It was in 1998 that Purab Kohli made his acting debut with the television series Hip Hip Hurray. In the two decades since then, Purab has done a lot of films including Rock On, I Am, My Brother...Nikhil and Airlift besides being a video jockey. Yet no conversation about Purab is ever complete without a mention of Hip Hip Hurray. In an interview with Indulge, the 40-year-old actor reveals that he wasn’t keen on doing this show because he was a ‘Bandra boy’ and this was a Hindi serial. He also talks about transitioning from training to be a pilot to becoming an actor, and his recently released web-series Typewriter. Excerpts from the interview:
Q: When I see Badhai Ho, I am taken back to Hip Hip Hurray, where many issues including having a child in your 40s-50s and conceiving out of wedlock were brought to the fore. How do you reflect on Hip Hip Hurray?
Purab Kohli: I think Hip Hip Hurray was a path-breaking show. It was not a fancy or aspirational story but was more of reality which also gave you an impressionable view of having another way. It was told from the perspective of 17-year-old children — what they really want to say, but aren’t able to because of the social setup. And, I think that’s what hit the right chord. An entire generation grew up with it. We were 17 years old, but our audiences were even 13-year-olds who wanted to be 17, and 27-year-olds who’d have thought ‘I could have made these decisions.’ I think Hip Hip Hurray was the last of the great television era. The content regressed afterwards.
Q: But, you were training to be a pilot. What made you quit it mid-way?
PK: When I was training to be a pilot in 1995-96, there was no airline industry as such. There was one government airline and the jobs were very limited. When my training began, I started to hear about the pilots who sat at home for years before they even got a call. It is an expensive profession to train for because you have to pay for fuel charges. I hadn’t started flying yet — I had given ground exams and had gone for a medical test where I was asked if my father was a pilot, and when I said no, they asked me to reconsider because preference was given to those whose fathers were also pilots. I came back disillusioned, it didn’t make sense to spend about Rs 10-12 lakh and then worry about not having a job. It was a huge amount — it could literally get you a flat in Bandra at that time.
Q: So, how did acting happen?
PK: Acting happened accidentally. I dropped out of my pilot training in December, and the next academic year for senior college was supposed to begin in June. So I had a lot of time in hand. That’s when I heard about a young budding director (Nupur Asthana) who was looking for new faces. She happened to know an uncle of mine. My aunt suggested that I audition for the same. I was not interested, it was a Hindi television serial and in my head, I was a ‘Bandra boy’ who has never watched Hindi serials and would never be doing it for sure. But, there was a meeting at Nupur’s place, which I also had to attend. I had thought that I would go and tell her that I am not interested and apologise for auditioning and wasting her time. I even took two friends along because we had a movie plan afterwards, and I told them to wait for five minutes, outside her house. When I went inside, there were 14 kids sitting there, and among them, two were my friends. I thought I will wait for this group meeting to get over and sat there quietly. But, in the process, I realised it was a really cool group to hang out with, and then over the workshops, I got completely absorbed.
Q: When did you become certain of pursuing acting as a career?
PK: It was only after I saw My Brother...Nikhil on the big screen that I realised I wanted to be an actor. By then, I had already done three films and worked as a video jockey on Channel V — a conscious choice because it was a cool channel and I was a travel host. But before 2005, I did not care much about the role or script, and instead, see if the people on board were cool and if I liked to hang out with them (laughs). Now, it has changed, I have smartened up a bit.
Q: Coming to your web-series Typewriter, what brought you onboard? Also, we heard Sujoy (Ghosh) didn’t find you suitable for the role of Ravi Anand. What exactly happened?
PK: Sujoy was, of course, someone with whom I wanted to work for a very long time. He is a great director! I’ve known him for a long time —it goes back to the sets of My Brother...Nikhil. He had finished shooting Jhankar Beats and had come down to Goa for a month. He was hanging out on the sets when Onir (director of My Brother...Nikhil), who was his friend, asked him to do a role and he obliged. Afterwards, when we were all hanging out, he said, ‘I want to make a ghost story in Goa.’ After that, he called me to do a part in one of his films but I didn’t have the dates. He called me for another part, which I didn’t like much. But, I was feeling a sense of loss for not being able to work with him, especially after I saw Home Delivery.
This time, I got a call from the casting director. They sent me two scenes and asked me to test for it. I tested for it on Monday. Two days later, I got a call again and this time, I was asked to test for Ravi Anand’s role. And, I really liked it. But, Sujoy called me the following day and said I looked too young and that I couldn’t play the role of a father to a nine-year-old. I said, I am old enough to be the father of a nine-year-old. The casting director was also convinced, so she was also pushing it. Finally, Sujoy said, ‘let’s take a leap of faith.’ On Friday morning, I flew to India from London. On Saturday morning, I reached Goa and reached the set at 8 am. We did a look test for the next four hours and at noon, I shot my first scene.
Q: Now that you have finished the series, tell us about your experience of working with Sujoy?
PK: It was lovely. For starters, he is a writer. The world is out of his mind, you can’t challenge that. As an actor, you come on set and really try to understand what the writer has created, and what you can contribute to that creation in order to enhance it — that’s your job essentially. So, he is a writer, he is on the sets with you, you are seeing what he is seeing and the director side of him brings in the aspect of — ‘here’s an actor and these are the qualities that this actor has and how can I mould it into what the writer has written.’ In this case, he is the writer himself so he can sort of bend the rules of a writer. All directors work very differently. His way is that he knows what he wants, but he is still trying to add on what you have, which is a really nice thing for an actor, because you feel you have contributed.
Q: Tell us your most challenging role and the role that gave you the most?
PK: There have been quite a few roles that have been challenging and topping that list would be Awarapan and Jal. And, the ones that gave me the most would be Airlift and Rock On — they have done the best business. In terms of popularity, Rock On. It opened up a market for me, before that, I was doing smaller roles.
Q: Lastly, what’s next?
PK: I am going to work on a Hotstar series that will be announced soon.
Typewriter streams on Netflix.
heena@newindianexpress.com; Twitter: @heenakhandlwal