Anupam Kher says 'writing books is more cathartic'
Veteran actor Anupam Kher says that for him, writing books are all about communicating with the readers and sharing his life experiences with them. Kher said acting will remain the first love of his life but writing a book helps him share his thoughts with the readers. The actor wrote his first book, “The Best Thing About You is You!”, which was released in 2011, and later penned another book, called “Lessons Life Taught Me Unknowingly”, which came out in 2019.
Kher's most recent book was "Your Best Day Is Today!", in which he detailed his experiences during the COVID-19 crisis. "I am not a disciplined author. I am not trained like that. So, for me it (books) is more of a conversation. I have concentrated on acting for 29 years. Writing is something I wanted to express what I feel as a person.
"All the three books are an extension of what I have felt, you can call them self-help books, life-coaching books and they have made me the person I am. I hope readers can identify with what I am going through," Kher said during an online session on day three of the Times Lit Fest 2021.
The 66-year-old actor was in conversation with Vinita Dawra Nangia during the session called 'Tuning into Happiness'.
For Kher, writing a book comes with a lot of challenges as he said that it is difficult for him to translate his thoughts from Hindi to English. To overcome this challenge, the actor said that he records his thoughts on a dictaphone first and then translates them into words.
"Writing books is more cathartic because when I am playing a character that is that person even though I am manifesting it through emotions and acting capabilities. But the kind of books I am writing are my direct connection with readers.
"There is no fake thing. In acting it is possible because I am pretending an emotion. As an author, I am not pretending," Kher added.
Talking about his latest book "Your Best Day Is Today!", the actor said it wasn’t a planned move. "It is my truest form of self-expression and my journey through the pandemic," he said.
When asked if he believes in the notion that the coronavirus pandemic was something that was destined to happen, Kher replied in the affirmative.
"We had started individually thinking that I am the most powerful person, power is about greed, power is about this, etc. The biggest nations, like Europe or America, got most impacted than other third world countries because they have a sense of immunity.
"And how could God or whosoever that superpower is, how could he or she teach a lesson to the whole world by sending one small virus? It's a learning that has happened on a world level," he added.
Kher, who is currently in the US, further said that he has a desire to write another book. "As I told you that I had not planned this book at all but now because I really felt the urge to write this book, I enjoyed the process of writing, it gave me peace in a strange manner.
"Now I have this desire to write another book. Now, I want to move towards this author kind of a thing," the actor added.
