Ratna Pathak Shah On Working With Anupam Kher Despite Different Ideologies: 'Constant Arguments At Our...'

Ratna Pathak Shah and her actor husband Naseeruddin Shah have been quite vocal about their political ideologies. However, as members of the industry, they often have to work with people who have different opinions on things. In a recent chat, Ratna spoke about why she and Naseeruddin work with Paresh Rawal and Anupam Kher.

Speaking to The Lallantop, the veteran actress said, “We all grew up at a time when two people can be friends, but can also have different ideologies. You’re right in your place, I’m right in mine. There’s dialogue, discussion, and even disagreement, but that doesn’t cause a rift in interpersonal relations. This is a more recent trend. This is neither our country’s culture nor I’ve seen anything like this before.”

“I was born in a home where my father was from an RSS family and my mom was from a Communist family. There was constant debate and arguments at our home, but still, we all lived together happily. I know that disagreement with an opinion doesn’t mean dislike of a person. This is a very new phenomenon, that if you don’t agree with me then you should be cancelled. This isn’t our culture, at least it’s not my culture, nor of anyone I know,” Ratna said.

“They’re making us Indians fight with each other like kids do in the school playground. How bullies ill-treat weaker kids. Do we want to be like them? No. I won’t become one, nor will I let my kids become them either. Whoever I have an influence on, I’ll tell them, ‘We cannot become bullies.’ We have to become cultured human beings. That’s our culture. Everyone makes so much noise about yoga these days. What does ‘yog’ mean? To culture yourself continuously and spend an entire lifetime making yourself a better human every day, in every way. That’s what BK Iyengar said. That’s what I’ve learnt from our country. These petty quarrels? That’s not my culture,” Ratna added.

Ratna and Naseeruddin first worked with Anupam Kher in Vijaya Mehta’s 1988 film, Pestonjee. Naseeruddin and Anupam were also seen together in Neeraj Pandey’s 2008 thriller A Wednesday! Paresh Rawal was featured in Naseeruddin’s 2006 directorial venture Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota. More recently, Ratna and Paresh worked together in Abhishek Jain’s 2021 film Hum Do Hamare Do and also played Anupam’s wife in Prashant Nair’s Netflix India show Trial By Fire last year.