Anant Nag interview | On his Padma honour and secret to his longevity in Kannada cinema

Veteran Kannada actor Anant Nag, who received the Padma Bhushan honour earlier this year, opens up on the long-delayed recognition and goes back in time to recollect some of the milestone moments from his career

Anant Nag, who was conferred with the Padma Bhushan a month ago, dedicated the long-delayed recognition to the people of Karnataka. The veteran actor feels the honour results of three to four years of relentless support from his admirers, who include cinephiles of all generations.

“In 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated the concept of ‘People’s Padma‘. He urged the people of India to participate in the nomination process for the awards. Kannadigas and members from the film industry rallied behind me. I am grateful to them,” he says. Rishab Shetty, Puneeth Rajkumar, Yash, Rakshit Shetty, and Hemanth M Rao were some prominent Sandalwood artists who drove the online campaign ‘Padma for Anant Nag’.

The Padma Bhushan is perhaps the biggest milestone in the chequered career of Anant Nag, who “never set out to be an actor.” A solid stint in theatre in Mumbai and a successful collaboration with Shyam Benegal set a strong foundation for his acting journey.

Even as Amitabh Bachchan’s Angry Young Man character fired people’s imagination in several blockbuster films, director Benegal pioneered a new wave in Hindi cinema in the 1970s. Anant Nag starred in five consecutive Benegal movies (Ankur, Nishant, Manthan, Bhumika, and Kondura).

“Every language was witnessing a parallel cinema movement. Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, and Ritwik Ghatak were championing the new wave in Bengali cinema. Malayalam witnessed works of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, and Kannada had films such as Samskara (1970), Vamsha Vriksha (1971), and Sankalpa (1972), my debut. Though his roots were in Karnataka and he was born and brought up in Hyderabad, Shyam was sure that he would make his films in Hindi,” he says of the acclaimed filmmaker, who passed away at 90 on December 23, 2024.

Known for his natural performances, Anant Nag has always stressed that “acting is behaving.” Did portraying intriguing characters in parallel films early in his career influence his acting style? “I worked with the noted theatre director Satyadev Dubey in Mumbai. He would say, ‘Do it your way‘,“ he recollects.

“Many actors in Hindi commercial films would deliver exaggerated performances. When I saw some English films, especially historical ones such as Ben-Hur (1959) and Becket (1964), and the works of of Marlon Brando, I saw natural acting and was impressed by that,” he says.