From comedy and villainy to intense biographical portrayals, Anupam Kher has done it all. Yet, when asked about his most difficult roles, Kher points to three: Mahatma Gandhi, former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. These, he says, were not just characters, but living legacies he had to recreate with utmost honesty.
In a recent conversation with ANI, Kher opened up about how these roles challenged him deeply as an actor. “Portraying Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Dr. Manmohan Singh, and Mahatma Gandhi was extremely difficult,” he shared. “Among them, playing Dr. Manmohan Singh was the toughest.”
He explained why the role of India’s former Prime Minister demanded such precision. “With Gandhi ji and Tagore, we have plenty of reference material: old photographs, black-and-white videos, films, and writings. Their era feels distant, almost frozen in time,” Kher said. “But Dr. Manmohan Singh is someone we’ve all seen live on our TV screens. His mannerisms were very subtle, his tone was calm, and his personality extremely controlled. Portraying that balance was like walking on the edge of a blade.”
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To prepare for ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ (2019), where he played Dr. Singh, Kher dedicated almost half a year to mastering every small detail. “I rehearsed for five to six months,” he recalled. “How he walks, how he sits, how he moves his hands. I studied everything. During our shoot in England, I was rehearsing how he climbed stairs. Someone filmed it and uploaded it online, and the video went viral. People didn’t even realize it was me!”
But Kher also revealed that the most crucial aspect of the performance was getting the voice right. “His voice had a very unique softness. Once, I called a friend and spoke exactly like him. My friend thought Dr. Manmohan Singh himself was on the line. That was the real test if someone could believe it, I knew I had succeeded,” he laughed.
Recently, the actor shared a heartfelt post on Instagram, where he posted a collage showing himself as Tagore, Gandhi, and Manmohan Singh. He captioned it, ‘“Three Characters One Actor! Sometimes you need to remind yourself and others of your worth! All hail!”’
Anupam Kher’s portrayal of Gandhi was seen in Vivek Agnihotri’s film ‘The Bengal Files’, where he once again transformed completely for the part.