV and from this week will be aired on STAR ONE as Naya Office Office. In a free-wheeling interview withScreen the versatile actor speaks his heart out. Excerpts: Why this change of channel and how will it help?
(pauses) Though we had already aired 80 episodes, there were many people who had heard a lot about Office Office but were not able to see the same. All said and done, SAB TV has a limited reach. STAR One is a popular channel which mostly caters to some light-hearted programmes. With the serial switching over to STAR One, the producers want to reach a wider audience and get more popular. Are there any new changes, both in presentation or the characters?
There will be no change in the presentation and the basic premise: exploitation of common man in all quarters will be there as long as the serial is on air. All characters including Mussadilal, Bhatia, Pandeyji, Shukla, Usha and Patel will very much be there except thatPatel played earlier by Deven Bhojwani will now be essayed by Vrijesh Hirjee. Tell us something about a particular problem you have dealt with?
In one of the upcoming episodes, we have tried to expose the electronic media in a satirical manner. Mussadilal plays the president of a traders' association who is against the promulgation of 'VAT' by the government that has put them to a severe loss. One TV channel sends its crew and records the interview promising that it would be shown the same evening on the channel. In their glee of being shown on TV, Mussadilal and his friends tell everyone to watch the news that night. But to their amazement nothing of the interview appears. To find out what happened, the entire group of traders go to the channel's office. To their utter disbelief they are given a couple of rates: one for the afternoon transmission, one for prime-time transmission, etc. What follows ends in an uproarious set of cosequences. The gist of the serial is 'laughing at one's ownself.' While the saas bahu sagas are ruling the TRPs, why do you think Office Office was being rated the most successful show on SAB TV?
Everyone can relate to the situations that have been shown in Office Office, especially the common man. After a long day at work when one comes back home, this humourous serial appeals to the masses more than the family dramas, for the simple fact that the character of Mussadilal is the representative of the common man. The audience relates to this character and everyone sees himself as this character. It is said that doing comedy is very difficult. Comment.
It is very difficult to do comedy. To make an audience laugh at your antics is a difficult task. One has to be exceptionally good at what he is doing to get a favourable response from the viewer.
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It wasn't intentional. Apart from doing comedies, I have also done varied roles. I thought I might get slaughtered in mainline cinema. I might have had to do roles of a villain, an uncle or the typical typecast roles, which I did not want to. In the serial Kab Tak Pukaroon, I had a very serious role that was about the life of one man and went on for 26 episodes on Doordarshan. Then, the serial was rated the second-best serial. I have also played characters like Phatichar. The storyline was very good, but unfortunately it did not run for too long. I did a serial called Lifeline with Vijaya Mehta in which I played the character of a guy who was an MBA returned from London. Then came Zabaan Sambhal Ke, which was very popular. I also did Mohandas B.A.L.L.B that was a serious detective serial. As regards doing comedies, most of the roles I have played of late have been comical because the common man relates to comedies more easily. Which has been your most challenging role till date and what kind of preparation went into it?
For an actor, each role that he is given is challenging. For me, I think the character I played in Neem Ka Ped has by far been the most challenging role of my career. Also, the characters I played in films like Raat, Rui Ka Bhoj and Ek Doctor Ki Maut have been extremely tedious and difficult. All these roles required the actor's understanding of the characters he was playing and for this there is no set method of enacting them. Acting according to me it is "selective realism" because you pick the life of a character and portray it on stage. The characters you play have to be believable and communicable. How do you plan your schedules? How many days in a month do you shoot?
(smiles) I usually do one serial at a time. Till last year, on an average, I used to work around 15 days a month but now I have increased it to 20 days. Do you ever suffer a burnout due to your hectic schedules?
Television is very taxing. We generally work one-and-a-half shifts on a day-to-day basis and the conditions that we work in are not very good. Hence, I do feel tired at the end of the day but since I don't take too much of work at a time, it's not that bad. When you're not working, what do you do?
I am holidaying and spending time with my family, I spend a lot of time writing scripts. Besides, I love listening to music, specially the Sufi kind by the likes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and others.
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