13 April,2011 10:28 AM IST | | Urmimala Banerjee
He loves watching the aeroplanes from his living room window. And hates the idea of being "in the news" when he has no work to talk about. We are talking about actor Vinay Pathak who will soon be seen with Lara Dutta in his upcoming film.
"She's beautiful, talented, well-read, well-travelled, and a grounded woman with a great sense of comic timing. She's the surprise package of the film," says Vinay. He talks to CS about his work, passion for cinema and being media shy:
Script is the king
This is an exciting time for us actors. We have a number of directors who are great story-tellers and have a fabulous eye for detailing. I loved Sriram Raghavan's vision in Johnny Gadar and Shashank Shah's detailing in Dasvidaniya. I love playing characters that are well-sketched and take the story forward in a film. He (the character) has to be one of the story-tellers. The joy of a good script is something else for an actor. It makes working in a film a spiritual experience. The late Bimal Roy is one of my favourite directors. I also love some of the Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra films. Then, there's Guru Dutt and Vijay Anand. In the 1980s, I saw almost every Basu Bhattacharya, Basu Chatterjee and Sagar Chatterjee film.u00a0
Films first
Films have always been my ultimate indulgence. I'd run away from my boarding school to watch films, irrespective of whether the film playing was in Malayalam or Russian. In those days, they used to first show the ads, then the news, followed by the film. Sometimes, they even showed cricket. This build up to the film was very exciting. So, when the first look of the film came, it was like the ultimate moment.
Now, I have a huge projector at home, and we have movie parties with friends. The floor becomes the stall, the wooden bench the upper stall and my red sofa the dress circle. Even now, I don't mind rushing off to see an 11 pm show straight from my shoot, dinner can always wait. In a day, I can easily see two-three films back to back; I've once seen five!
Sans spotlight
While I love acting, I don't like being in the spotlight like many other actors. Quite often, you'll find me sitting on the windowsill counting aeroplanes in the sky. It's my way of staying sane in this insane world. I love spending time with my daughters, Vasudha and Shalini. I don't understand this need to be in constant limelight or to be seen in the right clothes. Comfort is my fashion mantra and I stick to it. Most of my socialising happens at home, where my filmy and non-filmy friends get together.
