Art & Entertainment

The Way We Were

Vinod Nagpal, the Basesar Ram of <i>Hum Log</i>, recalls his days on the set

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The Way We Were
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Manohar Shyam Joshi, who wrote Hum Log, and later, Buniyaad, was the only TV scriptwriter we’ve really had. The story flowed, characters grew, serials were driven by their authors. Are there any such TV scriptwriters today?

And TV actors? They wear costumes and jewellery, sleep with it, get up with it, that’s their role. Not so in Hum Log. My character, Basesar Ram, was a complex one, with shades of grey. Thanks to the popularity of this serial, I was recognised all over the country, and never had problems getting my work done anywhere. Yet, all of us in Hum Log were ordinary-looking people, nothing starry about us—we were one big family, working together in Aparna Studio, Gurgaon, which was a village then, eating bad food, getting excited over the occasional dosa treat.... We were perfectly tuned to each other; no one was there just for the heck of it.

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Hum Log was what public service TV needs to be all about. We need at least one channel that shows programmes like this, which are really about the lives of people. It was a show that saw the real participation of people. It wasn’t driven by TRPs—there were about three lakh letters a month. Believe me, this show did more for the propagation of Hindi in the South than the government has ever been able to. Hum Log was truly of the people.

(As told to Namrata Joshi)

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