You were among the first of the Indian actors to represent India internationally. How was the reception there?
Well, nobody welcomes you there, you have to fight and make a place for yourself. For me having a career on 3 continents has been a privilege, but also a difficult job, because you have to figure where to be current, where to try and make a mark and I’ve had varying degrees of success on varying continents. I think my greatest success has been in Europe, on American television and of course the Bond film and The Bold and the Beautiful.
Your take on the following people:
Anna Hazare
I think Anna Hazare is symbolically a very important figure because he represents the anger that people feel against corruption in India. I feel that anger has not gone away and whatever route Anna Hazare sahab chooses or Arvind Kejriwal choose, whether they are in difference, the objective remains the same which is the ending of corruption in India.
Arnab Goswami
I think Arnab has developed his style of extremely combative journalism as opposed to dispassionate journalism and I think he’s been very successful with what he does.
Rekha
Rekha was an iconic actress. Within herself, she has got a sort of childlike simplicity and I think that is a part of her charm. She’s always presented herself wonderfully, you’ll never ever see a bad picture of Rekha.
Indian Television v/s International television, since you have worked with both…
Well it’s very difficult to compare televisions of different countries because they really are so different. It’s almost a reflection of differences in societies. In England, what they do best is drama, but what you’ll find almost absent in American and English television is the kind of the impassioned political debate we have on Indian television and Italian television for that matter. We are far more politically involved as people.
The last film you loved watching:
Life of Pi.
The last book that you liked reading:
I’m going to go for Narcopolis by Jeet Thayal even though I haven’t fully finished it.
Three problems that are plaguing India-
One is corruption. The other being the lack of an efficient criminal justice system, starting all the way from the police chauki up to the Supreme Court. And thirdly, I’d say lack of quality education.
