Interview with Art Malik for Indian Summers

15 March 2016

/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}

Tell us about the character you play in Indian Summers.

I play a Maharajah –basically, he represents the princes and what many of them were trying to get out of the fag end of the British Empire in India. He’s trying to make sure that he doesn’t lose his princely status, he doesn’t lose his dominion, and he doesn’t lose his revenue and his lifestyle. The tragedy of all that, of course, is that ultimately he will lose it all.

What was the attitude of the Maharajahs towards the British Empire? Did they think of them as “the devil they knew”, because an independent Indian government probably wouldn’t look kindly on them?

The way that Clive of India and the East India Company colonised India was so effective – state-by-state, playing one off against the other. I don’t think people have any idea of how duplicitous European diplomats were, and how meaningless treaties became if they fell out of favour with the Raj. So some, like the Maharajah of Patiala found the British offensive, and wanted them to go. And then there were others – the Punjab ended up with a Maharajah who was a young boy, and the Brits took the Punjab and sent the young boy to live with Queen Victoria in Britain. I think the Princes were aware of what was going on in Europe, and also knew that Britain was broke, and couldn’t afford to keep this going any more. So I think the Maharajah finds it offensive that the British haven’t come to terms with the fact that their time is up. I think his attitude, when he’s invited to Simla, is one of contempt. I also think he’s intelligent, and he plays Ralph, who he finds as an amusing idiot.

Which is ironic, because the British probably see the Maharajah as a rather foolish, indulged and pampered character. He’s a shrewd operator, isn’t he?

Yes. These chaps were educated. They didn’t just have Belgian crystal sent out to them to make furniture. They had books, they loved literature, these are people who have a long history going back to the Moguls, where there was great discussion and intelligence and debate about what was happening in the world. They could see that Britain was in trouble, that it had raped as much as it could out of India, and to no great advantage to the majority of British people. It’s much the same today – the new empire on the block is the Americans, and as much money as they’re making from their interests throughout the world, very little of that trickles down to the poor Blue Collar worker in Iowa.

The Maharajah has a white girlfriend. That must have set tongues wagging in Simla – not least that of Mrs Coffin.

Yes, I know! And the fact that he decides not to even stay in the Simla Club. He decides to pitch up his tent nearby. He has a wonderful arrogance about himself, and a wonderful dismissal of the fact that this is a waning power, so he really doesn’t have to take much note of them at all.

Presumably this is a subject matter you know quite well. Did you have to do any research into the role?

I was born in 1952, so I grew up with my parents’ generation talking about it. My parents talked about how awful it had been, how limiting life was to most people in India at the time. My family was originally from Bihar, and when partition happened we moved to Pakistan. I’ve never had a lot of time for Mountbatten, I think the man was a buffoon, an arrogant waste of time, really. I think what he ended up doing resulted in the deaths of millions of people.

When it came to moving to the UK, did your parents have misgivings about that?

Not at all. My father had reasons for coming here, they were very pragmatic. He was a doctor, he wanted to be an eye surgeon, and move up in the world. Yes, India had some great medical colleges and schools, but it didn’t quite have that next level, which is the Royal College of Physicians or the Royal College of Surgeons, which they wanted to become part of. His reason for coming here was very simple, and once he’d attained his goal, he returned to Pakistan.

What was it like joining an already-established cast? Is it inevitable that you feel something of an outsider?

They were very welcoming. And it’s a great show, they should be very proud of the work they’ve done in season one. They’re enjoying season two, and Channel 4 has been very smart in the way it’s done something so different. If you think back, season one started very slowly, and that is something we are coming back to in the way we tell stories. We’ve had the frenetic side of storytelling, and now we’re starting to take things more slowly, introducing viewers to characters gradually, and I think like most people who watched season one, by the time we got to episode three, you were so into it, you just couldn’t let it go. And I hope people feel the same with season two.

Had you filmed in Malaysia before?

No, never in Malaysia. It’s extremely hot, but it was an ideal place to film. When we did The Jewel in the Crown, we filmed in India first, so the actors had an idea of what the heat was like, what it did to you – it slows you down, it’s weighty, the air that you breathe is full of humidity. You are aware of the fact that you’re not in a studio in Manchester. So for an actor’s point of view, being in a place like Malaysia, where you’re looking at colonial buildings and you’ve got foliage that speaks of the tropics, it makes sense for the work that you’re doing. It would have been nice to have filmed in India – I’d been out there earlier in the year making a film – but it’s very difficult now to find that colonial British Raj look, even in the places where I’d been before. India wants to be modern, it wants to explore building in a different kind of way.

Looking back at your career – particularly the early part – it featured The Jewel in the Crown, A Passage to India, The Far Pavilions. Why do you think India continues to hold such a fascination for British viewers?

I think you have to look back and ask why did Paul Scott write what he wrote? Why did EM Forster, even MM Kaye? These were people who were trying to write, in a way, an apology. These were people who knew about what the Empire had done. I think that one of our greatest tragedies is that we don’t actually educate people in this country about the British Empire. We’ll talk about Victoriana and about the two World Wars. But there was an empire, and the effect of that empire, whether you look at what happened in the Subcontinent, what happened in Africa, what happened in the West Indies, wherever the Brits went and created this global empire, there were stories that need to be told. And I think that India is one of those places that we need to revisit just for us to come to terms with what was it that was going on? We have a history. You can’t have 250 years of imperial rule over that many people without it affecting you, even today.

You talk about them being apologies for the Empire, but do the people we should be apologising to ever actually get to see them? Are these projects shown in India and Pakistan?

Yeah, I think they get shown there. But India’s a country that has its own very vibrant film industry, it now has a thriving television industry, it’s never had a problem with writing stories. And it’s no surprise that over the last 50 years some of the greatest English writers have come from the subcontinent. They love English, it’s a wonderful language to write in.

You mentioned Indian cinema – you appeared in your first Indian film not long ago, didn’t you?

Yes. I was asked to be involved in a biopic about three or four years ago by a wonderful Indian director called Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. The first film I did was called Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, which means Run Milkha Run. It was about an athlete known as the Flying Sikh. He broke the world record for the 400m, and it’s his story. I was asked if I’d like to come to India to play his father. And the timing worked. And I enjoyed it so much. And then my father died, and three months after my father died, Rakeysh rang me again, and said he was doing a film based on a poem by Mirza Ghalib. Now Mirza Ghalib was my father’s favourite poet, so I just said “yes.” He said “You haven’t seen the script.” I said “It’s based on Mirza Ghalib’s poem, I know what you’re like, it’ll be great.” It threw quite a lot of people into a spin, but I had to do it. It was a passion project, I’d never done one before. I was delighted to do it, I got to speak Hindi, I hope without the English accent.

What are the roles that have meant the most to you over your career?

Oh, every one. Every one. There are some that have received great critical acclaim, others that have people didn’t see, but the experience led to great friendships. Some took place in a part of the world I would never have gone to. One of the things about going to Malaysia to film is that you are working with local crews, and they want to share their home with you. You find out about the politics and the history and the culture of the country, and they’ll take you to their houses or take you to see someone playing music. Every job I’ve ever done, I’ve always been grateful for the fact that it comes with something else, another world that you didn’t think you’d ever see or learn about.