Adventures in creativity

Actors Profile

But ask Prashant Narayanan, and he will tell you that acting is just one of the things that he does. This former Delhi state badminton champion dabbles in what one may describe as too many creative pursuits — writing short stories, composing music,  singing, art direction, costume design and acting of course. And even as his Mr Singh Mrs Mehta, a celluloid tale on marital infidelity has hit the screens, Narayanan avers that he only does films that are not exactly run of the mill. Going by his choice of films till now ever since he debuted in Hanslal Mehta’s Chhal (2002), his claim sounds true.

Even his upcoming films — Bombil and Beatrice directed by Kaizad Gustad; Peter Gaya Kaam Se directed by John Owen; Rang Rasiya directed by Ketan Mehta; and  Indraneel Goswami’s Badmaash Banna — come with interesting concepts. Just as his Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II, German Oscar-winning director Florian Gallenberger’s Bengali film Shadows of Time and Aijaz Khan’s yet to be released The White Elephant have been. Narayanan is upfront about why he does so few films despite being a sought after actor ever since he made heads turn with his hitman act in Chhal which had followed appearances in TV serials like Parivartan, Farz, Gatha, Kabhi Kabhie, Jaane Kaha Jigar Gaya Ji and Shagun.

“I have never been somebody who pushes his work. I work, and let it take its own route to destiny,” he says. “I am looking forward to Peter Gaya Kaam Se as I am playing a difficult part of a reclusive drug lord,” says the actor who was costume-director for Chandra Prakash Dwivedi’s epic TV series Chanakya. “The character is interesting because it is shown to be really powerful, and there are many ways to show one as powerful — are you powerful because you have money, or because you have the power with different people, or because you have contacts, or because you have been around in a place for long,” he adds.

That he’s not yet a mass-recognised name is, Narayanan feels, because most of his films have not been publicised well, be it Chhal, Via Darjeeling or Summer 2007. “I am really not fighting my destiny. Instead, I’m trying to make it my friend and make the best of what I get,” he says.

Narayanan is excited about Badmaash Banna which he has co-written with Indraneel and will also star Naseeruddin Shah. Apart from acting in and writing the film, he has also sung the title track with Kailash Kher.

“Indraneel, nephew of former football star Chuni Goswami, is a brilliant chap. I plan to do at least 10 small budget interesting movies with him, which will tell new kinds of stories,” says the actor who has around six screenplays ready. “I am just looking for one guy who will say ‘Prashant, do what you like, I am with you’. I am sure there will be one guy like that,” he says. One of the films that he has written, to be directed by Adip Singh, is Cinema Ki Aankh for which he will also compose the music.

Narayanan, who earlier assisted art director Samir Chanda in films like Govind Nihalani’s Rukmavati Ki Haveli, Subhash Ghai’s Saudagar and Shyam Benegal’s Sardari Begum, is also on the verge of completing his book of short stories titled ‘Till Until Then’ even as he is preparing for the debut album of his band Pacific Coast Orchestra, titled Kalmsutra.
Meanwhile, acting for him remains a “very, very pure” thing. “It’s not just for the glamour, the money or all the fringe benefits that I act. I feel that we should all help each other in the film industry. But I see 90 per cent of people acting off cameras. In front of the camera, they can’t even do two per cent of what they do in real life,” he says without mincing words about the ways of Bollywood.

Does that mean that Narayanan is averse to doing commercial films? He is in fact doing one tentatively titled Rekha Ki Chakkar Mein. The only condition is that such a film would have to have a good script and a good director. “I wanted to be in an extremely chaotic situation once, and after the first day of shooting, I realised that this was the one. It’s a comedy with a very interesting script,” he says.

In Mr Singh Mrs Mehta, Narayanan plays a man who finds out that his wife is having an extra-marital affair, and ends up bonding with a woman whose husband is having one too.

“It is the story of a man and woman who find out that their spouses are having an affair and drawn together by shame and anger. They discover comfort in their growing friendship even as they resolve not to be like their unfaithful mates. Mine is a pretty traumatic character full of complexes,” says Narayanan, who had begun his career through amateur theatre in Delhi before shifting to Mumbai in the early 90s.