Harish Patel spoke to DNA at the National Theatre on London’s South Bank where Rafta Rafta has just finished a packed season.
LONDON: He is short, plump and Hindi-speaking, but Harish Patel is carrying the full weight of the highly-acclaimed English play Rafta Rafta on his shoulders at the home of theatre in London. The actor from Ranikhet is perhaps the most successful Bollywood export to the UK and US having worked in award-winning British films, theatre and his latest venture into Hollywood, Run Fat Boy Run receiving a world-wide release.
The normally cynical and harsh British critics have declared Patel, who plays the lead Eeshwar Dutt in Rafta Rafta, ‘a bit of a genius’ with ‘delicate acting’ and ‘immaculate timing’. Patel overshadows Britain’s own comic star Meera Syal who plays his long-suffering wife Lopa. Harish Patel spoke to DNA at the National Theatre on London’s South Bank where Rafta Rafta has just finished a packed season and is now on tour around the country.
How do you feel acting in a play in London?
It is like a dream come true. What more can an actor ask for? This is the Mecca of theatre and to be acting here is unbelievable. I have done my schooling in Hindi, and when I used to perform the Ramayan in Ranikhet, never did I imagine that I would ever be performing the lead role in an English play at the National Theatre in London.
You are also in the Hollywood film Run Fat Boy Run?
Yes and I am not the Fat Boy. It was a great experience and it is David Schwimmer who is responsible for my being in Rafta Rafta. I was filming in London for him when Nick Hytner contacted me to audition for Rafta Rafta. I didn’t know who Hytner was or the prestige of the National Theatre when I came for the audition. They selected me immediately, but I had commitments in Mumbai. I returned to the film shoot, and when David heard Hytner was directing, he told me I must take it. It is an opportunity not to be missed.
If you don’t know English how do you act in the language?
The script is so beautifully written, with so much detail. I may not know English grammatically, but I know all the lines of all actors, and I know exactly where I have to emote or emphasise. And then comedy is about timing.
Do you find any difference working in English theatre as opposed to Indian?
Not at all. In India, we have great writers and actors too. Even the audience reaction is the same. The only difference is the level of production. Here, they have money in theatre and they use it liberally.
Will you go back to Hindi-films?
If something interesting comes along, definitely. But, at the moment I am not ready to give up Eeshwar. It is such a great role. In Bollywood, you are slotted in roles according to what you look like and not what you are capable of. Because I am short and fat I can only be a comic actor or at most a comic villain and nothing else.
Do you miss Mumbai?
Not at all. You get everything here. And in London, there are more Indians than English, how can I miss Mumbai?
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