The actors of modern times don’t want to work with the actors who have different ideologies but there was a time when actors with different ideologies and different thought processes used to work together and enjoy some time with each other as well.
Recently, senior actress Ratna Pathak Shah opened up on this matter and also revealed as to why she and her husband Naseeruddin Shah worked with Paresh Rawal and Anupam Kher.
During an interview, she said, “We all grew up at a time when two people can be friends, but can also have different ideologies. You’re right in your place, I’m right in mine. There’s dialogue, discussion, and even disagreement, but that doesn’t cause a rift in interpersonal relations. This is a more recent trend. This is neither our country’s culture nor I’ve seen anything like this before.”
Ratna further said, “I was born in a home where my father was from an RSS family and my mom was from a Communist family. There was constant debate and arguments at our home, but still, we all lived together happily. I know that disagreement with an opinion doesn’t mean dislike of a person. This is a very new phenomenon, that if you don’t agree with me then you should be cancelled. This isn’t our culture, at least it’s not my culture, nor of anyone I know.”
She concluded by saying, “They’re making us Indians fight with each other like kids do in the school playground. How bullies ill-treat weaker kids. Do we want to be like them? No. I won’t become one, nor will I let my kids become them either. Whoever I have an influence on, I’ll tell them, ‘We cannot become bullies.’ We have to become cultured human beings. That’s our culture. Everyone makes so much noise about yoga these days. What does ‘yog’ mean? To culture yourself continuously and spend an entire lifetime making yourself a better human every day, in every way. That’s what BK Iyengar said. That’s what I’ve learnt from our country. These petty quarrels? That’s not my culture.”
Ratna and Paresh worked in Hum Do Hamare Do (2021) and she worked with Anupam Kher last year in Trial by Fire.
Ratna Pathak Shah is absolutely correct about working with people of different ideologies, what do you think?
