Decades ago, in 1991, when he was doing the TV show Chanakya, Sanjay Mishra apparently had to give 29 takes. The disgruntled director, supposedly, then asked him to first perfect his act with an assistant director. Cut to 2014, the NSD student is counted amongst the hardcore talent in meaningful cinema. As Rake Bauji in Rajat Kapoor’s Ankhon Dekhi, a film based on existentialism, he won the Filmfare Best Actor Male Critics’ Award. “The Filmfare Award was most unexpected. I received so many phone calls that night that my battery died. I have watched great actors from Dilip Kumar to Amitabh Bachchan holding the Filmfare trophy. It was an achievement for me to hold the Black Lady too,” smiles Sanjay who drove to Shirdi the next day with the award in a bid to express gratitude.
More recently, he was appreciated in YRF’s Dum Lagake Haisha and debutant director Neeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan.The film has won two awards at Cannes - the International Federation of Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI) and Promising Future Prize. At the other end of the spectrum he has Rohit Shetty’s entertainer Dilwale coming up.
Sanjay credits Rajat Kapoor for the jump in his career curve. “While we were doing Phas Gaye Re Obama (a serious comedy on recession) Rajat Kapoor had asked me, ‘If I write a film with you in my mind, will you do it?’ We got busy later. In the meanwhile Rajat approached Naseeruddin Shah. After some time we met again. He then told Naseer saab that as I was his first choice, he’d be signing me instead. Later, when Naseer saab saw Ankhon Dekhi he sent me a message, ‘No one in the world can act like you’. Since he had not written his name, I didn’t know who the message was from. Then he sent another message. ‘Guruji! Will you call me? - Naseeruddin Shah’. I called him up and he said that he was moved to tears after watching the film. That was a huge compliment.” He adds, “Naseer saab and Om Puri are like gods for us theatre actors.”
(clockwise) With wife Kiran Mishra, With father the late Shambhu Nath and a still from Masaan
Sanjay who comes from Patna, Bihar, started his career on the small screen. He has done about 20 serials. His comic take as Shukla, the corrupt paan-chewing official in the sitcom Office Office won him raves. He even got the opportunity to work with stalwart Pankaj Kapur. “Pankajji stays serious most of the time. On seeing him, I forgot my dialogue. I asked people on the set to tell him some dirty jokes so that he would thaw. Gradually, he loosened up. He’s a real actor,” says Sanjay.
He began his movie career with Oh Darling, Yeh Hai India and went on to do films like Satya, Dil Se, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, the Golmal series, Guru, Welcome and Kick. His comic act in Rohit Shetty’s All The Best: Fun Begins also got him praise. In fact his dialogue, “Dhondu just chill!” had audiences rolling in their seats. This was followed by his impeccable comic timing in One Two Three. But he says he’d rather be known as a serious actor.
He observes that cinema has undergone much change. “In the rush for providing entertainment, we ignored literature. Change will happen when content-driven films will get good openings, when actors, not stars, will rule.” He names Anurag Kashyap, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Neeraj Pandey and Dibakar Bannerjee as the vanguards of change.
He denies the fact that his film career is on a roll. “Actors like us don’t get work easily. An actor is like soap. A person rarely changes his brand of soap. Similarly, telling a person to watch a film of a certain actor is difficult. It takes immense effort on the part of an actor to win an audience,” he says. “Acting is my lifestyle, not my life. My family is more important. I have no desire to become famous. I do not wish to sacrifice my life for the sake of work. There are people who are more talented than me. But they still do not get work.” He continues, “Maybe, just 10 per cent of people know me by name but they are familiar with the characters I’ve played. That’s my achievement. For me acting is just a rehearsal. I don’t waste time in reading a script and preparing. I look into the eyes of the director to see what he wants and then deliver.”
Sanjay is a self-confessed nomad at heart. He calls himself ‘manmauji’. As a youngster he’d travel to the Himalayas, the banks of the Ganges and elsewhere all the time. No wonder his schooling remained incomplete. And even though he joined theatre in Delhi, he did not acquire the diploma certificate. “I enjoy practical training. For me, knowledge is important, not a certificate. A person learns from experience not from books.” The brooding actor considers the year 2009 as the darkest phase in his life. That was when his father passed away. “In February, 2009, I was hospitalised for a stomach ailment. The doctors there removed 15 litres of water from my stomach with a syringe. I used to get recurrent dreams that I was lying in a room covered with a white sheet and everyone was paying their last respects to me.” When Sanjay was discharged from hospital, he was in for a shock. “I went to meet Papa. I was shocked to see that it was he who was lying in a room covered with a white sheet instead. I couldn’t believe what I saw. Actually, it was I who was supposed to die. But God changed his mind and took away my father instead. My father died instead of me.”
He regrets the times when he was rude to his father. “During my illness, I had turned irritable. I used to misbehave with him and others. When Aloo Chat released, Papa insisted we watch the film. A fan wanted to click a photo with me in the theatre but I drove him away. Papa asked me not to behave in this manner. I fired Papa in front of everyone. He turned quiet.”
He confides, “As Papa’s funeral preparations were on, I happened to read his diary. He had written, ‘Sanjay was rude to me front of his friends. I was hurt’. That moment
I wanted to rest my head on Papa’s feet and seek forgiveness. It was so heartbreaking. I was shattered.”
After his father’s death, Mishra went off to Haridwar and began working as a cook at a dhaba. Till Rohit Shetty called him for All the Best: Fun Begins. “I had gone out of my mind and would roam about aimlessly. I had witnessed death and life so closely. I realised the truth about life.” Sanjay’s life gained colour after he married Kiran from Delhi. “Now, I just have to fulfil my responsibilities towards my daughters - Lamha (4) and Pal (2).” Apart from acting he seeks solace in classical music and gardening. “I see life in plants,” says the traveller who has come home to peace.