Anupam Kher On Prepping For The Accidental Prime Minister | First Reaction Was To Not Be Part Of It

The Accidental Prime Minister controversy: Anupam Kher answer to Congress | FilmiBeat

Anupam Kher is all set for the release of his upcoming film, The Accidental Prime Minister. The film is a political biopic on the former Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Anupam Kher will be portraying the life of Manmohan Singh from during his tenure as the Prime Minister between 2004 and 2014. Anupam Kher opened up about how he prepped for the role during an interaction with the media, at the trailer launch of the movie on Thursday, in Mumbai.

Talking about when he first heard about the film, Anupam Kher said, "About one-and-a-half years back, my friend Ashok Pandit told me that there is a film being made on Dr Manmohan Singh, and of course everybody heard about the book and the controversy behind the book. So, my first reaction was that I shouldn't be part of this film because of so many reasons." The Accidental Prime Minister is based on a book of the same name, a memoir written by Manmohan singh's advisor, Sanjay Baru.

Anupam was initially skeptical about the movie because he thought it would be political. He said, "I thought it will be a political film and I didn't know what will be there in the film. The other thing is that it is not easy to portray Dr Manmohan Singh because he is an active political personality. This film is not based on the political figure who belonged to the 1960s or 1970s era. When Vijay (Gutte) and Mr Bohra (Sunil Bohra) came to meet me so, for the first one or two months, I told them that I didn't want to be part of it."

But Anupam decided to take up the challenge of playing the layered, interesting character of Manmohan Singh. "One day, I saw Dr. Manmohan Singh walking from one place to another on the television. So, the actor inside me told me if I could walk like him. But I was a disaster. That challenged me. I rehearsed his walk for 45 minutes but I couldn't get it right so, I called the makers for the narration of the script and I was very fascinated by it. I feel everything is difficult about Dr Manmohan Singh. He has a very monotonous voice and yet there have to be variations then, I said yes to the makers of the film," he said.

About preparing for the challenging role, Anupam said, "I took about 6-7 months to prepare this role. I must have seen at least 100 hours of footage but the most difficult was the voice part of it because he has a typical voice. Then I told myself that if your work is not challenging then, what's the benefit to doing it?

"We did the first schedule in England of 40 days and during that time, we were in a secluded place. It used to take one-and-a-half hours to look like Dr. Manmohan Singh. I feel it's the most difficult role I have done in my life because Dr. Manmohan Singh is known by everybody and even today, he is so active. He is more vocal now than he was in the year 2014," he added.

The trailer for The Accidental Prime Minister released on December 27th, 2018, and it looks like a riveting drama giving us a glimpse into the complex personality that was Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister. Actor Akshaye Khanna will also be seen in the movie which is produced by Jayantilal Gada and Sunil Bohra. Directed by Vijay Ratnakar Gutte, the movie is set to release on January 11th, 2019.

Watch the trailer below.