Rawal,a former BJP MP who once represented Ahmedabad East in the Lok Sabha,made the comment while talking about actors he respects even when he doesn't agree with their politics. Naseeruddin Shah has criticized government policy for years, and Rawal has never pretended otherwise.Shah has needled the government publicly on everything from mob violence to press freedom,never once softening his tone for the cameras,and still Rawal keeps coming back to the same point, that Shah says things because he means them, not because he's chasing headlines."They have no hidden agenda,they have no axe to grind," Rawal has said about Shah, Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan. The two go way back.They worked together on the 1993 film Sir, and Rawal directed Shah in the stage play Sleuth years later. Shah's own record backs it up too, over a hundred films, a Padma Bhushan, and decades of stage work most actors only dream about.It's a rare thing these days, watching two men from opposite ends of the political spectrum actually mean it when they say they respect each other.
Rawal now runs the National School of Drama as its chairperson, the very institute where Shah trained decades ago. And that connection comes up almost every time he talks about Bollywood and politics these days.Shah,Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan all get the same treatment from Rawal, people whose criticism he says he takes seriously even when it stings a little. He turns 76 this month, and the two still haven't found much reason to agree on politics.
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