Sashi Kumar jokes that he feels ridiculous when people recognise him as an actor and not a journalist first
Sashi Kumar
Sashi Kumar has not seen Ennu Ninte Moideen. But then he has also not seen Love 24x7. Two Malayalam films he has recently been seen in. In Moideen, it is only a few scenes, as the secular silent father of Kanchanamala. In Love 24x7, it is a lot more, playing a role opposite a veteran actor like Suhasini Maniratnam. But even after a few films as these, Sashi Kumar does not really enjoy acting. It is just something he ends up doing, when friends call, when mutual friends of filmmakers ask. What is interesting is after all these years of journalism, of being known as a prominent media personality who brought Asianet to Malayalees and ACJ to journalism students, Sashi Kumar has to now hear him being introduced as ‘an actor, above everything else’.
“When I go to give talks in institutions, I am introduced as a guy who did all this and in the end they say ‘athilokke upari’ he has acted in Loudspeaker. And I feel ridiculous,” he says, laughing. Not that he thinks acting is not a great profession, it is just that he values his other work in the media far more. Not that he is not used to that kind of recognition, his days as a television anchor had brought it on once.
Filmmaking now, that is something he could try his hands on, and he has too. Kaya Taran or Chrysalis was a film made in Hindi in the backdrop of the anti-Sikh riots of ‘84 and the Gujarat riots of ‘2002. He has made a documentary on a friend fighting cancer, Vijayalakshmi, the story of a young woman with cancer, and a science fictional feature called Nemesis-II, and directed several features for television. “The film on Vijayalakshmi was made in 16mm film. Unfortunately a copy is not available anywhere now.”
He has with him a couple more story ideas, one about music and another based on a real life incident. They will be in Tamil, one perhaps a bilingual. Tamil Nadu is a place he has spent a lot of his time at. In fact he grew up in Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, Kerala has always been a summer vacation destination. But he doesn’t get the time to develop his ideas into films. “You need at least six to eight months for that.” He believes in the newness of a film, and says his films will not be the kind he acts in.
Acting, he says is 90 per cent waiting and 10 per cent acting. Different from the television media he was used to, going through everyday deadlines. As the man who founded Asianet, Sashi Kumar is often the person everyone goes to for advice to start a new channel. But a new channel is not something he’d advice. “There is a whole paradigm shift taking place, the way of experiencing the media. It is not anymore a media produced by some of us and consumed by others. We are in the realm of user generated journalism.”
Another interest is music. Sashi Kumar has learnt Carnatic for quite a few years. He would, in the old days, sit with his father-in-law and renowned lyricist P Bhaskaran, to talk of music and sing songs together. Now he just sings to himself, no stages for him.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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