Anupam Kher talks about becoming an 'open book' and not slowing down with age

The actor speaks about his forthcoming autobiography and his new film, 'One Day: Justice Delivered'

Anupam Kher's autobiography will be released next August. Getty Images 

At 64 years old, Anupam Kher is showing no signs of slowing down with age. "There are 365 days in a year, much to do, so much can be achieved," he tells The National over the phone from New Delhi.

And he seems to be true to his word with a packed diary. In fact, just an hour before speaking to us, he had been in a meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Dear Prime Minister [Modi], it was an honour and a privilege to meet you. Your vision for India is greatly reassuring and heartwarming. Your inspirational words will always be a great source of energy for me. May you continue to take our country to greater heights," he wrote on Twitter, sharing photos with Modi.

The actor is releasing his autobiography, Lessons Life Taught Me, Unknowingly, next month.

"My life will literally be an 'open book' in August 2019 when my autobiography will be released. It is a story of a small town boy who dared to dream. It is a story about hope, disappointments, success, failures and eternal optimism. So you will snatch off your own life in my life," Kher wrote on Instagram when he announced the news in July.

In October 2018 he gave up his role as chairman of the the Film and Television Institute of India, so he could commit to the American television series, New Amsterdam. And he is not slowing down on the big screen either. Most recently he has starred in and promoted One Day: Justice Delivered, which is set for release on July 4 in the UAE. The film trailer suggests it is a thriller and a spin-off from 2008 movie, A Wednesday, which was similarly low-budget but turned out to be a hit.

In A Wednesday, Naseeruddin Shah plays The Common Man, who is frustrated with a failing police administration and decides to take the force on. Kher played the police commissioner Prakash Rathod in the movie.

This time around, he plays a retired court judge who has let a criminal go free for lack of evidence, a decision he is not at peace with.

Kher insists there are differences between the two movies, but says: “It is something which interested me about the feelings of the judge who is helpless in doing his job.”