Rejected Dr Manmohan Singh role in The Accidental Prime Minister initially: Anupam Kher

Actor Anupam Kher, who is gearing up for the release of his forthcoming film 'The Accidental Prime Minister,' has said that initially he didn't want to be a part of his forthcoming film as he thought that it will be a politically controversial film. Anupam Kher was interacting with the media at the trailer launch of 'The Accidental Prime Minister' along with his co-actor Akshaye Khanna, producer Jayantilal Gada, Sunil Bohra and director Vijay Ratnakar Gutte on Thursday in Mumbai.

The film stars Anupam Kher as Manmohan Singh, the economist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014 under the United Progressive Alliance government. "About one-and-a-half years back, my friend Ashok Pandit told me that there is a film being made on Dr Manmohan Singh, and of course, everybody heard about the book and the controversy behind the book. So, my first reaction was that I shouldn't be part of this film because of so many reasons. "I thought it will be a political film and I didn't know what will be there in the film. The other thing is that it is not easy to portray Dr Manmohan Singh because he is an active political personality. This film is not based on political figure who belonged to the 1960s or 70s. When Viay (Gutte) and Mr Bohra (Sunil Bohra) came to meet me for the first one or two months, I told them that I didn't want to be part of it."

Kher added that the role of Dr.Manmohan Singh challenged him as an actor. "One day, I saw Dr. Manmohan Singh walking from one place to another on the television. So, the actor inside me told me that I could walk like him. But I was a disaster. That challenged me. I rehearsed his walk for 45 minutes but I couldn't get it right so, I called the makers for the narration of the script and I was very fascinated by it. I feel everything is difficult about Dr Manmohan Singh. He has very monotonous voice and yet there should be variations then, I said yes to the makers of film."

Talking about preparations that he did to play role of Dr Manmohan Singh, Kher said, "I took about 6-7 months to prepare this role. I must have seen at least 100 hours of footage but the most difficult was the voice part of it because he has a typical voice. Then I told myself that if your work is not challenging then, what's the benefit to do it? "We did the first schedule in England of 40 days and during that time, we were in a secluded place. It used to take one-and-a-half hours to look like Dr. Manmohan Singh. I feel it's the most difficult role I have done in my life because Dr. Manmohan Singh is known by everybody and even today, he is so active. He is more vocal now than he was in year 2014."