A therapeutic tour

Veteran actor Anupam Kher says the decision to embark on “Zindagi Ka Safar” tour was an impromptu one as he wanted to discuss the common struggles that people went through during the coronavirus pandemic. As part of the tour, the 66-year-old actor did live interactive shows in major US cities, starting with Dallas on August 27. It concluded in Nashville on September 16.

Kher said the primary purpose for visiting the US was to shoot for his upcoming movie “Shiv Shastri Balboa”, which also features Neena Gupta, Jugal Hansraj, Sharib Hashmi and Nargis Fakhri.

“I had come just for the film and was scheduled to be back home for another film shoot that got pushed to October. But due to prior commitment at the same time for a Sooraj Bharjatya film, I had to give up that project. “So I had some time at hand and that’s when I decided to stay back and planned a tour across the cities of Dallas, Atlanta, San Jose, New Jersey, Washington, Indianapolis and Nashville for ‘Zindagi Ka Safar’,” the actor said, a day before flying back to India.

While shooting for “Shiv Shastri Balboa”, Kher said he met a lot of Indian-Americans who were feeling a “sense of uncertainty” due to the pandemic. And that’s when he thought of doing these interactive live shows that can be a “therapeutic” experience for both the people and him.

“It has been tough for all, not to have any kind of closure with the situation. These people wanted to talk to feel some reassurance about life. That’s when the thought crossed my mind that why not talk to these people closely and listen to them, share each other’s fears, share some clips of my shows, be interactive with the audience, make memories, celebrate each other’s life, which will be therapeutic for them and therapeutic for me.”

Kher said the shows had a unique concept which appealed to the audiences.”This show was a new concept unlike my previous big stage shows… There was nothing written or rehearsed, we just went with the flow and it worked out really good. The two-and-a-half-hour-long shows were interactive. We played antakshari, recreated scenes from major movies like ‘Saraansh’, shared anecdotes from struggling days about life as an immigrant here and its challenges, and staying away from our families. PTI