‘I want to take a break from theatre’: Manav Kaul

Those who follow Manav Kaul on Instagram, know about the actor-director’s penchant for penning some profound writing with the pictures he posts. After Theek Tumhare Peechhe and Prem Kabootar, Manav plans to bring out his third book, Tumhare Baare Mein, based on his Instagram writings sometime next month. “Nobody has done that before, so I’m quite excited about it,” he says. 

After winning accolades for his turn as Vidya Balan’s husband in Tumhari Sulu, he reveals that his next release will mostly be The Music Teacher, for which director Sarthak Dasgupta had received the 2013 Sundance-Mahindra Global filmmaking award. His play Chuhal ran to housefull shows and he’s got the Patrick Graham-directed web series Ghoul to look forward to, when it airs next week on Netflix. The actor tells us more about his plans...

Tell us a bit about Ghoul. 

We shot Ghoul as a film but then it was turned into a web series. Patrick Graham has written and directed it. It is the kind of horror that Indian audiences haven’t seen. It’s really classy and is shot beautifully. 

You have not explored the horror genre before, either on stage or in films... 

I’m actually really scared of watching horror films! In fact, I have seen the show once but I don’t know if I will watch it again (laughs). We were shooting in the basement of Hotel Tulip Star and it was quite scary. Sometimes, I would ask my Man Friday to come along with me. 

Was it fun to explore a new genre?

Oh yes. We rehearsed all the scenes for almost 15 days and by the time we went to shoot, all the actors knew the scenes. I love rehearsals and I like that when you’re shooting, you know everything inside out. Also, it has an element of thrill and horror. It’s really spooky and gets inside your head. I like the way Patrick has written and treated it. 

You don’t like to be typecast into roles. Even before Tumhari Sulu came your way, you had waited quite a long time for it...

I don’t want to do stuff I have already done. After Wazir and Kai Po Che!, everyone was offering me typical villain roles. So one has to wait and say no but people don’t like it when you do that. I want to constantly keep surprising myself. If things are not challenging, they get boring. 

You had directed Hansa a couple of years ago. Are you tempted to helm a film again? 

I’ve directed a film called Tathagat and I’m editing it now. I might finish it by the end of the year. But I want to take a break from theatre and making films, because I’m enjoying acting now. I want to give five or six years to acting. But I can’t live without theatre and making films either. 

You can’t be serious about taking a break from theatre...

(Laughs) Well, it’s like the girlfriend you keep breaking up with and then end up having a cup of coffee with. Theatre is that girlfriend, can’t live with her, can’t live without her!