Ratna Pathak Shah and Naseeruddin Shah are two of the most respected actors in Indian Cinema. The two have been married since 1982 and have two sons, Imaad Shah and Vivaan Shah. In an interview with Faye D’Souza on her YouTube channel, Ratna spoke about her career and acting, revealing that she has a different opinion from Naseeruddin when it comes to the profession of acting.

What Ratna said

During the interaction, Ratna spoke about the aspect of someone becoming an actor, and began, “I am going to quote from Naseer, ‘You shouldn’t want to be an actor unless you feel you will die if you don’t act.’ I am not one of those types. I am sorry. I had lots of arguments with Naseer about this. How can he say that? What happens to me? I don’t feel I will die if I can’t act! I love acting, I enjoy it, I do it with extreme concentration and seriousness. But I don’t think that is the only thing I want out of life. He said, no. ‘If you want to be an actor-actor, full-time, career actor then it has to be that important for you.’”

‘Are you willing to wait forever?’

She continued, “Lots of acting students come up to him and say, ‘Sir I am going to try for a couple of years and see.’ Naseer would say to them, ‘Just go now, forget about it. You won’t get anything in two years, I can promise you that.’ Are you willing to wait forever? Are you willing to put up with everything? All the rubbish, all the disappointments? All the pain? There is a lot of pain. So, unless you really feel that you are going to die if you don’t act, then best not to get into this business.”

Naseeruddin Shah is the only Indian actor to have won the Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival. He won it for his performance in Paar. He has also won three National Film Awards for his performances in Sparsh, Paar and Iqbal.