The Weekend Interview with Tahir Raj Bhasin : Actor Tahir Raj Bhasin lives to fulfill his rebellious dreams and yet he is as calm as the fir...
The Weekend Interview with Tahir Raj Bhasin: Actor Tahir Raj Bhasin lives to fulfill his rebellious dreams and yet he is as calm as the first cold breeze of the winters or maybe the pandemic has changed something in him so beautifully that he has learned to appreciate the little joys of life and has definitely stopped planning for the future. Who hasn’t, right? But, not all of us are as lucky as him who’s getting to spend his pandemic and lockdown days so close to nature in Manali. When those surprise-filled eyes gaze at him, he says ‘yeah… exactly, that’s the reaction I get from people when I tell them that I am living in Manali because of pandemic’. Tahir had been shooting for a web series there when the lockdown was announced and he just wanted to avoid travelling.
Tahir speaks with ease. He is an actor who uses the right pauses at the right time even during his conversations… as if he is following the rules of the grammar even while speaking. He is proud to be associated with Yash Raj Films and just to be sitting in that room with the likes of Ranveer Singh, Ayushmann Khurrana, Anushka Sharma, and many other superb artistes that YRF has introduced. In a long conversation with us over a zoom call, Tahir speaks, explains, laughs, thinks, expresses, compliments, and appears as this rare actor who believes in education, and its importance in making critical choices in life. Excerpts:
How is the pandemic treating you? Do you wake up scared? Are you hopeful? Do you plan the future? How has this whole time changed you?
In the beginning, when I was scrolling through my news feed and you’d get to see the statistics, then you start accepting things. Now when I read about BMC dealing with the pandemic and how people are connecting on social media to help each other. You look at the nicer side of humanity and try and be positive about things.
The pandemic has taught me to be limited about planning your future. Earlier, people would think like six months down the line, I would be shooting this film and making this much money and travelling there. It’s a real reality check because it’s so important to be grateful for the moment you have. If you are healthy, if your immediate family is safe, that’s something to be grateful for.
There is a lot of discourse about what the government should have done to fight the pandemic better. There are actors who are quite vocal on social media. Are you the one who thinks that actors should just stick to their job and not speak out on matters of national importance or are you someone who thinks that as people with the power to influence, it’s important that we speak for the right?
I am someone who believes that the word celebrity means that you are celebrated which means that society looks at you. When you have worked a few years, you have a certain impact on social media. In normal times, we use this influence to put selfies and travel pictures and to promote things that we were doing. But what good is a celebrity or an influencer if you can’t help out the people who make you who you are. That’s where I come from.
Tahir Raj Bhasin/ Image exclusively designed by Gaurav Gautam for india.com
Tahir, when we went into lockdown last year, we were trying to enjoy that time, utilise the time well for better and most of us came out better from that time. And then, we got stuck in even worse this year. What is helping you now when it’s far more restless than how it was last year?
The first wave of lockdown last year was almost like a rehearsal for me. Like we learned doing our own things- washing our own dishes, doing our own laundry. And that made us humble and respectful towards these jobs. While this year, it’s far more severe, we have got our workflow in place. Zoom interviews were a new thing, working out at home was a new thing – those things are in place. Working out 3-4 days a week helps me. I encourage all to do some movement, work out, or just walk around your house, or put up a song and dance to it for half an hour – just be grounded. Talk to your family members and friends. I do the same.
What is your message to those who are still apprehensive about getting vaccinated now?
The danger that you and your family will face if you don’t get the vaccine is far greater than the doubts you have about it in your minds. Please register, get a vaccine. Sooner or later, it is going to be a rule where whether you are travelling or you’re working on a film set – you’ll have to get a vaccine.
Tahir Raj Bhasin/ Image exclusively designed by Gaurav Gautam for india.com
You belong to the family of such decorative people. Both your father and brother have been in the Indian Air Force. Didn’t you ever stop and ask yourself if entering into the film industry was the right step for yourself and your career. Also, what was your family’s reaction to this?
Thank you for mentioning my family. Yes, my grandfather and father were both fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force. My brother is an aviator himself. I am someone who has done things differently. I enjoyed being a rebellious child. I started acting when I was finishing school. I realised that it’s something that I had an aptitude for. I was a very average student in the school. No teacher has ever told me that you are very good at this. The first time someone told me that was my acting coach. And if your teacher tells you that you are doing good and you can do better, that feels like a big compliment at that age. My acting coach was Barry John. I took his words very seriously. I went to college after that. I did all the masti.
When I was in my early 20s, I told my family that this is what I want to do. And like any other family who doesn’t come from films, they felt like I was just being crazy. So they told me that whatever you are doing, give your 100 per cent, ‘don’t give up and come back. If you are doing it then commit to it’. So I went to Australia to study acting. That’s the family I came from who believed in studies. But in Bombay, people come from different backgrounds, it’s not important if you have studied acting. However, I feel that education never goes to waste. It reflects even if how you talk in an interview or how you interact with a director or in your choice of scripts – it influences you somewhere or the other. I never came with a plan B. I was that delusional.
Tahir Raj Bhasin/ Image exclusively designed by Gaurav Gautam for india.com
You just talked about the importance of education. Tell me how has your education helped you in making those different choices that you are talking about? Also, are films like Mardaani and Chhichhore, which were very important films, part of these choices?
When you are an actor, I don’t think you can go to a class or take a workshop on acting. It’s one of those arts that you are constantly living. Everything – your upbringing, your education, or even if you are going for a holiday influences your mindset in some way or the other which will show up on-screen in the characters that you play. Mardaani was a Yash Raj project but it was very different from the kind of YRF projects that we have grown up watching. Now how do I communicate my acting through that part and still make it convincing and not the stereotypical bad guy was the challenge. I was fortunate that the makers aligned with that vision. They were very committed that they wanted him to look like a boy next door. He needs to be cool. What needs to be bad about him is what he does, not how he speaks or how he looks. It was very unusual and clutter-breaking.
Chhichhore again I am very grateful to be a part of – because very few films hit that benchmark of receiving both critical acclaim and Box Office success at the same time. To be sitting with Nitesh Tiwari for a year on the sets was great and a super learning experience. The producers and audience started seeing me differently after Derek in Chhichhore.
Tahir Raj Bhasin/ Image exclusively designed by Gaurav Gautam for india.com
How does your family react to your choices and achievements now?
They are super proud now. My mom would stop perfect strangers and tell them ‘mere bete ki film aane vali hai.’ I remember during Chhichhore, she had come to Bombay and we were sitting in a restaurant and there was a perfect stranger, she started telling them how my film was coming out next week. My family is my biggest critic and my biggest supporter.
You are one of the many actors who were introduced and backed by the Yash Raj Films. Tell me what happens to an artiste when YRF decides to design his or her journey in Bollywood.
It took me three years to get Mardaani and without any agency or manager. The hardest thing when you are in Bombay is to navigate choices – what is a good script, which ones are the big producers, which ones are the better casting director. So when YRF decides to sign you on, it’s the biggest thing that can happen to you. Just to be in a room of an agency and see Ranveer, Ayushmann, Arjun, Parineeti, and Anushka – all these people who have carved out their own space in Bollywood, it’s very motivating. It forces you as an actor to up your own game and make sure that every part that you do is better than the previous one. Being with such an agency helps you to have an administrative backing to help you navigate what Bombay can be like sometimes.
Thank you.
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