‘Gandhi stretched a lot of my muscles’

NEW YORK: Half-Indian, half-English Oscar-winning actor Sir Ben Kingsley is well known for slipping into challenging roles with ease and intensity. He won a Best Actor Award for 1982’s Gandhi and earned a supporting nomination for playing thug Don Logan in 2000’s Sexy Beast. When quizzed by Time magazine’s readers in a special interview this week on how playing the role of Gandhi had influenced his life, Kingsley said it had been an enormous responsibility.

“It was a great quest. I know that director Richard Attenborough had been attempting to do it for 20 years. I’m thrilled that it’s still present in so many people’s lives. I meet people here in New York who said ‘I saw it last week.’ They’re not delving back into memory. Millions of people are watching it somewhere everyday. It’s thrilling, especially now. It’s very dangerous times that we live in,” said Kingsley. 

“I was with great people making that film. It was my first major feature film, my first leading role on screen, and I was surrounded by passionate people. I was surrounded by Indians who were passionate that this story should be told correctly and beautifully. It was humbling and an enormous responsibility. I think it stretched a lot of my muscles and I hope they haven’t shrunk back yet.”

Hollywood actor Sendhil Ramamurthy who is the star of NBC’s biggest freshman hit Heroes may have sacked his agent for suggesting he change his Indian name, but Kingsley is honest about what prompted him to change his name from Krishna Bhanji. “It was a way to my first audition. My dad who is Indian was completely behind it. My first name, Ben, is my dad’s nickname. My second name, Kingsley, comes from my grandfather’s nickname, which was King Clove. He was a spice trader. It’s a bit late to change it back now,” the actor told the US magazine.

When quizzed about what he looked for in a role, Kingsley said he looked for an echo inside him; “Maybe we’re all born with our future coiled up inside us like a spring, and we just unravel this coiled spring and work it out. I’m sorry if this sounds a bit bizarre. I’m trying so hard not to be pretentious because I’m always called pompous and pretentious.”

The actor has eclectic tastes and his iPod is loaded with a mix of Bulgarian music, English stuff and songs from Pakistan and India. “I switch from track to track depending on what my particular mood needs. There’s music from the Middle East, from the Ottoman Empire, from India and there’s some very English stuff as well. I’ve got a good musical ear, so I can listen to most things.”