You came to Bombay more than twenty five years ago. What were your first feelings when you landed in what they call the city of dreams?

To tell you the truth, it was a bundle of mixed feelings. I was excited. I was scared. I was full of all kind of ambition. I was filled with all kinds of anxieties. I was also worried about how I would fulfill my ambition in this city where I did not know a soul except for a friend like Suhas Khandke.

He was born and brought up as a Bombay boy who had come to NSD and was a very good friend. I felt like running away, but I also felt like taking up the challenge and see what happened. I was a believer in destiny even at a very young age and I wanted to see what destiny was going to do with the boy from Shimla. I was like a little boy lost in this great city but not willing to go away without finding my way.

How were the initial days?

It was a question of sheer survival. I realized only the fittest and the brave hearts could do anything in this city. This was certainly not a city for cowards and the lily hearted. I decided to survive and fight it out. I lived in a slum where I made a living by giving tuitions for Rupees Five per student. I had just two pair of clothes. I walked all the way from Kherwadi in Bandra to Prithvi Theatre in Juhu and walked back home. My permanent diet was Dal and Rice. The Rajma came when I started finding some work.

How did the pilgrim's progress continue?

I kept doing some plays but the real recognition came when I played a major role in Balwant Gargi's Desire Under The Elms. I was successful. My work was seen by some well known names. I felt very encouraged when they said I was a good actor. Some newspapers even wrote about me and published my photographs for the first time. I felt it was a great beginning.

But was it a really good beginning?

No, it was only the beginning of a new struggle. I started making the rounds of studios and offices like all newcomers do. I was rejected, humiliated, thrown out and offered advice to go back to wherever I had come from. Some very kind souls said they could offer me bit roles or at best the kind of roles with Mr. A. K. Hangal rejected. Everyday was D day but I refused to give up.

When did destiny decide to be kind to you?

A journalist friend took me to a very big party. All the great names I had only seen in the films or in my dreams were all there. I couldn't believe where I was. My friend introduced me to as many big names as possible. Then I met Mr. Rajkumar Barjatya. He asked me some questions and asked me to see him in his office. I went without knowing that it was going to be a visit that would change my life. His company was planning to make Saaraansh those days. They had finalized Sanjeev Kumar and Smita Patil to play the main roles in the film to be directed by Mahesh Bhatt. I knew they had not finalized the cast or signed them through my friend Suhas who has played the hero in one of their films.

What did you do next?

I had met Mr. Mahesh Bhatt during my struggle and he had promised to give me work. I rushed to him and literally drove him mad till he finally agreed to do a screen test with me. I passed the test, I had to, I was a good actor, after all. I was offered the role of a sixty five year old retired man when I was just twenty six. I accepted the role because as a trained actor in theatre I knew I could do it. I did it and the rest as they say is Anupam Kher's history.

You must have been offered similar roles which is the rule of the industry?

No, I was lucky. I was offered all kinds of roles. I played Sharmila Tagore's husband in my very second film. Then I was cast as Dr. Dang, the villain opposite the mighty Dilip Kumar, the greatest actor in the country. I was nervous like I had never been, but I managed to pull it off and both the mighty one and the maker, the great showman were all praise for my work. That was the beginning of a new beginning for me.

It was just Anupam and more of Anupam after that…

I just couldn't believe what was happening to me. I was offered five films every day. In the beginning I took up every film. I think it was a case of sheer insecurity which is what I feel when I think about it now. But I gradually realized that quantity would kill quality and cut down on the number of films but I was still very busy doing three and four shifts a day. I couldn't believe which world I was busy in. I was wanted by all the big filmmakers. I was loved by the people and the critics. I won almost every major award and it was like living in a dream world from which there seemed to be no way out.

I have never had time to keep a record but I have a feeling that I must have done so many films. The very fact that I have been working almost everyday during all these years can justify that number. I have tried my best to do justice to every role I have done. I have succeeded sometimes and failed at other times. But I have always managed to keep the actor in me alive, thank God.

How did you manage to maintain your sanity in the face of an unreal world most of the time?

I managed somehow. I did TV. I did theatre. I did social work, genuine social work. I got involved in various issues concerning society and the country as a whole. I kept in touch with the realities of life. I never let success go to my head, even though I had all the reasons to. That and many other things kept me from going mad.

You then branched out and started your own TV, Events and Entertainment Company!

Ambition, you know what ambition can do to man. I started my own company which did very well for a while. But I did not understand the business of it and gradually things went wrong and the company had to be disbanded. It was my first major failure which taught me lessons for a lifetime.

You then went on to head some very important bodies which took decisions on matters connected with entertainment....

It was again something planned by destiny. I was appointed director of the NSD and then the chairperson of the CBFC. I did my best to bring about some changes. I tried to put some of my ideas into practice, but I could not find a way to fulfill them. The intricacies, the intrigues, the interference, the wheels within wheels, I could not be a part of all that. I was very relieved when I was out of it all.

You directed your first film OM JAI JAGDISH and people said you were doing it because you had no work as an actor?

I always wanted to direct a film. I had learned all that it took to direct a film, not from any institute or working under any director, but by observation and with the will to learn. I don't know why people say all kinds of silly things when someone takes a major decision. All I did was make a good film. I did my best and I have no regrets about it.

You then produced MAINE GANDHI…"

I wanted to experience every aspect of filmmaking personally. It was the subject, the well known director Jahnu Barua and my role in the film that gave me the courage to produce a film that was very different, I loved making that film and I would not mind making many more films like that.

And now you have started your own acting school. There is so much competition among acting schools. How do you hope to face this competition?

I have not started my school to compete with any school or any head of any school. My school is my mission, my way of giving back what I have received. I have been successful till now. I have some major plans for expanding the activities of the school. My school is not a business venture that can be run like a business house but a Gurukul where students are groomed to be good actors and with no other intention.

You seem to have suddenly sprung back as an actor.

That time also had to come. I was very busy with so many other activities that I had to take a break. I am now being offered the best of roles and I am taking on the best of them because I believe the best of me as an actor has still to come.

How do you see the future of Anupam Kher?

I have come so far without making any definite plans. I will continue to work as long as I can and am wanted. I have many more ambitions to fulfill in various fields of life, not just films. Life is one long journey and my journey has reached a stage which is still a mid way. Yahan kuch bhi ho sakta hain and I am prepared for anything.