Adil Hussain is one of the finest actors in Bollywood, he has been working in the industry for decades and has given some amazing performances one of which is Parched co-starring Radhika Apte.
Parched, produced by Ajay Devgn released in 2016, celebrates fights against an unjust system and society and emerging winners — not because they have well-intentioned men rescuing them, but because they can save themselves.
As the film clocks 8 years, actor Adil Hussain talks about his association with the film, his journey and more in an exclusive conversation with Zoom.
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Parched which Ajay Devgn produced, was a kind of turning point in your career?
I must start by saying that Parched gave me the opportunity to break my boundaries, transgress my boundaries of the social morality that I was conditioned to by society right from my childhood. So I’m grateful to director Leena Yadav and her cinematographer Asim Bajaj for the opportunity they gave me in Parched.
Parched addressed female empowerment and still gave you a sharply drawn character?
The film which represents the extreme apathy treatment towards women in the country, quite a lot of the population of India practices this male superiority chauvinism. It gave me an understanding of how to break my boundaries as an actor, transgress, as I said before, toward believing and creating an artistic moral compass rather than the societal moral compass.
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Why is it important for you to create a personal moral compass?
I think it is important for every artist to create the artistic moral compass because when you do something on the screen that is not meant to titillate or not meant to use any particular emotions or scenes or events to mint money or for a commercial purpose, but for artistic purposes for a greater, greater, much greater reason in a film, then our moral compass, moral compass of the artists needs to be very different. Moral compass of the artists needs to be very different.Like the moral compass of a surgeon who operates upon, operates surgery, cuts. The action is the same of cutting, you know, open human bodies, but in order to heal rather than to murder people. The moral compass of a military to kill people is one of the mandatory activity if it is required.
Parched liberated you of the moral compass?
Yes, the moral compass of artistes, which I had an issue with, especially with sexual content, especially for me to do it, it gave me an opportunity to break free of that. So I'm truly grateful to the director, producer, and definitely to two of my co-actors, Radhika Apte, an amazing, amazing actor and a human being, and also Surveen Chawla, whom I co-acted with .And also that great visual beauty that was caught by Russell Carpenter, the Oscar winning DOP is just unbelievable. So thank you.