19th September, Sonipat: On the 18th of September 2023, the Jindal School of Journalism and Communication invited one of its Advisory board members and a close friend of the Executive Dean, renowned actor Adil Hussain to its masterclass event. Mr. Hussain walked into the theatre full of people waiting for him with surprising ease.
He greeted the audience and then began his conversation with the dean. The first thing Professor Kishalay Bhattacharjee asked him was how he would summarize his acting journey in a single quote, to which Hussain replied, “Follow your heart and do what you want to do.” He recounted how his career kick-started with his performance of Othello in Edinburgh, with an audience of just five. This performance was then picked up by The Scotsman newspaper which amplified his name.
Hussain also talked about the craft of acting, answering the audience’s questions. He learned that to be better at your craft, “don’t try to be brilliant, just try to be truer. You can only attempt to find the truth.” Sanya Anand, a second-year film student from JSJC, asked about the differences between film and theatre acting. He explained how tenderness in theatre was harder to achieve. Cinema has the advantage of closeness to an actor’s face that theatre doesn’t. This intimacy between the actor and camera is what separates the experience, making film acting a little more personal for the actor. He touched on his thoughts on method acting saying “I don’t believe in method acting at all. It is harmful to me. I have killed many mothers, my wife, brutalized my son many times.”
He added “You need a quieter mind to act. Ignore the brilliant ideas. Respond to the moment. A squirrel is a squirrel because of the squirrelness of the squirrel. Be fluid, quench the thirst for empathy.”