By Subhash K Jha

“Fiddler On The Roof’ legend Topol loves Raj Kapoor. And when Topol met Anupam Kher in Israel this week he bombarded Kher with his questions on Raj Kapoor and yes, Amitabh Bachchan.

There were two international cine-persons that Anupam Kher wanted to meet or work with.

“And by some quirk of faith I managed to work with Woody Allen and meet Topol within one year,” says the satiated actor Anupam, just back in Mumbai after an exciting visit to Israel attending the international film festival where his film “A Wednesday’ was screened.

“‘A Wednesday’ was the opening film on 6 December. It made a huge impact. The Israelis totally empathized with the theme of terrorism. And that’s where I met Topol, the Israeli super-actor from “Fiddler On The Roof’ and “Galileo’. He was a delight. We spent a good four hours discussing world cinema and Bollywood.”

Anupam was delighted to know that Topol was a very close friend of the late and great Raj Kapoor. “They were very close friends. They met on several occasions and Topol saw a lot of himself in Raj Saab. Topol also knew about Mr. Amitabh Bachchan and asked quite a few questions about him.”

As far as Anupam’s work is concerned Topol had seen Gurinder Chadha’s “Bend It Like Beckham’. “We actually had something very unique in common. We both played old men in our most celebrated works when we were very young. I did “Saraansh’ when I was just 28. And Topol was 36 when he did “Fiddler On The Roof’.”

There were more unique occurrences in Israel. Anupam met the celebrated comic actress Hannah Lazslo who had won the best actress award at Cannes in 2005 for “Free Zone’.

“We didn’t know one another’s work at all. But to our surprise we discovered we had both been doing a one-character autobiographical play for years. Her play “Life Of Lazslo’ has had numerous shows all over the world. Luckily so has my one-actor play “Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai’. We promised to watch each other’s play in the near future.”

Anupam was also in Israel for the 6-D film “India In Motion’ in which he’s the narrator. “It will soon be screen at international airports in India and two shopping malls in Delhi,” says Anupam happily.

-Sampurn Media