Veteran actor Ashish Vidyarthi turned 63 today. He got talking about the long and versatile journey he has had in the film industry in an interview with us.
Ashish Vidyarthi on life, cinema and love as he turns 63, “I am looking for people to give me those roles which are central”
Ashish, it has been quite a journey for you
I feel really grateful for the opportunity that I have got with films to reach and touch so many lives with my work. So, really, first of all, absolutely grateful for that. The last 35 years or whatever the number of years that has been, has been one of, you know, a personal journey. I have seen me grow in my varied forms, thanks to cinema. So, a journey which began with being a theatre actor from Delhi to an actor across eleven languages in more than 350 plus films.
350 films?
Yes (laughs). I have had some very major roles in the past. And, yes, I do feel something like a Ziddi and a Bichhoo met with a lot of, you know, crowd approval and people loved it. And so, that was amazing. Of course, Govind Nihalani’s Droh Kaal and Sudhir Mishra’s Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin, etc, were films, which received a lot of critical acclaim. To be very honest, I am actually now looking at this age, looking for that next milestone for me to rejoice and talk about. These all were amazing films.
But they are now in the past and I am grateful for them. But I am actually, my mouth is watering for that next central part, which can ever come to me. It’s been a while since I have done some, some central role. The roles that I am doing now are important. And people are appreciating them. It could be even in Nikhil Bhat’s Kill that you saw a little while back, in Ranneeti, what you saw, in Khufiya, and, you know, all these films which have come in the last few years. But I am looking for that pivotal central part. And that’s what the draw is.
What kind of roles do you seek now?
I have been doing a lot of these roles which are very important roles and added value, you know, those five-day roles, seven-day roles, ten-day roles lately. But I really am looking for that central role which can take my career in terms of people understanding that, wow, this is an actor who can carry a film, carry a project. So, I am looking for people to, you know, give me those roles in OTT and films which can be central in which I am doing something amazing. So, I have a lot of roles within me. Lately as I saw myself, you know, over the years, mostly doing negative roles, that’s why this recent avatar of me, of a stand-up comedian.
Are you enjoying doing stand-up?
I started my first stand-up comedy at the age of 58. This year March 31st, I started the journey with Sit Down Ashish. We have done over fifteen odd shows all over the country. It’s really kind of surprising myself and surprising the world that whom you have thought only a person who can mostly do negative roles or very strong roles, how he can laugh at himself and life. And it’s amazing how people are loving this new avatar and it’s a very, very challenging and very interesting thing where you are standing with your mic in front of an audience and you get one and a half hours to regale them with stories and laughter and leave them at a place that, you know, they feel great.
I am so very happy that this one is clean comedy. I am making people laugh without using profanity or abuses or sexual innuendos. And I am really enjoying this. It’s not that anything wrong with that. But this particular one which is Sit Down Ashish is clean and people across ages, families, you know, coming in watching it and youngsters and old people all coming in. So, really enjoying that.
You recently followed the call of your heart and married the woman you loved
Yup, I have followed the call of my heart and married the woman I love. It has allowed me to even recognize that I still do dream. I still love, love. I have always believed that love is something which moves lives. And I am very happy that at this stage of my life and I saw that I wish to live with a wife, with a human being as my partner. I am so grateful to the universe that Rupali came into my life. And we both had the courage and literally the word is courage because the world, you know, seems to look at remarriage in very odd terms especially at the age that we are at. And, you know, many people have called it courage. I said that we just did what we wanted to.
Weren’t you scared by log kya kagenge?
The reaction of some people…. people are scared to do things that they really wish to do. I shared with a friend of mine when I told him that don’t write my resignation letter of life. Because people feel that after a certain age they have to stop dreaming. And have to, you know, condemn themselves to drudgery and inanity. Ab kya bacha hai zindagi mein, and all that blah.
And I really feel that at any age you must have hope to create something amazing for yourself. Because when you have creating something amazing and therefore, after marrying Rupali, you know, both of us as we are traveling all over the country, we are capturing stories with our vlogs, we are dancing, we are enjoying, we are working. That’s where even stand-up comedy also got created. I am creating those stories that can we have a laugh at things which otherwise seemed very dangerous and forbidding. So, it’s really been a whiff of fresh air in my life and I am so happy that I took that step.
You like some people and you don’t like some. Alright? And that’s how some directors would like to work with some. Not like to work with some others. And that is as much which is true anywhere in the world. You know, you would tend to favour some people that you like, some people that you don’t. The entire game in life is to keep believing in yourself and make yourself somebody whom people cannot ignore. And they say, hey, listen, I love this person. I would love to work with him. So, I have not had, and not just me. I am saying, any person that you have seen who has come from outside of the film industry and who has created a niche for himself or herself, each one of us have done it in spite of the odds.
So, it’s not at all a question that you want everybody to love you only then will you work. No, it is your passion which allows you to continue and to keep knocking. And therefore, I don’t hold anything against anybody. I really think that people have given me whatever that they have given me. And yet, I keep knocking, believing that people will, you know, give me the roles that I really want.
Stand-up comedy at this stage of your career, what next?
I am always open to new possibilities, open to new things. I am looking forward to some interesting parts for me to go ahead. But till then, I am traveling all over the country and hopefully the rest of the world with my stand-up comedy which is Sit Down Ashish. Other than that, I continue to do my motivational talks where I talk about life. I also am coming up with a storytelling show, most probably titled Zindaganiya, Zindagi ki Kahaniya. It’s going to be a musical conversation piece that I am going to be having with the audience. I am really having an amazing time as far as unfulfilled dreams are concerned. Every day, I kind of, I am grateful to the universe that I am getting this opportunity.
That thanks to my work, I get to travel every day, meet people and I am grateful that Rupali, I found a partner in Rupali who loves to travel, discover things with me. She has made a complete alteration in how she has been living her life. And it’s a joy to travel with her and tell stories along with her about the rest of the world. Change will never be made in the past. Change is always going to be made in the present. So, even as I am speaking to you, I am actually making a change. I am making a change by asking for something that I really want in my life. So, any regret that I have, I replace my regret with action. And action only happens in the present. And that’s where we are.
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