 All right, here's what I want. Obviously, I love Shahrukh Khan hanging upside down. Yeah. I actually want him in Pothon shirtless hanging upside down. Well, he doesn't have to be, I can hang him upside down myself, but I just, his ripped body, which he's actually ripped for it, whether he took roids for it or not, I mean, it doesn't really matter, you're in a movie. And it was lighting. And then, I mean, there's a little light. No, there's a lot of photos like he's actually ripped. I don't know if it was natural. It doesn't matter. I hope he's not smoking anymore. He probably is. But it's also to get in that kind of shape and still smoke. That's crazy. Gotta be tough if he's still smoking. Hopefully he's not. Obviously, it's very bad for you and everyone else. Yeah, exactly. But anyways, I want like, if somebody has like one of him, like just shirtless, long hair, beard, it's never looked better. Same thing with any of the ladies. No. Josh! Hey, welcome back to our shoot of direction, Boushya, Afrofop, Founster. There was a shaggle hole. Dunluck hole. Uh, uh, uh. It's familiar. Anyways. What are we doing today, Rick? What was that? Just me doing something. Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Today we got a Nisirudinsha interview. There he is. This is a interview from 2019. It's title films don't change the way theater does. You know, challenge you. Challenge, sorry, challenge you. Oh, as an actor? Yeah, apparently. Read this. A 2019 interview of the Thespians and Real Life couple, Nisirudinsha is the founder of Mumbai's Motley Theater Group in 79. Motley's been a considerable influence on contemporary Indian theater over the years. You have seen Ratnapathak Shah as the mom in the movies Kapoorat's Sons. Yeah, and Jayash by Jordar. Oh, okay, cool. Ratnapathak Shah is the daughter of Dinapathak, whom you've seen playing the role of the pretend mom in the classic comedy movie, Gold Mall, starring Uthbal Dutt and Pelikar. Ratnapathak is Supriya Pathak, who is Shahid Kapoor's stepmom. You love Supriya as the mafia mom from Ramleela and I must say, I love the spelling of theater in that entire piece. Wait, so Nisirudinsha's wife. Sister is Shahid's stepmom? Correct. Yes, Nisirudinsha's wife's sister is Shahid Kapoor's stepmom. If you tell me the name, I will ring a bell. Supriya Pathak. Yes, Supriya Pathak. And that's Shid Kapoor's stepmom, and then Nisirudinsha's wife is Ratnapathak. Yeah, Ratnapathak Shah. That's one heck of an acting family. Yeah, no kidding. You got there, especially by the ladies. Anyway, so this is a little interview of him talking about theater specifically. Awesome. Which I know you hate. Here we go. Sir, ma'am, thank you so much for being in the queen, and thank you for doing this. It's been 40 years since the first production of Motley, and when you look back, how do you look at all the plays? How do you look at all the times? They've been mostly good times as far as theater is concerned because our livelihoods never depended on it. My attachment to theater is my hobby, a hobby which I'm very passionate about. We have a very stimulating journey, very educative and great fun. But since your childhood, I mean, did you watch plays and you were interested in movies and cricket? Movies and plays both, all three I found equally magical. I never got to act in a play till I was 14 years old, and the moment I went on stage, I knew this is where I belong. I never got to watch too much cricket because only chess matches were played then. I don't know if you know about this. They were played in places like Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, and so on where I lived in small towns. So I never saw any cricket, but played a lot of it, and it was bliss. And watching movies, I've been watching movies since I was, I think, three. My dad, who was otherwise quite a puritan, for some reason, allowed us to watch a lot of movies. Yeah, because our world is Hollywood is like a no one guessing, right? Yeah, it was Hollywood. It was mainly Hollywood. Hollywood, more movies or cartoons, and in the movies, Dilip Kumar movies. He was discerning, huh? I grew up in a theater family in Bombay. So mine is the exact opposite experience. I grew up backstage practically, and my parents had no qualms about letting me see very bad theater, but had terrible qualms about me seeing movies. So I ended up seeing all movies. It was my aunt, my mom's younger sister, and her husband. They were the movie buffs, and they were part of the early film club movie. They were in a movement in Mumbai called Sujithra. Film society is used to be a movement. And that was the only way one could access films that were not Hollywood. Or not coming to the theaters. Yeah, so I ended up watching a lot of Russian films, for example. I can't say I was starry-eyed about the whole business, because I always saw the backstage. My mom started acting in movies, so I went with her to shooting. I always saw the non-attractive part of the business, or the non-glamorous part of the business. I sometimes feel sorry that I never felt that magical quality about performance. But I didn't, until I started performing myself. But was it like in those days, it was considered nice to be a part of theater than Hindi cinema, or was it like that? There's always so many people who look down on anything popular. So yeah, sure. When films were popular, then people looked down on films. If theater was more popular, people have looked down on theater also before that. Well, in my family, it was just unthinkable to talk of trying to be an actor. And I never confessed it to anyone, except for my two brothers who encouraged me. And then somehow the news found its way to my father by the time I had finished with my college, and then I could do what I pleased. Post the time you started, what, you joined a little later, right? Just a little later. I was in the NSD in 79. I finished with NSD. It's a good-looking man and a woman right there. Then I joined up. But there was nothing really like joining as such, you know? I mean, it's never been like that. I mean, Nasir and Ben got together and said, let's do a play. So let's take this one, that one, as a cricket. That's how we've always functioned. Good friends who we enjoy spending time with. There's no membership, as Ratna said. That's, uh, waiting for Gada, right? I mean, it buggers up a lot, I think so. So we've never had that problem. You know, so I read an interview, it was where you said that now when you look back, you felt like you weren't as good an actor as you want to be. And you said that theater had a huge role in actually making you a better actor. So what is it that it does that you think when you then start working in movies helps you? I don't know if the skills required of the actor, the basic skills change very much depending on the medium. It all depends on the material that you are using. But you see, it's also a question of practice, you know, quite simply. For films, even rehearsal is unheard of, you know? Yeah. And even at times, I've met actors, some pretty good ones who are allergic to rehearsal even before the shot. Spontaneity. Spontaneity. Spontaneity. Spontaneity. But doing theater, you cannot just get on to the stage and spark dialogue and you've got to... So it's especially of Riaz. It's Riaz, it's discipline. It's learning to work with others. Skillful actors like, say, you know, a Johnny Lever, for example, who I consider a highly skillful actor in his own field, of course, would be brilliant on the stage if he would submit to the disciplines. And he's great in movies as well. He does the same thing. And also, the script, I mean, what kind of a demand does a script like Gholmal Threek... What is it all about? The greatest demand it does make is one of patience, which is a tremendous virtue and one should learn it. So that's one... It's mostly waiting on set. Yep. And for your career. And that's why film acting is so tiring because this waiting kills me, you know. Yeah. After days shoot more exhausted than after eight hours. Absolutely. What do you think has been characteristic of a modeling production? Like the plays that you pick, that you feel... Low budgets. We've found that the audiences are largely young. So obviously, the storytelling format is one that seems to attract young people. The stories have a lot of humour. And though they are Urdu and they are set in a particular... They were written at a particular time, they're terribly contemporary stories. Ismath had... I don't think there are too many contemporary writers who can quite match up with her sense of fun and sexual abandon and complete non-judgmental-ness. She's fantastic. You know, I have to say so. I saw Aarath Aarath Aarath and Prithvi and it was a packed audience. So I was just wondering that... Of course most people think that, you know people wanna watch movies and that's the obvious choice of editing for most people. So then in that situation, how do you nurture this? I really enjoy this. Just keeping on doing it. So sometimes you get full house. Sometimes we get full, sometimes we have 20 people in the audience. You keep doing it. Or Aarath Aarath Aarath then... Pesa vasul is basically the bottom line, no? Why do they flock to Salman Khan movies without hesitation? Because they know it's Pesa Vasul. I will think twice, you know. Everything being manned. More than that. So that's the cerebral aspect. Oh, the cerebral aspect. And if I get put off, then bothers me. Johnny packs the Shanmukha in the hall by himself for a solo performance. There's 2,000 people. They know it's Pesavo soon. I know that. What's Pesavo soon? No idea. Nonsense, maybe? Maybe, yeah. Performed to an audience of 2,000 people probably wouldn't work. Because the form is alien. That of storytelling. You know, we've done Ismat Aba Ke Na which we are very proud of and we've had people who understood very good Urdu and have lived the kind of lives of those things but they didn't get the play at all because the form is alien. Of just one person sitting there telling us... Why should we? I don't know. Considering that's the first form of entertainment any of us have seen. Mom telling a story. It makes a demand on the audience. They can't just sit back and they have to say okay, what's being said here? This is something. Why is everybody laughing? I'm missing out. So it's a demanding. What's the right kind of theatre audience etiquette? Because I was there, I remember a bunch of people just reacting so loudly to your play and I thought that must be great for the actors because it's not always. So I was just wondering what is the right what is the good theatre etiquette? Keep your mobile phones off. No hard candies and wrappers. And listen, and if you don't like what you're hearing just quietly get up and go away now. We don't mind. We don't force them. They'll be on their phone. There's something we theatre actors have to live with. We cannot complain about this. I grew up watching people walk in and out of Gujarati Natak constantly and join social group kind of show. And if they stop, they'll be like, the whole lot goes off. You said this thing really funny but how somebody told you that the play was so nice but it was so long. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. It was excruciatingly long. You need to know a great deal about it. You can't just sit down and tell the story or say so and so was very good and so and so was not so good. I wish there was... We don't have such a... we are not cultivated. And now I don't think we are going to because we don't like criticism of any kind. We only want acceptance. We just need that much. So this is a very difficult and dangerous state for our society and certainly for our arts. Do you think that some of that might reflect in the work because it may attract a certain audience or younger audience, a certain comment that you would like to make or a social comment because of what you see or are the plays anyways doing it? I think the plays are doing it. I don't feel the need to talk about my political commitment and that I would only do plays which are political. I think there is politics in everything including in relationships. And to me that's far more interesting than the... Than an outgoer. Than the doings of some corrupt man who is in power. No, because I know that every time you have made a comment I don't think you are on social media but Twitter goes crazy. Good. Good. That's nice, isn't it? But it's so silly this entire conversation this entire mess that we are in just now that the less we talk about it and the less importance we give it the better it is. Everyone make up your own minds there. I am used at the trolling that happens to me this is the music and I rarely say I like very much what you say. On what platform do you say that? Facebook? Twitter is quite ridiculous because Twitter is cool. Just a couple of days ago there was a guy who tweeted about how he didn't like a certain delivery man because he was from a certain religion and he had asked you to put it on Twitter. How lovely. I say thank you very much to him. Look at how many people are talking about it. Look at what is being said. The man has shown his place. I like that. There's a lot of filth in all of us. We all have to let it out. Great shirt. There's a lot of filth in all of us. Learn how to think again. This gandagi should not be bottled up. Take it out. Mando also said that. And that's why I think Mando Ismat Hazir here that we are going to be doing and if you haven't come and seen it you must come and see it. It's so relevant in today's time. And he says that. Do you find these times are going to be hard for art? Oh yes. And great for art. Great for art. Maybe not immediately. Maybe ten years down the line. Because this is the first time a generation is actually seeing what it feels like to be misruled. Your generation is the first real generation that is feeling hopeless. Like the people felt just before independence that sense of despair how long will we carry on in this horrible state. I'm afraid it's going to be tough but it may be necessary. And I have a feeling we'll come out better because again there have never been so many educated people in India and so many young educated people in India and hopefully the rest of us will die off quickly. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Okay. I love that old man thing. How do I take the mic off? But also did he say anything about film challenging you the way theater does? A sentence. What was it? Thank you so much. The processes of discipline patience and rehearsal. That you don't have to have those disciplines in film acting. And so they're a couple, right? You can tell. I love her. We've liked her in everything she's been in so far her performances at least but in the beginning of when Harry met Sally and throughout the film they have multiple couples talk about their relationship and their actors kind of what it felt like. Some of them had been together for 40 years or 60 years and have they been together that long? I think they have been. They showed the picture of them when they started the theater company way back in like 1973. The fact that they know each other so well and she seems more like the at least in this subject matter when that was like I want to talk. She's the talkative one and he's totally cool with it. Go ahead honey. Talk away. She's a fashion man. She fires up when she's talking. That's something I... One of my favorite things about them in this and about Naseradin is I've never understood and I talk about this with my buddy Rich all the time who were the same age never understood the checking out on life as you get older and like getting stuck in your ways and retiring and just having calcified in body and calcified in mind versus that where you're still, you're passionate and you're not just passionate about what you're doing you're a realist and she's like 10 years from now I want to know what it's going to be like for us it's not going to be so much and in 25 years we won't be here and totally okay with recognizing that's the role we're playing in our life right now and still being passionate about it. I love them. What she said about the young people is very true though. Yeah, specifically that's all over. It's all over the planet. That's America, that's Iran right now there's so many different countries since we've grown up my generation specifically and younger people that grew up with the internet now and we are more knowledgeable than any other previous generation of terms of like stuff going on and the reality is governments trying to tell you one thing but you see evidence as the contrary and all over the place so we're very in terms of I think we I don't know if that's a specific name we are the knowledge generation of having our fingertips if I really want to know something but also the flip side is there's also tons of misinformation but also I feel like younger generations even though parents my generation's parents were the ones that were like don't believe everything you read on the internet but it's always people of your generation that are like believing something on American Eagle dot gov exactly check your sources like seriously come on use your brain and then people of my generation are like do you know who the who's saying that exactly do you believe everything on the internet right anyways I like what you said there I did too and so I think they'd be I've wanted to talk to Sarah and Shaw forever but I would also love to talk to her and Sarah and Shaw about just he seems like seems like a theater man we knew it the moment we saw him in Deborah and everything we've ever seen and heard both in his performances and in his interviews is he is the he is a thespian he is an actors actor that's why most of our like pancaches of the world noirs always like he's who I want to be yeah exactly he's the style of actor it goes down to the core of their being he said it's a hobby but it's more I would venture to argue it's just a hobby because it doesn't pay him as much as films do right vocationally which is the way for all theater actors no one's doing it for the money nobody Nathan Lane but even he he can make more in film Jackman makes more in movies than he did for music man but he does it I've heard him talk there's a really cool documentary about Broadway and how it from the build up of it all the way through its decline in the 70s and 80s up to it's and Jackman was talking about it and he said specifically he said of all the experiences I've ever had as an actor none has been the most exhilarating and the most fulfilling for me as an actor then Broadway then the response I get from the live audience in the moment and also knowing he said if you think about this at any given moment on Broadway at 8pm eastern the amount of talent on display in that moment in New York City nothing like it anywhere in the world happening at the same time on stage live in New York it's great it's Saturday night great interview love to talk to Nassir and his lovely wife Ratina Ratna let us know what their next film should be down below