'My root belongs to theatre': Actor Amit Mehra

Panaji:Actor Amit Mehra has said that theatre was like his mother and his roots belonged it it.''Theatre is my mother. So may roots belong to it. When I started acting, I said, should I go to acting schools and I said no. Because theatre is a place where you can get motivated. 

Everything happens live and you get opportunities to learn more. If you open up in movie then movie does not seem to be difficult. Because there are so many edits and so many takes. In theatre, you have to go and perform. And I have been doing theatre since my school days. From school time I have been fond of acting,'' he told UNI in an interview. 

The handsome actor said he was interested in doing more negative films and negative roles than playing repititive roles. ''In India we do films with mostly positive roles. And we do not get chance to act more. But if you see there are more opportunities in negative roles. I feel that you can play with negative roles. I had films like Panjab Patiala, Marjaavaan. I played negative roles in both the films,'' he said. 

''I want to do international films having mafia type roles. And discussed about this project and became part of this film. I have lot of friends from Russia. There is strong connection between India and Russia,'' the actor, who has done both serials and films, said. 

When asked about difference he had observed as an actor in performance in television and cinema, Amit said,''There is difference. People say that there is no difference. But it is not so. See TV is good. But there if you are doing a character then you continue to do for years. You image is created. When I was doing Shiv Mahabali Hanuman, It was may please and I was feeling overwhelmed. There was very good response. I used to get so much affection and love from people. But in movies you get to play something different every time in every different movie. You can play more, act more in movies which is not possible in TV. In serials you are happy that you are there for two three or four years.'' 

When asked how he got attracted towards negative roles and was it since beginning or he developed it later, he said,'' I still remember when I was in school and a play was going on in Air Force Auditorium, New Delhi. And my role was of General Dyer. Since then itself I began to like acting. Then I watched movies of Salman and Sharukh Khan. From cinema point of view positive characters are good but you can play and act more in negative characters. Because if you are an actor you want to play more. I do not want to have only cute face in the entire film. I want to show my performance. There is no fixed role. People see that he is a bad guy. I always wanted to play that but only on screen not in real life.'' 

Amit, who was here to promote a film to be made in Konkani and Russian, said though he followed many actors but it was his dream to share screen space with mega star Amitabh Bachchan.

''There are many actors. One and only Mr (Amitabh) Bachhan. It has been my dream to share screen with him. But there are other lot of actors as well like Salman and Sharukh. I have grown up watching their films. There is lot of difference between negative roles of past and now. Now even positive roles are negative too. Like if you see work of Ranbir Singh. Or films like Darr or Baazigar of Sahrukh Khan. See those films were negative but they left such an impression that still people love them. That type of characters I want to get into. I want that when people leave cinema hall they say what a performance,'' he said.(UNI)