Mammootty is wonderful to work with: Mukesh Khanna

Much before Krrish and Ra.One were born even in the minds of their makers, Indian kids had their own much loved superhero — Shaktimaan!
It might have been years since the series starring actor Mukesh Khanna got wrapped up, but Shaktimaan lives on, through many endearing usages like ‘Sorry Shaktimaan’ and ‘Thank You Shaktimaan’. The actor, who made the hero a legend recently stepped into the Malayalam film industry through Ajay Vasudevan’s Mammootty-starrer Rajadhiraja.Mukesh Khanna speaks to us about his Mollywood experience; the Shaktimaan impact; and more. Excerpts:
Did you enjoy working in a Malayalam film?
I am known for my dialogues and unless I have a good command over the language in which I am acting, I would not be confident about doing my best. That is why I have always been reluctant to take up offers from regional film industries. However, when the offer to act in Rajadhraja came my way, I could spot elements in it that made me comfortable. I play a long lost friend of Mammootty’s character, who meets him after many years. My character Sikander is a truck driver, and the truck’s name is Shaktimaan (laughs). All my dialogues in the movie are in Hindi.
The film’s crew also wanted me to dance for a catchy intro song in Hindi. Before getting busy with television, I acted in about 15 Hindi films as hero. I have shaken a leg for certain projects at that time, but I told Rajadhiraja’s director that I am no great dancer. However, they were confident about me. I was with the team for about 15 days and we shot at many locations like Pollachi and Hyderabad. It was a lot of fun!
Before I joined the team, I had managed to watch a few Mammootty films. He is a great actor and a wonderful person to work with.
Where there any Shaktimaan fans on the set?
Many of the technicians of the film, who would be around the age of 25, used to come to me saying that Shaktimaan is still very close to their heart.
They might have been around nine or 10 years old while the serial was aired, and many shared nostalgic memories with me about their childhood, the struggles to watch the programme and about the characters.
I am quite happy that to whichever corner of India I go to, Shaktimaan fans come to greet me. Once I happened to go to Srinagar for a film’s location hunt. Every 300 yards you would find a CRPF jawan armed with a machine gun. As they spotted my car, some of them walked up to me and what they started speaking about was Shaktimaan! Hearing them narrate with joy about bunking classes to watch the show made me quite happy.
Will we see you playing Shaktimaan again on television?
I move all over India frequently and people still ask about Shaktimaan’s return and the future of its villain Tamraj Kilvish. Therefore, I am in the process of bringing him back to Indian television. We prefer Doordarshan to air it and are in talks with the channel already, as it still reaches all over India. Personally, I am preparing myself to play the character again as well, as people can’t imagine anybody else as Shaktimaan. I am also planning to bring him to the big screen as well. If I had the kind of money that the makers of Ra.One and Krrish had, Shaktimaan would have reached its fans via the big screen already.
Are you part of any project on television?
I am not interested to act in women-oriented serials or play mythological characters on television, until something better than Bheeshma Pitamah — the character I played in Mahabharata series — is offered to me. I am also not happy with the way Mahabharata is serialised these days, tampering with many aspects, just to raise the TRP. In the past, the makers used to do justice to the storyline from the scriptures, but no more is it a priority.