Guftagoo with Aanjjan Srivastav

Aanjjan Srivastav born 2 June 1948 is an Indian film, television and stage actor. He was born and brought up in Calcutta (now Kolkata), into a family from Uttar Pradesh and his father was a respected banker with Allahabad Bank. Anjan did his B.Com. and LLB from Calcutta University, it was here that he started taking part in local Hindi and Bengali theatre groups in 1968, and did plays for All India Radio. Meanwhile, he also did a small role in the film Chameli Mem Shaeb. Soon he acted with noted groups in the city like Kala Bhavan, Sangeet Kala Mandir and Adakar and acted in a few Bengali films. In Mumbai, with Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), he contributed to several plays. Theatre led to film roles like in Kundan Shah's Saza-E-Maut, Hrishikesh Mukherjee's comedy classic, Gol Maal (1979) and JP Dutta's Ghulami (1985). Then he moved in Television with Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi and went on act in notable TV series like Manoranjan, Tamas, by Govind Nihlani, Nukkad and Katha Sagar, finally in 1987, he received the lead in comedy series, Wagle Ki Duniya, based on R.K. Laxman's common man, which brought him his place in the limelight. He also acted in Shyam Benegal's epic series, Discovery of India Anchor: Irfan Time stamp Introduction/ Clips of various films etc- 00:05 Originally from Gahmar village, Ghazipur UP-05:07 Born in Kolkata- 05:17 Allahabad Bank connection-05:56 Life at Kelabagan/Marquis Square/Kolkata life- 06:08 Diversion in Life due to Balraj Shahni/Motilal /Helen/Dhumal/ Bhanu/Jahar/Chimni ka Dhuaan: 08:16 Father’s dream & school days stories: 10:30 Talat Mehmood/Hemant Kumar/ College Square story- 14:24 Working with Krishna Kumar/Adakaar- 16:15 Bangla Natak/Gyanesh Mukherjee- 16:25 Badri Prasad Tiwari/ Sangeet Kala Mandir days – 16:43 Shyamnand Jalan /Sherjuan ki Bhali Aurat play with Padataik-17:01 R M Singh /IPTA/-17:35Tripti Mitra/ Shambhu Mitra- 18:00 Premendra Mitra /Dip Narayan Mitaulia’s Radio Play- 18:13 Tuberculosis /Stage/ Radio Play– 18:35 Sanjiv Kumar’s influence- 19:50 Character acting-attraction – 20:00 Bombay attraction due to Balraj Shahni/ Sanjiv Kumar’s acting- 20:50 Chameli Memsahab/Assamese film/Ajit Lahiri- 21:48 Meeting with Mithun/ Tom Alter/Abha Dhulia: 22:08 Satyadev Dubey/ Dinesh Thakur’s Mumbai theatre: 22:37 Allahabad Bank/Banks son or Son-in-law-job-scheme-24:02 3 years no promotion declaration for working in Mumbai– 25:40 500 rupees from a friend /no salary from bank- 25:50 All India Radio association again in Mumbai- 27:07 Pallavi Mehta- 27:30 Hrishikesh Mukherjee on motivation/ Shelter to him- 28:43 R M Singh-Director & friend of Balraj/IPTA association/Character study & behavior training- 29:54 Stanislavski: 31:30 Usha Ganguli/Rudra Prasad Sengupta-Why do you want to do theatre ?- 32:00 Ravindra Jain /help on getting a place to stay- 34:29 MS Sathyu of Garam Hawa & selection for the main role in Bakri- 36:55 KA Abbas’s appreciation – 38:48 Muzaffar Ali & offer in film Agaman – 40:27 Father’s advice & influence on honesty – 43:38 Kaifi Azmi’s mental support- 44:44 Role of wife in supporting him: 45:19 Role of IPTA & theatre in life / thoughts on religion/Left movement : 46:30 Question on dialogues of play Moteram ka Satyagrah & KASMAKASH (basically a Bangla Play Tamrapatra) : 52:10 Personal observation on religion, contemporary politics & truth of life & IPTA’s role in it- 58:44 What actual is the problem in our society/ how to diagnose it/IPTA’s approach to it- 59:05 What IPTA really teaches you & how it affects the life/ examples of RM Singh & MS Sathyu- 01:00:11 Concluding lines on future and how he will try to spread IPTA philosophy via films-01:00:45