Bad guy’s heart of gold

He is a man on a mission. Mohan Joshi may play the villain on the big screen in films like Vaastav and Mrityudand. But, in real life, his...

He is a man on a mission. Mohan Joshi may play the villain on the big screen in films like Vaastav and Mrityudand. But, in real life, his heart is definitely in the right place. In town for a fund-raising event meant for the Maitree Trust, set up by him for the welfare of the disabled. Ensconced in his hotel room, Joshi is caught up in the nitty gritties of organising the function.“This is my first such public function, so there’s a lot of organising to do,” he says to the constant ring of the telephone.

Asked how he started on a journey that has made him a recognisable face today Joshi switches to the rewind mode with ease.“I started my career here in Pune when I was in standard VI when I acted in this children’s play staged at the Bharat Natya Mandir. I stuck to theatre even through college at BMCC and did some commercial theatre,” he remembers. The climb up the ladder of success began after he shifted to Mumbai in 1989. Joshi explains what prompted the decision. “When travelling back from Hubli, our car met with an accident and five of the passengers were killed. That incident really shook me up. I decided that I had to do something with my life and would shift to Mumbai for two years to give myself that chance.”

What followed then was a string of successful plays starting with Thank You, Mr. Glad and Marathi serials like Sanskar and Haddapaar. Why is he slotted into the category of the bad guy? “Type-casting in films is inevitable. In the initial period of my career, I did a lot of farcical and character roles. For my very first Hindi film, Bhukamp, by Gautam Adhikari, I was asked to try on different get-ups. One of them was a villain’s in which I looked so convincing that I was scared too,” he says. The image has stuck, at least in Hindi films. “Even though I may want a change-over, it is difficult, because in the popular imagination I am the villain. It takes a very good script and a film that is sure to be a commercial success for that image to change. If I get a role like that I will play it to my full potential,” he says.

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Just how does Joshi add his special touch to the character? “We take it for granted that as the man is in the mould of a villain he will act in such a way. But there’s also the villain’s own perspective. All that the script gives us is the dialogue. Then I build the character, develop mannerisms to suit him, the kind of gestures or movements that he will make and so on,”he says.

There have been other memorable character roles he has played like the one in the Marathi hit Tu Tithe Mi. “For that role, I copied the mannerisms of my father even down to the way the character cleared his throat,” he remembers. Having worked in many Marathi films, Joshi believes that essentially there is little difference between working in them and in Bollywood but he holds that one just cannot compare the two. “Although acting remains the same, they are two different worlds. The atmosphere when working in Marathi films is more homely while that of Bollywood does have some artificiality. But they are genuinely hard-working and talented. There is no other industry where there is so much teamwork because people do not bear grudges against one another,” he says.

The Marathi film scenario too is changing for the better, he feels. “There was a bad patch in Marathi films when directors solely relied on rehashed Hindi films, on flimsy farces and characters that didn’t fit in. Today, there has been a change because directors have returned to family themes which are successful and are drawing crowds, films like Aai Thor Tuzhe Upkar, Tu Tithe Mi, Gharabaher and so on,” he says.

Today, he has put films like Mrityudand, Vaastav, Masoom, Policewala Gunda behind him. Although busy and successful in his film career, Joshi felt he had to repay his debt to society in some way. “At a function for blind school children in Pune where I was the chief guest I noticed that a lot of children were moving towards me wanting to meet me. I spent some time with them and realised that while all of us enjoyed lives in our way they were deprived of those common joys. I wanted to do something for them. For my selfish satisfaction, I decided to provide free lunch to them one day. But I realised that what they needed was not pity but help to stand on their own. That’s when I set up the Maitree fund. Pune has given me a lot and I wanted Pune to be the place where I would launch the trust’s activity, ” he says.

The Maitree 2000 fund-raising function will be held on November 24.