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Shekhar Suman, the man for all mediums, goes behind the camera

for Heartless


Versatility has always been his defining trait and next week

Shekhar Suman will add one more feather to his cap as his first

directorial venture Heartless is all set to be released. Once

shunned by the film industry as a wannabe Amitabh Bachchan,

Suman made television his home and ruled it for almost two

decades in different avatars. Call him a comeback man and he

disagrees, “I have always come out of the comfort zone to do

something new. From films to television serials, from anchoring to

politics, from body building to singing, I have tried it all. Every

time anybody asked can you do it, I have said let me try and now I

am looking for a fresh start as a filmmaker.” Suman says his solid

training in theatre at the start of his career ensured that he

straddled different media with ease. “I have always been a natural

even if it meant doing cricket commentary with the stalwarts of

the game.”

His image of a non-stop purveyor of puns doesn’t fit into the cast

of a helmsman of an emotional thriller against the backdrop of

medical profession but Suman insists that the real Shekhar Suman

is different from what we see on screen. “I am not a comedy loving

person. What you see is a well-carved out image. Even when I

anchor the show I tell myself that I am playing the role of an

anchor. I like to watch dark thrillers and multi-layered narratives

and it reflects in the story I have chosen for my first film as a

director. The only thing that I have learnt during the process is

patience. That everybody can’t work at your pace and it takes

people time to understand your vision.”

Talking about life on the other side of the camera, Suman says he

has always believed that cinema is more about storytelling than

technique. “Take the films of Hrishikesh Mukherjee. He told some

of the most arousing stories with basic techniques. Of course, one

has to be careful about axis and composition otherwise there is no

one right way to shoot a scene.”

The promos suggest a strong similarity between Heartless and Joby

Harold’s Awake and Suman agrees the inspiration has come from

the film. “The anaesthesia awareness bit and the hospital sequence

are similar but the first hour is completely different. Still we have

signed a contract with the makers of Awake and we have got the

permission to adapt the film without mentioning the source in the

credits. However, I feel in these times one cannot be brazen about

the source.”

Coming from a family of doctors, Suman says, “He has taken

creative license to dramatise certain portions but doctors will not

say yeh kya dikha diya . We have come a long way from the pop

science of Amar Akbar Anthony and this will reflect in the hospital

scenes of Heartless .” There are divergent opinions about

anaesthesia awareness but Suman argues that it is more common

than what medical fraternity agrees upon. “Most people come out

with experiences when they are administered anaesthesia during

operation but many times they don’t care to report it officially.”

The film is also seen as a re-launch for his son Adhyayan. “I didn’t

need a hero in the Bollywood sense of the term. I wanted a boy

next door whose actions are not always heroic and it is not a kind

of film where the director focuses on the entry of the actor and the

camera caresses his biceps. And Adhyayan fits into that image. He

plays a character who carries a death wish as he holds himself

responsible for the death of his father.” Like Awake , the film also

explores the mother-son relationship and Suman is elated to have

cast Deepti Naval as the mother and getting the opportunity to

direct Om Puri. Delving into his film career, Suman, who is playing

the crucial role of a doctor with grey shades, agrees that he had

got an enviable start with Utsav where he starred opposite Rekha

in a Girish Karnad film produced by Shashi Kapoor. “I was told it is

a matter of time that I will become a star. But Jennifer Kapoor

died during the making of the film and Utsav got delayed. I got to

act with some of the biggest names in the industry but somehow

things didn’t click for me. When I was working with Dimple

Kapadia in Pati Parmeshwar director Madan Joshi said the film will

change my career but when it released people found it regressive.

Meanwhile, I lost my son, and by the time I recovered from the

personal setbacks the industry had moved on. It was Vinod

Pandey’s Reporter that brought me back in the reckoning through

small screen and after that I didn’t look back.”

And after that did he start acting pricey with the filmmakers? “

Dekh Bhai Dekh , Andaaz , Main , I was getting so many shades to

play on television. Sanjay Leela Bhansali had come to me with the

role of Chunnilal in Devdas . Had I left television to return to films

at that time things might have been different. Anyway I believe in

Murphy’s Law: Whatever has to go wrong will go wrong. I think now

I am ripe to play different shades and hopefully the industry will

see me in a new light after Heartless ,” he adds.

anuj kumar


I didn’t need a hero in the Bollywood sense of the term...it is not a

kind of film where the director focuses on the entry of the actor

and the camera caresses his biceps