nt and it's been spearheaded by yourselves you've got the award you've got the regional large town award as well thank you very much is Bunkrana's here as far as the Supervaluatadi town's competition is concerned yeah very much so we've been in the frame regional award one is since the inception of the competition in 2015 we won it out race in 2019 and 21 and we've changed to that effect all around the shores in terms of the future we know some years ago letter Kenny won the regional award this year it was Trim in County Meath I've no doubt you'll be looking at Trim's figures looking at your own figures and thinking yeah we can catch them yeah we're up a plateau and actually won in the county title so we're looking to the next plateau which would be the north west and west regional awards which Keju and County Rust Common there's seven points ahead of us we're lying seventh in the north west and west and behind the national title holders from County Meath we are 357 there are 366 so there are nine points ahead which is doable over the next you know I know well as you've said you've pulled back six points over letter Kenny in the past couple of years so I mean you know that's an indication that you know point swings are possible now we all know that in Tally Towns nine points can be very very hard to secure particularly when you've reached the level that Pankrana is now at but you do have a very fixed goal I'm sure in your mind and you'll have ideas as to where changes can be made to actually meet that goal we do indeed yeah the key to it all is delegation and that's just what we're doing because we don't have a massive group of people with 15 volunteers which is not great the size of Pankrana which is category E up to seven and a half thousand of a population similar to Westport Westport are one of the number years there in our category we seem to get more help from the council and more help from the people in general better community spurt I think so we need the likes of the spring cleanup where we get 70 people out the likes of teachers like Denise Doge and Amanda out of the school where they have Denise and the playmates on the route now on Saturday mornings we delegate routes for them to go and it goes so much towards their Tashka award so and also we have a very strong wildlife initiative called George Carr who are integrate strongly into our submission for the tidy town competition we school Michigan with their bee boxes and anyone else plus who has done a brilliant submission to the judges and that's just great well congratulations William as you say you've overhauled letter Kenny which it will give Pankrana no end of satisfaction I have no doubt the aim is there for further progress congratulations to yourselves and hopefully the council and the community will see what's happening and get behind you even more and just give that push that Pankrana needs and congratulations to letter Kenny which has also done well as have Donnie Gall Refo Moville and Lenties Gola Island getting the endeavour award and Castle Finn and Dunlowe also recognised and three awards which has taken wealth of the words on many occasions in the past so great to see Donnie Gall on top William McKinney thanks indeed for speaking to us this morning thanks very much that's William McKinney who's the chair of the Pankrana tidy towns competition and delighted to note that Pankrana did take the Donnie Gall County award at the presentation there on Friday it's just gone half-leven going to take a short break back after these treat your family or friends to a hamper this Christmas from Kelly Centra letter Kenny Kelly's of great hampers to suit all budgets available to collect or deliver also vouchers for Kelly's award-winning diner or Circle K fuel at the forecourt great gift ideas at Kelly Centra Mountaintop Letter Kenny Call 9-1-220-26 At ESB Networks we're connecting Ireland to a clean electric future and as part of the National Smart Metering Program we're now installing smart electricity meters in your area your new smart meter to reduce the need for estimated bills help you to manage your electricity usage more efficiently and enable you to access smart electricity products and services we'll contact you before your meter is installed find out more at ESBnetworks.ie slash smart meter do you know how digital skills can benefit you as an employer or as an employee skills to advance has a new digital skills for business program that will help build digital confidence at work for more information on how to access this highly subsidized flexible training contact your local education and training board or visit skillstoadvance.ie skills to advance boost skills boost business brought to you by Sullis and the ETBs an initiative of the Government of Ireland I'm living to super value okay tea, bread we give out your on my app and a years free shopping your trip to super value could look even better real rewards scan to win monthly prize draw every scan of your real rewards card equals one chance to win this November there's four one year free shopping prizes a trip to Cannes a prize to be won in every super value and more so start scanning tees and sees apply see supervalue.ie for full details on how to enter one year free shopping value is 5200 euro Donegal Creameries Milk and Homeland Stores have teamed up to reward their loyal customers with 10 euro off just collect 30 tokens from Donegal Creameries Milks and receive a 10 euro off voucher which can be redeemed in one of 34 Homeland Stores or on homeland.ie when you spend 50 euro or more on fuel, feed, garden, agri-pet paint and more limited time offer so start collecting tokens from Donegal Creameries Milk today there are a lot of electricity wires above and below you if in doubt, call us on 1 800 372 9 9 9 it might just save your life ESP networks stay safe and stay clear of electricity wires Christmas can be expensive and a stressful time of year and we here at McElhenny's are delighted to offer our customers a fantastic opportunity to join our Christmas Layway Club they deserve this festive season and get the cost of Christmas all wrapped up only at Michael Henney's Ballet Buffet. McDade's bathroom plumbing and tiles serving the Northwest for over 40 years explore our showroom with more than 40 displays choose from an array of shower doors, shower trays, baths and bathroom accessories speak with an expert about tile selection and wall paneling we also stock an array of plumbing heating and stove spare parts as well as a great selection of kitchen mixers and radiators at our trade counter our stove department is also available for you to choose a style that suits your needs and complements your home McDade's bathroom plumbing tiles bunkrana we're here for you we all need a top-up known again if you're a pregnant your flu and COVID-19 vaccines will give your immune system the top-up it needs to help protect you in the months ahead both flu and COVID-19 can cause serious illness and pregnancy and your vaccines will help protect you and your baby so put a vaccine appointment on your to-do list or talk to your doctor or midwife visit hsc.ie for more information from the HSC promote your business 365 days of the year with a personalized calendar from bizprint and letter candy or do yours today from bizprint the printers or trolled letter candy see bizprint.ie something new could be in your future something brand new worth of it quite a bit and it could be yours tune into the 9 to noon show for more details business matters in association with the faculty of business at ATU Dunnegal looking for a career in financial services consider the level 9 MA in governance and IT in financial services take the next step in your career and contact the exec ed coordinator on 9186206 or email exec ed ex ec ed at atu.ie today this is the line to noon show and it's Wednesday morning which means it is time for business matters delighted once again to welcome Keirno Donald the presenter of that program in studio Keirno good morning I hope we're in only you're on the other mic that's confused me no hang on I just need to press a button here bear with me now for one second if I press you right you've moved to could you go over to that mic when you're right actually if you don't mind Keirno it'll make things easier just pull that down in front here professional radio folks at its best and once again I will say Keirno good morning good morning Donald wasn't that seamless great to see is always Keirno and a busy one to get into and we'll start down in the south of the county in Balai Shannon yes Donald the Balai Shannon regeneration group has won the sustainable heritage award for its Balai Shannon historic town conservation event which was aimed at highlighting the conservation and reuse of historic buildings in the town so the event featured a guided walk with guest speakers and exhibition of archives and documents and a visit to the former Belfast bankstroke Royal Bank of Ireland music and storytelling and this is the second successive year that the Balai Shannon regeneration group has won an award at the national heritage awards last year at scoop the heritage for all ages award fair play to Balai Shannon and fair play to Joe Gallagher in the heritage team and Donegal County Council as well they're all working very well together on that local company launches sustainathon this is a Tata consultancy services TCS yeah better known as TCS is right Donald has announced the launch of the 2022 UK and Ireland sustainathon a problem-solving competition that challenges University students to address corporate sustainability problems through innovative digital technology creativity and teamwork registrations are now open and they're embedding University students to work alongside TCS and his partner network during a two-week sprint to devise a digital solutions that can help businesses overcome their most urgent sustainability challenges so we can check out TCS social media platforms for more information so a new word for the sustainathon it's initially when an TCS of course Tata consultancy services they're the company that are now based in what would have been the old primary building and they've taken on much of the work the primary was doing and time to talk about a number of people here in the UNI both know quite well yes donal there has been a number of appointments to senior positions within the local newspaper sector and recent weeks Laura McMonegal has taken up the role of editor of Donegal news and that follows the retirement of Colombe Gill who was with the paper for 40 years and was editor of the paper for 25 of those years. Jeremy Daherty no stranger to the airwaves here has been appointed editor of the Donegal Democrat group and succeeds Chris Ashmore another who is very familiar on the airwaves here who has recently retired and Alan Foley is the new deputy editor of the Donegal Democrat group and will remain on and his role as sports editor. And Alan knows what is on the programme just a few weeks ago speaking about the new book congratulations to one of them particular to Lauren to German because I mean they are big jobs they're big papers and there's a lot happening and they're big shoes to fill indeed as well particularly in the Donegal news. I mean Colombe was there so long such such a fixture in the press world in Donegal and you know fair play to Laura. No better person to take that job on. Yeah the first female editor of the paper has gone 120 years and we wish her well and we wish everybody and their new roles the best luck. And German as well of course a longstanding journalist and reporter with the paper and again German a man who knows his way around a local paper and you know has has worked as deputy editor in the past and no doubt German will prosper in that gig as well. A major jobs announcement with EY. Yeah a consultancy firm EY has announced the creation of 900 jobs on the island of Ireland. 540 positions will be for experienced hires while 350 will be filled by new university graduates. The roles are available across EY's seven offices on the island of Ireland and EY is reporting record revenues on the island of Ireland with 536 million euro for the first financial year to June the 30th and that represents a 26% increase from the same period last year. The company said it saw a strong performance across all four of the service lines of assurance consulting tax and law and strategy. It's an interesting one because in some cases now we're going to get to the point where a firm like EY announces new jobs. They don't necessarily have to be in Dublin. We're getting to a point where in many cases, you know, someone in Donegal can apply for the job and do it locally from from their own home in the Northwest. Yeah remote working as we're going to see a lot more of it and they have seven bases throughout the island of Ireland both in Northern Ireland and the Republic. So I'm sure there'll be a number of people from the Northwest that are probably employed there ready and hopefully more and you know, people I mean, keep an eye on that and it's something, you know, we can always bear in mind now that if there is to be a remote working possibility within those, I have several friends and relatives indeed who are working for ostensibly Dublin based companies. Someone very close to me, their office is technically in Dublin. Their office is in fact on a day-to-day basis, the room in our house.  But, you know, it's great to see and it's just opening up more and more opportunities to people, which is always good to see. Let's talk about the sinchine in the straw and let's talk about the fact that neither you nor I won the car. I was out last night, I was doing emcee and as most congratulations to Andrew and Kerry Doffey who are based in New York, they won the top prize of a high on the Kona car worth 30,000 euro. So the draw was held at the club social center headed up by Ali Harvey and the winning ticket was bought for Angelo and Kerry by Angelo's mother Elizabeth who lives in Ballamacool here in Arakeni. And Angelo's brother Eugene was there. So it was the the draw, the ticket was drawn out first, but it wasn't announced until last, so it was great exception that at the end of the night and a lot of money raised for the club. The money is going to go to pitch development and the installation of floodlights at Odell Park. Great stuff. Now, we're going to take a short break and when we come back after the break, we will be looking at this week's podcast. Start playing NCBI radio bingo today. Three chances a day, five days a week to win daily prizes of 400 euro plus, not to mention a weekly jackpot of 5000 euro upwards. Books available at your local retailer for just five euro each. It couldn't be simpler. Real money, real people. In 2018, Toyota cut through the confusion, completely ceasing production of diesel passenger cars, lowering harmful emissions and providing certainty for Irish drivers everywhere. And Kelly's Toyota proud to be part of that hybrid electric journey. Visit Kelly's Toyota letter, Kenny or Mount Charles today to see what makes Toyota Ireland's best selling car brand in 2021 and 2022. You'll never take a wrong turn with Toyota built for a better world. Best selling claim based on most recent monthly figures. Treat yourself with the massive savings on sports and leisure wear in the Halloween sale now on at Michael Murphy Sports. Get up to 50 percent of men's, women's and kids clothing and footwear and up to 50 percent of selected items in the Donegal leisure wear range. That's in the big Halloween sale in store and online at MichaelMurphySports.ie. At Supervalue, we've got amazing offers to help you save like our Irish Steak Sale, save 33 percent, Grey Norton, Sauvignon Blanc, six pack, 50 euro exclusive to real rewards members only. And don't forget with Supervalue's unbeatable own brand range, along with money off ventures every week, Supervalue makes saving money as easy as one, two, three. You'll call us once the season sees apply. Donegal County Council advise that a public information day on the preferred option for the Castle Finn flood relief scheme will take place on the 10th of November in the CPI Centre, Castle Finn from 4pm until 8pm. This will be the first opportunity for the public to view the option that is preferred for taking forward to the statutory planning process. Attendees will also be able to discuss the option in person with the project team and provide feedback. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. Joe Gallagher Entertainment presents Mac Fleetwood, Europe's premier tribute to Fleetwood Mac, live at on Grain and Theatre letter Kenny on Saturday the 14th of January. Hear the classic Fleetwood Mac songs that you know and love. Tickets available from on Grain and Theatre Box Office and on Grainand.com. Business matters in association with the Faculty of Business at ATU Donegal. Looking for a career in financial services? Consider the Level 9 MA in Governance and IT in financial services. Take the next step in your career and contact the exec ed coordinator on 9186206 or email exec ed ex e c e d at atu.ie today. This is Business Matters on Highland video joint in studio as always on Wednesday by Kearno Donald, the presenter of the Business Matters podcast. Time to get to the business end here and tell us about this week's podcast guests. Yes, Donald, on this week's Business Matters, I'll be speaking to letter Kenny, a state agent and owner of the quiet momentary rooms, Brendan McGlynn and I'll also be catching up with Donegal County Council's economic development officer, Stephen Perry. Brendan McGlynn has been a state agent in letter Kenny for 30 years. After working in Kelly's mills, he moved to New Ireland Insurance and four years later he set up his own life brokerage. He opened the quiet momentary rooms and upper main street in 1994 and between his two businesses, he now employs 15 people. During our chat, Brendan recalled his move to New Ireland almost 40 years ago. Again, the same thing happened. Kelly's mills, somebody watched me. Kelly's mills working and they come in and they asked me what I'd be interested in taking a job in New Ireland. And like my attitude was what's New Ireland? Who are they? And the business life insurance company. And I done an interview and on a Friday evening, I went to rugby match along with the late Sean McDade. We went the way to Dublin for the weekend and when I come back, my mum said that mum was there for the insurance company, got the job. And I said, do you know what? I think I'll take it. And I took it. And I never looked back after. Then that was the start of me getting into insurance business. And I remember going out to Josie Collins was the first customer and out and she gave me the biggest kiss ever. She was so delighted they see somebody from letter Kenny starting a new job. And I always remember that. And that's 40 years ago now. And that's Brendan Middlin, a fascinating piece, Ciaran. Well worth listening to the whole podcast to get that full story. And now to Stephen Perry. Yeah, the 2022 by Donnie Gall campaign gets on the way and earnest on Friday next November 11th. I spoke to economic development officer with Donnie Gall County Council, Stephen Perry about the six week initiative that is now and it's third year. And a business and Donnie Gall can take part in this but it's particularly suitable to those that might be beyond the tree of Christmas. So that can be offered at that time of year that those tend to do particularly well. But as I said, it's open to all. And we've been very fortunate to have, you know, the larger brands and businesses, the likes of the Michael Hennies, the likes of the football special who have probably have that international and global reach already coming behind this campaign and work and support the smaller organizations, the individual, creative designers, makers. And that's I think what's been one of the keys to the success of by Donnie Gall over the past two years. So Karen, the podcast is available and how can people access it? Yeah, it's at hiddenvideo.com or wherever they get their podcast on. And if people want to get in touch with yourself. Yeah, just drop an email, please, BusinessMatters at hiddenvideo.com. Karen, thank you very much indeed. That's Karen O'Donnell with the BusinessMatters podcast. It's available on our website, HelenVideo.com, and it can also be heard on Sunday evening after the six o'clock news. Karen, as always, thank you very much indeed. Good morning, all. Thank you. OK, let's move on. A couple of your comments before we go to our final item on the program this morning. That girl from Melton, that's Amy Rose O'Donnell, very passionate in what she believes in and what she said that she and her friends are doing, but they're wasting their time and energy. The cops were unsuccessful. So will Cup 27. Did she ever hear of the seven last plagues? It's all in the good book. The earth will not be destroyed by water again, but by fire. And that's from Mary. Another caller says Amy Rose is fantastic. We need more passionate young people like her. Again, this courageous young lady from Melton is totally right. The world has to move away from oil. Good luck to her going forward. Another caller says ask that girl if she had a baby tomorrow. Would she use disposable nappies because I have young ones and they talk the same way. But when asked about disposable nappies, they can't answer. Another caller says, where is that girl getting her news? I came to Donegal in 1981. They told us that the water would meet between Malin and Koudaf in 50 years, but nearly up to no change. She is looking to be heard. What are we going to do? Go back to the horse and the cart asks a caller. Now we are going to go to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission because we're looking at the closure of Ulster Bank and KBC Bank. And we heard disturbing figures today that one in eight people that's 12.5% have not yet opened new accounts joined by the Deputy Director of Communications at the CPCPC. And that is Muriel Dolan, Muriel of the morning. Good morning, Donald. How are you? Very well indeed. Thank you. Muriel, we're hearing research that over 50% of people have had difficulty opening new accounts and 12.5% simply haven't done it. At this point in the process, given all the publicity, given all the ads, given all the warnings, that's concerning. It is. But if you look at it, we did this research back in July as well. And at that time only 33% had opened a new account. Now that has gone up to 52%. So there is progress being made. And I suppose what we want to just tell your listeners this morning is if you get the process started sooner rather than later, it is much better. We're coming into a very busy period for people with shopping. So they don't want to be left where there's a lot of transactions on their accounts and they can't pay for things or they have no access to money. So it is important this morning for people to start the process if they haven't started it. Is the research telling you why people aren't doing this? Because, I mean, save knocking on people's doors and guiding them to a different bank building. It's hard to see what else can be done. I mean, it seems the ads have never been off the radio or out of the papers now for months. Yeah. And I think 60% have said that they have experienced challenges. But probably the main challenge and I think in around 29, 30% was with direct debits. People found it difficult changing direct debits.  But also if people need extra help or extra assistance they can go to their current bank or current account provider and they will help them through the process and their new provider will help them as well. So there is support there in terms of the information on our website but also from your existing bank and obviously your new provider. So that will be important for people to look at our website and also contact your bank. We also know that we're in a position where if people haven't chosen a new provider as of yet at the moment we are in an extension period that Ulster Bank certainly we're talking about closing accounts by October. Now they then put a stay on that and the accounts are staying open until November, the end of November which is still just a matter of just over three to four weeks away. What happens in the case of someone that has done nothing by then? What happens if effectively Ulster Bank say that's it, we're closing our accounts and there are people who just haven't chosen yet? What actually happens? Yes, and I suppose in fairness to Ulster Bank they have given everyone at least six months notice that they have been trying to contact people who are going to be in that situation but they have said that they are going to start freezing accounts. So even if that does happen to somebody we would encourage them to contact even at a late date contact Ulster Bank and try and work something out with them but they are and they have said that they are going to start freezing accounts and what that means is that you won't be able to use you won't be able to access your account you won't be able to pay for things on your debit card. So it is really important for people to start a process but if they do find themselves in that situation where their account is frozen they should contact Ulster Bank straight away and hopefully something will be able to be done for them and at least if they could start a process and if Ulster Bank has seen that they've started the process they will more than likely unfreeze the account but it will be on a case-by-case basis. And how long should it take to get this organised? Because there was a time when to switch from one bank to the other was reasonably straight forward it seems that's not the case anymore and there's a lot of bureaucracy to be gone through. I think that the process has always been the same the problem is that there's so many people switching at the same time because two banks are leaving but it probably and it does depend on how busy your account and what I mean by that is if you have an awful lot of direct debits on your account you have a lot of payments coming in it probably will take a little bit longer to get everything together but it is important to start the process and if the bank sees that you have started the process you've opened a new account and it's starting to change over all your payments coming in and payments going out of your account then it's unlikely that they'll probably freeze your account but give it probably two months just if your account is very busy. And as I said, your bank will give you support where you need it there is also the central bank switching code and if you use that, if it's suitable for you to use that it does take some of the administrative burden off of you and back onto your existing bank and your new provider so that is also an option for consumers. And we are coming into a time of the year when traditionally spending can be high particularly in terms of the buying of gifts and so on and so forth so from that point of view maybe the last thing you need is to have a bank account frozen going into December and the Christmas shopping period so it's in people's interests really to try and get their accounts and their finances regularized as quickly as possible because the last thing you're going to want is to find yourself with a frozen bank account and no access to cash in the middle of December. Yeah, and that is very true and that's why we're encouraging people to even start by looking at our website today with a switching hold it goes through all the steps that you have to take to switch your account and also if you just need some extra assistance go back to your bank, talk to them today it might take a little while to get an in-person meeting with them but at least if you ring them and put your name on the list they know you're there and they know you're going to try and start the process of switching. ccpc.ie is your website and people can find all the relevant links and directions there and people then as you're saying as well should be contacting their own bank but the most important message today is if you haven't chosen a new provider do so as quickly as possible and start the process now. Muriel Dolan, Deputy Director of Communications at the CCPC thanks indeed for speaking to us this morning. Thank you very much. It's our pleasure. That's Muriel there. Now a final few comments before we take our leave with regards to Matt Hancock, the former minister and MP going to the jungle for I'm a celebrity just common sense is needed to see through he's an ex-UK health minister his party boss threw him out of the party we'll see if he's invited back like Nadine Doris was six months later. Another caller says in relation to the peace with Dr. Bates what are the statistics on our rates of ADHD in children and our country in comparison to the rest of Europe what are the stats in terms of children diagnosed with ADHD in families with unemployed parents? Another caller says TikTok has convinced me I have ADHD it's hard to know what's true or not when women are usually underdiagnosed for neurodivergency. Another caller says I've much loved six months black cocker spaniel is missing from the Kavanaugh call and Kavanaugh area of Lifford answers to the name of diesel please contact 08-623-86882. And finally I just want to mention this because it's a somewhat worrying and distressing children are offered midterm a mother put a message on Facebook last night just saying please make sure that you don't allow your children go out without adult supervision. My daughter and a group of friends were in town today they were approached by a man who followed them around a shop asking to meet up with them the girls are 11 and 12 luckily they had the cop on to go and report this man please keep an eye out and keep all children close by and that is good advice and always good advice to please ensure that our children are safe that is the nine to nine show for today thank you to Donna Marie and to Caroline for taking your calls Caroline produced as well of course and has always held my hand most importantly thank you to our contributors and thank you to you for listening John Breslin up next around the Northwest but for myself Donald Kavanaugh have a very good day. How's the home bridge end?


Hello. Hello. How are you? Hello. Hello. Very well. Very well.  Is that the one? That is it. Yes. Namaste. Namaste. Now are you? Namaste. Very well. Thank you. How is quarantine and everything COVID treating you? Like everybody else in the world. Yeah. Yeah. Have you got back to work at all? I know some of the productions are really, but yeah, a lot of the pre production work has begun. Okay. But we're reading scripts and signing contracts, but we haven't yet gotten to shoot. Okay. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, I want to thank you so much for talking to us. We've been an admirer. We actually first saw you our first introduction, I believe was sacred games was the first time we got introduced to you. And then we just got to watch ship of this ship of this year's. Yes, as well.  And so we just want to start off acting because we know you're a Thespian. That's that was obvious from the first moment we ever set eyes on you. So how did so? Yeah, how did you know? When did you know that you wanted to be an actor? Go go all the way back to your childhood. Well, I think I think when I was doing a play in my school, I'm used to do these little snippets actually, they're not called plays, just one acts. And I realized that when I was almost finishing my school, I did some performances. And I won a few awards for that for acting. And the bug bit me at that time. And then I felt, okay, no, this is not for me because I never liked watching the movies that I watched in those times. I wasn't very impressed by them. So I wanted to be something else, maybe somewhere in the corporate world. And then I went to college, I did my graduation. And when I did that, I did another play, a full-fledged play. And we took it for a national competition. And I won an award there as well for acting. And then the bug really consumed me. And I said, I want to do. Then I went to the FTII, which is the Film and Television Institute. I was not a member of it. But I went there just to see what it's all about. I went to the library, I read over there. And I saw books on acting. And that amazed me because I never knew that people would read on acting and perform. So what I saw until then, I felt what is there to study and read in this craft.  And then I went to the details and I saw a book which said an actor prepares by. Oh, yeah. Yep. And I just browsed through that. And then I read another book called Building a Character. Then I read Film as Art by Rudolf Naught. So all these books just came pouring on me and I began reading. That's where I got serious. And I said, No, I think I'd like to do this. And I saw World Cinema. I used to visit the Film and Television Institute, frequented. And then I saw World Cinema. I had friends over there. So they would take me and sneak me in actually. And then I would watch a few films. And I remember watching Polish films, French films, German films, Japanese films, films by Kurosawa, films by Goddard, films by the great masters. And then that's that's the time it struck me that yeah, this is it. I mean, that's all we've we have seen. I mean, as Corbin said, our first introduction was obviously when in sacred games and then the most recent thing was Shibathesius. But we've also obviously seen you in Patelok. We've seen you with Detective Bianca Spokshi, Talvar. And how how did you go from the experience you had where you were training you were learning to becoming a professional working actor? What was that transition for you? Well, I tried to go to a film school, actually an acting school. We have two very good acting schools in India. One is the National School of Drama. And then there's the Film and Television Institute, which is where all our actors have passed out from. I applied for the National School of Drama, I think in 1992 or something like that. It was a zero year. There were no admissions. There was a strike there. And there were no admissions. So I lost my admission because of that. 96 I think I applied again. And I you know, there's a postal order form that you got to fill up and send. And that postal order is for 15 rupees, Indian rupees. By the time I actually applied for it that year, it had gone up by five rupees, which was 20 Indian rupees. And I didn't know that I just send the 15 rupee order back to me. Oh, no, it's gone money, it has to be 20 Indian rupees. So I lost my admission because of that as well. Oh, no. I lost it. I told myself that okay, I'm losing my patience over this now. I need to start working right away. And I remember I borrowed the prospectus of the National School of Drama from a friend of mine. And I began reading the syllabus, the course syllabus. And I began ticking out things and I said I will find a teacher for each one of them for myself. And I'll begin my own process of learning. So I took the first thing, which was yoga. And I went and searched for a yoga teacher. Then there was classical dance. I went and searched for a classical dance teacher. Then there were readings, etc. So I found my way into learning on my own. That is why I guess it took me such a long time. But I just was determined that I will prepare on my own. And after which, I think I left the syllabus, I remember discarding that prospectus. And I began searching my own grammar after that. That's how the whole transition happened. And you, I don't know if you still do it, but you, do you still teach acting? Yes. Okay, so what is that like? Obviously because you didn't, you said you didn't go to a lot of those trainings early on at least. So did you take some of the stuff that you learned? And do you incorporate that into your, what you teach now? Absolutely, yes. Okay, I do that. It's my own grammar that I teach. So when I used to learn earlier in my earlier days, I used to attend workshops. So from 1996 onwards, I began attending workshops by Indian actors, by actors who came from abroad, people from France, New Mexico. And I was learning at that time. So the methods I was learning were very typical in the sense they were either method acting, or they were the Govian method, or the Jacques Lacocque method. And I was learning these in somewhere. I, I don't know why I wasn't finding what I was looking for. Something was missing in every technique that I was trying to apply to myself. And that's the time I remember that there was a French workshop that was scheduled. And I hadn't registered for that. So I remember going in over there, standing at the door, the closet already began. I traveled from Mumbai to Pune to do that class. So I got late on the road. And I stood over there and I asked a gentleman, the teacher over there that can I come in? I'd like to register. And he asked me in French, do you know French? I said no. So then he said it in French. Later on, I got to know this. He said, this is not the place for you, you need to leave. I found that rather rude. And you tell me to leave. So that hit me at that time. I think some instances happened like that, a few of them. And then I really, I don't know why it wasn't really a sense of trying to discard something. But I just found that I don't want to go and do this anymore with anybody. I just like to be on my own. And I don't mind going to the rigor and taking years to arrive there. But I want to search my own craft. And I think these things took me on to doing this. Well, like Corbin said, when we watched you, it's obvious when we watch the actors that we've been exposed to throughout our lives, but especially in the last year and a half with Indian cinema, when we've watched Amitabh Bachchan and we've watched Manoj and we've watched Nawaz Nintadiki, you can see immediately the level of training and study that's gone into the craft. You could just you can see it and you think to yourself, that is a thespian would really like to know how would you describe the way you process? Do you process differently for each character? Is it what Shaila Buf referred to his process as being method adjacent? He kind of borrows from method but isn't definitively method. So how would you describe your process for your character creations? So I work a lot with Indian methodologies. We have a technique over here called the Natya Shastra, which is the Indian methodology of acting and arts, dance and acting and arts. So I try to take and imbibe a lot of things from there. My physical training is based on again Indian methodologies. So we have very scientific forms of dance and martial arts. We have something called the Chowdance, which is C-H-A-U. It's a masked form in the east of India. So the dancer wears a mask and the dancer dances. And there are just two minute or three minute snippets that they perform because you can't last longer. You go out of breath. So they perform that for that much of time. And there's a story weaved into that. And that story reflects many nuances and many philosophies, those short snippets. So I've trained a bit in that. And I use that for my training because your face is hidden. And the philosophy of that dance form is that when you perform, your skill as a craftsman will reflect on the mask. So if you feel an emotion deeply, and if you're able to weep inside yourself, the mask, which is static will appear as if it's weeping.  So it's optical illusions, what do you say in physics? So that's what appears on the mask. And that's an immense, immense training methodology for actors over here in my country, I feel, because your whole body then begins to find its own intelligence to push all the energy into the face, because cinema is all about face. So we use this theatrical art form to adapt it into the film world. And this helps a lot into imbibing the entire breath process and the energy levels into the face, so that the face begins to reflect what your entire body is feeling. Then I have trained in a bit of Kathakali. Kathakali is a mind form. It works only on mudras, which is hand gestures and eye movements. That's all it does. And it speaks to you for hours together. Performers of Kathakali perform for nine hours on stage at a stretch. And there's an audience sitting over there at night. They perform at night only. And they work only on their faces, their eyebrows, their eyes, and their fingers. That's all. It's a mimetic art form. And I find that very interesting to use it. Then I work on Kalari Payatu, which is again an Indian martial art form. Kalari Payatu is yoga in movement. It's one of the oldest forms of martial arts in the world. So when you train in all these things, you find a physical intelligence. Whenever I approach a character, that's the first thing I do. I find a physical intelligence of the character first. So I form a regime for myself every morning, which comprises of certain Choudhans movements, certain Kalari Payatu movements, certain Kathakali movements, and certain breath techniques from yoga. That is my summation of that particular character only. If I'm making a ship of thesis, then it has got a permutation combination of all these four. And I began to practice that. That builds my physical intelligence and my spine. The spine is a very crucial element of acting. Your spine has all the nervous system connected to it.  And then I work on the mental intelligence of the character, which means I read a lot. Anywhere that are connecting points on logic. I don't improvise. I don't imagine and I don't react. These three things are out of my system completely. Because these are the ones I was taught to do when I was doing workshops. And I asked myself one day, what if I remove these three things? Because they are the pillars of acting, imagination, reaction and improvisation. I said, if I remove, what do I have therefore? And that's where my research began. And I began to research on what else is there therefore about acting, which I can explore.  And I work a lot on logic. I don't follow an imaginary story that I create in my head. I pick up things from the script. I read the script multiple times. And I pick up everything I can from the script. All kinds of clues, keys to the character. I pick them up. I make an essay from the script itself. And then I begin to work on each one of them, which means it can go into connecting two paintings. It can go connect Western classical music. It can go connecting to Indian classical dance forms. It can go connecting to poetry, literature from anything to anything. That's why I collect my mental intelligence. Then I go to the spiritual experience of the character, which does not mean I sit in meditation. I work out the semblance of this character in the universe. Why are such characters here? What is their purpose? What do they do to humanity at last? These three layers are what I work on continuously. So when I go on set, I'm working on these three layers continuously at one point of time. As the camera switches on, I'm functioning in all the three levels. And this helps me a lot to find that balance of what this performance should be there for. And I normally connect acting to a candle. So when you light a candle, there's a wick. The wick is your body of the actor. And the light that you see around the candle, that's what acting is. It's larger than who you are. This is a world philosophy of the character, not merely what you read in the script. It has to resonate in the world. It has to resonate with the world audience. So you find the semblance of it. That's where when you perform as an actor, at least for me, I find my body very small to resonate such a big aura of the character. The character is always bigger than who I am. The character is never inside me. I am inside the character.  That was wonderful. Rick was also this old man that saw on the screen with me was also my teacher in high school, my theater teacher. So that was good. So whenever we're back in Mumbai, we're going to come take one of your classes. So that'll be nice. Anyways, I'll actually want to get because we actually just watched Ship of Theseus. Just a few days ago, blown away, the movie was incredible. Beautiful movie. There's so much about that movie that we talked about. But I want to get into your character specifically. How quote unquote, I know you just gave your thing away. How method did you go for this? Obviously, I know about the transformation. I'd like to talk to you more about it. But in terms of like, how much did you live like this character day to day? Or do you do that at all? You know, for this especially, I performed Gandhi as well. For television series and for a feature film. The process for Gandhi and this performance was very similar. I began actually to live this kind of a life for many months as the monk. So part of the physical transformation, there was a style of living a way of waking up in the morning, a way of going to sleep at night, a way of thinking and focusing my mind on. So that wasn't me that there wasn't Neeraj at all, because Neeraj wouldn't do that on a day to day basis. But the monk would do that. I began my mind had to focus on something specifically throughout the day. That was very difficult because it would be distracted by Neeraj's mind. And I had to play my mind back again of the character to say no, this is not what you must or should be thinking through the day. So that's where the whole transformation began mentally for me. That included chanting shlokas, that included prayers, that included almost wearing things that the monk was wearing on a day to day basis, not the whole day. But for a period of I would be dressed by that, just to sense that is not about feeling the costume. It's not as mundane as that. It's about being in the bare minimal and to understand how that affects the mind, therefore, because amongst these to be in bare minimal and to enlarge the mind to take in and come encompass a larger philosophy of life and not just a materialistic world. So when you go into that realm, you have to become minimalistic in everything that includes your food habits, your health habits, your clothing, the books and the luggage that you carry. I am very used to carrying huge amounts of luggage when I travel. And when I began to process this character into my system, I had to live with very little with everything. I spoke very less. And when I spoke, I thought immensely before I spoke that became a way of life for me slowly. Then my reading process began. I actually met a lot of monks as well. And question them again, not every monk. I met liberal monks, monks who were, yeah, who were not fanatics, who were not fundamentalists. So I went to them and I spoke, I spent time with them. And that revealed a lot of things. Anand Gandhi, my director gave me a lot of books to read on world philosophy, on vegan, on vegetarianism, on philosophers who believe in nonviolence and who these philosophers are. They were from Harvard, they were from everywhere, all over the world. I began reading them and had a very new perspective to life itself. So when you get into that, when you process that in a film or while you're shooting, that happens almost automatically by default. You're not really thinking now what to do, because you're almost living there. That's how the transformation is for this. But this one was separate from my other characters because I was living like this for a long, long life. I began living that way. But I think you would say the process of though, obviously the process is going to be different with each character. Obviously, this was compared to Patholok. It seems you always will work from the inner person out, whichever the character is going to be, you're going to be working from the inside out. Yeah, and whereas you wouldn't focus on what most actors, especially in the West, would focus on, which is obviously the script is where you go and you take everything. But then they would work a lot on back story and creating something about story seems like your preference is to work from something within every little nugget you can get from the script and then contextually what's going on in the moment for this character and just letting the inner life animate what's going on in the now. Is that a safe way to describe it? That's absolutely yes. And just to extend that thought, you know, in the Indian philosophy, we believe in something that the body has the human body. They're called centers, which we call chakras, chakras. Yeah, we're here, here, here. So there are seven centers and each of the centers connect with a color and an emotion. So when I'm performing, I'm also activating these centers continuously through the yoga breath techniques and through the yoga, Surya Namaskar, which we do. So when you do that, your centers get activated. When you perform, you're also focusing on those centers to realize where is my energy shifting in this scene? Or where is energy shifting now? Is it down? Absolutely on the last chakra? Or am I able to shift the energy up here somewhere? Because this is the emotion center somewhere. So these are all emotion centers. And you figure out what emotion you're working with, and you activate that chakra. At the same time, all other chakras and all the centers are also activated. So you play this little thing within yourself inside your entire focus is actually very inner in the method that I process. Yeah, and the result of what my actor, my co-actors doing with me. That is also an awareness I have. Yes, because I go on to my co-actor, if I go inside then I'll be in my own world. Now this transaction that I have with my co-actor is very, very interesting because my methodology is different, my co-actors methodology is different. Right.  The essence of all studies and philosophies collaboration with the world. So I find this very exciting.  How am I collaborating with this? And how does my training come into process now in this present moment that I'm shooting this scene at this point of time? The camera is on, the sound is on and the director is looking at us. How am I collaborating? This present moment becomes everything at that point of time. Yeah, this is our style of conversation and we're loving it. But yeah, on the transformation part of that character, I know you did it yourself, but how long did it take you? And what did you do it healthily unlike AK, like a Christian bale? Or did you or did you go the Christian bale direction and just throw throw everything? So it took me, I think about, I think about four to six months of transformation physically and mentally and spiritually. But I never went the unhealthy way. I never consumed apples or caffeine or whatever. I was living on on a diet that a monk would live on. So it was it did come to almost liquid diets after a point of time. But I was living on very bare minimal but I had to make sure that because when I did this film, I was 42 years of age. And that was rather late in terms of physically transforming and not using non vegetarian food or medicines. I rejected that. I didn't consume I'm a non vegetarian by nature. But I did not eat anything at that time, which was meat or flesh, neither eggs. And I survived basically on vegetarian food, which is very difficult for me because I've never survived like that before. But I took to the philosophy of the character. And I began eating that and living by that. But I had to gym a lot. I don't gym otherwise. There's a lot of weight training because my trainer told me your muscles have to be very hard and tight. If you don't do that, when you get back your body, your skin will shrink. You will look like a 65 year old man. He said you have to take care and have to do about two to three hours of weight training every single day. But I argued saying if I do that, I'm eating such minimal food. I'm not even taking protein milkshakes nothing. He says but that's your journey. If you don't want to do it, then use lesser weights. But there's no other way out. You've got to harden your muscles. So the skin on top can become frail. But when you put the weight back on, it has to be tightened back again. So that was the process of weight training and eating less and less and less. That became slightly dangerous at points because when I had to go for my heart checkup and my blood checkup and everything, sugar levels, those were little dangerous moments. Things would just drop. You know, and I was advised by the doctors, stop it right away because otherwise consume, otherwise consume meat. Otherwise consume meat, that may help you.  What I held on to that, I did have vegetarian proteins that is what we take as lentil soup and all that. So I took that and I survived on that for a long, long time. But it came to a point where one day I remember the last day of the shoot, I think second last day of the shoot, I almost, that was my last day of gymming. I didn't want to gym anymore. And my director said, stop gymming, you've already reduced 18 kilos, we don't need you anymore. You're chill, relax, just come and shoot. But I was adamant I was rather stubborn at that time and I went for my last day of gymming. And I remember walking on the treadmill and there's a gentleman who came to my side, to my left. He was about I think 75 years of age. Definitely. He was an army general, one could make out. Absolutely stiff guy, well built, robust. He was walking on the treadmill. And he gave me a look. And I was hunched by then, you know, I was so much my back was hunched. And I was slowly walking on that treadmill, like an old man. And he looked at me. He was twice my age, literally.  The hospital taking care of you. And I look back at it, I smile. And before I could realize it, I dropped, I blacked out. Oh, instructor came over there, they picked me out, I believe that's what they told me. And I blacked out completely. And then of course, food was given to me, et cetera. I'm in Saline and all that. I refused food back again. When they said, please eat, I said, no, I'm not sectional that. So I got back to life. And then I shot again. And again, I remember while going on sets I'd almost, you know, again, I blacked out on sets because I just could not contain it in food was so little. And Jimming was continuous. So so those were the experiences that it paid off. It paid off. For sure. And you got you got to use it as the character. I mean, you got to be in that place of physical duress that the character was in. I'm really interested to know like, for example, from what we've been exposed to with most Western actors is you get you get raised up through Stanislavski and then Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner. And you're taught with with Stanislavski to work out in your learn to be in the moment.  You're not thinking about them anymore. How long do you think it took for you? And would it be the same for other actors to learn what you learned? Process that enough that it's now habits so that when you are on set, you're doing pato look, you can be working with your shockers, but not be in your head. That's that's extraordinary to me. And how how long did you think it took you to make that a habit? And you're not even thinking it's just what you do? Well, if you ask me, I'm still doing that. And I'm still learning that it's a long learning process. Yeah, how do you how do you get into that automatic mode? You know, when you're on set, right? I'm still learning that I still have to get that absolutely to the tea that you know, I'm there and I'm only that I'm not processing anything else at all. Even now when I go on set, I carry my briefcase like any corporate guy would. And I have all my notes inside that. So when I open my briefcase inside my van, I normally tell my 80s that look, do not disturb me for the next 45 minutes. No tea, no food, nothing at all, no knocking on my door. Leave me and I'm preparing right now. So I go there. I open my briefcase and I spread my notes out on the table completely. And I began begin all my research material back again. I begin processing back again. That's where I begin to transform for the last final time inside my van. When I come on set, I'm still processing a lot of things processed. Absolutely.  It has become a habit till now. But I'm yet to arrive there when I say, I can leave home and I can go and I don't need my briefcase. And I can just go on set bang on. And I say, here I am. Right, you know, I wish I can do that. I still I'm not doing that because I get scared doing it. I've tried once or twice in certain scenes. I went back, I took my briefcase back again, because I sometimes there's something missing. There's something organic missing. And I could not survive without that. But I have soft to those actors who can actually do that. They're just alive and bang on they're there. Well, you just you reminded me of something Daniel Day Lewis said when when he was asked why he uses the process he does, which everyone knows that he has always been full blown method. He's the character 24 seven, which I Corbin and I just cannot comprehend working that way. And but his answer was honest. He said, I don't think I'm a good enough actor to do it any other way. That's that's that's my process.  But I understand it in terms of what you just said, every. It's the beautiful thing about the craft is that every actor has the process that they use with each character. And it's a continual point of learning where you never really, you know, with musicianship, you can reach a level of expertise that you feel a level of accomplishment and with acting, you can feel great one show. And then the next night, you don't know what you did out there. Absolutely. Yeah. You know, another thing, talking about Daniel Day Lewis, another thing that happens when you go on set is also to be able to be open to changes or shifts that they might come up with. And if you say, no, I've prepared only this, and I'm unable to shift out of this parameter, then that's not a technique anymore. Absolutely. You're bound by the chains of your craft. The craft's made for you to be free and open enough to take in anything that the director might come in. I've been on sets where directors have heard the dialogue on the scene, I mean, on set. We're performing it. And suddenly the director says there's a great director in India. I won't name him. He suddenly says, give me a break, Neeraj. Go to your van. Have some coffee. I'll rewrite the scene right away. We're changing this. It's not working for me. So he goes back, we wait for an hour. He rewrites three pages. It's not a small scene. Oh, man, it's the whole thing. He comes back, gives me fresh lines, completely fresh. Nothing to do with the plot of that scene.  And he says, I only have 10 minutes to go because we're losing light. This is funny. Can you get ready with not only the lines, with the performance, with everything, but years where the craft comes in, you know, years technique comes in. Because that's where you take it. And you say, okay, I have only 10 minutes to go and I can look outside and I know the light is going. And I'm prepared for this. That's where your years of work and craft come in. And that's where you say, you know, I am equipped. You can give me anything. And I'm equipped to fight that. And you, one loves working with directors like this. In fact, I look forward to this all the time. Whereas it tells me, okay, now, do this now, with this concept or this context in mind, shift your body position like this, remove the thought process you had earlier. And I'm removing your co-actor. I want you to do this with a wall. And that's interesting, exciting for me. Let's do this. That's where it comes in. You're not there. You're not reacting to anything. And the director says, can you do it another way? And I tell him, no, I can go deeper this way if you want to, but I can't give this expanse because this is the way I feel we'll hit it. If I go deeper into this, we'll hit the hit the rock. But if you go this way, then we'll be doing many, many things and we'll arrive anywhere. I believe concept a lot that taking one thing and going deeper than trying various methods of doing the same thing or various styles of doing the thing. That's my personal thing. I'm not saying the others are wrong, but that's my personal process of doing it. And in fact, Daniel Day Lewis also, I think it was Lincoln where he insisted that people on set call him. Call him Mr. Mr. Mr. President. Mr. President. Yeah. Yeah. So that could be pretty rather nagging for people on set. I've heard that people complaining. Yeah. This is of the actor. Yeah. That's how it is. And if you can respect that, then you get performances of that caliber. Yes, absolutely. And on, you know, great actors like Daniel Day Lewis, you've worked with some of, in our opinions, the finest talent India has to offer Manoj, Noazad and Siddiqui, the late great Irfan and all these great actors. Is that something that you look for in projects? Who else is attached so you can act with these other actors? Is that like a big draw for you? It's a big draw. Yes. Yes. I look forward to that. I always ask people who are my co-actors, you know, I have been blessed that I've gotten the opportunity to work with such amazing performers and absolutely great directors as well. Yeah. I've worked with people like Shyam Benegal, who made this television series on Gandhi. I've worked with Anurad Kashyap, not a great director. I've worked with Devakar Banerjee. Now, these are absolute greats. And I've been fortunate to be able to work with such amazing talents, directors and actors, especially. In fact, Irfan, Noaz and Manoj have been by far the greatest talent that we've had. Also Nasiruddin Shah. Yes. Yeah. No, no. Absolutely. Absolutely. I was lucky to work with him in two projects. One was an international film called The Hungry. It was an adaptation of one of Shakespeare's plays and also a play. I did a play with him as well. We worked on stage. So these have been absolute highlights of my career. When I look back, I feel blessed that, oh, wow, I've been rather fortunate to be working with these people. Nasiruddin Shah and Neeraj in a play. Where can we watch this? Do you have it? Can you give it to us? It was called The Father. It's an amazing play. I forget the writer now. And we did 60 shows. I could not because I was shooting for Sacred Games. So I could do 10 shows and I had to opt out. But he did 60 shows back to back. Can you imagine? That's how it was booked. So there were two auditoriums booked 60 shows, two shows every evening.  So he didn't do like he didn't do like the standard equity eight shows day off. Eight shows day off. No, no, no, no, no. Continuous, not a single day off. That was his personal challenge. Wow. He's above 70. Nasir. Wow. He took it up as a challenge saying, I'd like to do a play back to back 60 shows. So 60 days of booking. Wow. Just 10 days. And I could feel the fatigue coming in. I'm sure. Can you imagine? No. And I was I was I felt rather discouraged when I had to leave because of Sacred Games because I said, oh, hell, I wish I could be part of this journey and I could look back on this one day and say I did 60 shows back to back with a stalwart like. But well, it couldn't happen. But I've heard so much about that play later when people came and said every show, by the way, was a house full with people fighting for tickets outside. Oh, yeah. Every show, I'm sure. I'm sure. And then he plans now to do the same thing somewhere abroad now. That's what that was the talk Los Angeles. Take all that up and to perform. I don't know. But those are very initial talks. I don't know if that's that's going to be done. But he had this plans to book like this, you know. So we had one in South Bombay, which we booked and one in North Bombay, which we booked and the suburbs. So we did that. I couldn't be I could only be part of the South Bombay shows and then I left. But it's an incredible act, I think, incredible. Absolutely is. And that leads me. I think I know the answer to this question, but I want to I want to know for sure. If if you had to make the choice as to whether you would do motion pictures, standalone films, TV series or theater, and you could choose only one of those. Do you have one that you would instantly choose? That's like saying what I would choose my dad or my mom. Right. I've said the same thing to somebody said. It's like asking me to choose one of my kids. Are you kidding me? Yeah. It's so difficult to do that. I just can't even imagine that. I mean, not not trying to be fair, but even otherwise I can't imagine not doing one at the cost of another. I don't know how that would really work. Because each one of them television. Yes, I don't know. Television is not something that I'm really into. I do web series. I don't know television, but film and theater. Yes, these are foundations and very, very tough to I believe they are just extensions of each other. They nearly really merge into each other. The formats are different, but they merge and you can't. They're inseparable. I don't know how you can separate that. And on the OTT platform, Sacred Games and and put the lock, which we just watched just recently, it's both of them are fan fantastic. And and you're fantastic. Everybody is fantastic in them. The one scene specifically I want to talk about and put the lock is between you and Chvastika, where you're in the bedroom and she is trying to love on you, basically. And in that whole scene, we got to talk to Swastika about it. We absolutely adored that scene and I want to get your perspective on it. And like, I think she said a lot of it was kind of improvised almost. Is that correct? So she works on that methodology because it works on being in the present moment and improvising. And reacting to the scenes that one does. And we did have a talk before that because I told her that my method is something else. Yeah. But I wouldn't want to discuss my method and our techniques right now on set, but we'll go with whatever you are doing and we'll take it from there. So that's how it happened, actually. The whole thing happened because I wanted her to lead the entire thing so that I could use my craft my way and not impose that onto a co-actor. I found that rather fair to perform that scene. So that's my beginning point. And I said, OK, fine. And anyway, the scene actually gets initiated by her. It's not my character. It's her character that initiates the scene. So I found it in all fairness to let her know that she can begin that entire sequence. And I'll follow with that. Yeah. This makes it all the more beautiful. And it was already a beautiful scene. I love that scene so much that I did a standalone video just dissecting how beautiful I felt that scene was and my impressions I got that she confirmed when we interviewed her. But what you've said and you said it earlier when you mentioned it, I thought of that scene how here are two actors who I knew you guys have very different process. But the beauty of acting and you equated it to having respect for somebody's different belief systems or their world views is that you can both come from your respective places and respect one another's process, recognize that they're different and you can still bring them together and see something that is what acting should be. I absolutely love that you both had different processes and that you not only deferred to her out of a kindness aspect, but your deference to her was because that's the way the scene is written. So I'm going to let you go with the scene as freely as you need to because I know the one who's doing the heavy lifting in this scene is you and I'll go with what you give me. I think that's fantastic. And you know, one more thing, Rick, just to add to that, there is a asana in yoga where you bend your entire physical body and you touch your forehead to the ground, to the earth and that that that stance that pose or that yoga asana is called to surrender and Hindi it's called Viragya and it means in English to surrender.  And that's a very beautiful cause very beautiful. And I applied that when I was there asking myself, how do I now initiate this? Because if I am saying that, okay, you can lead the scene, how will I therefore respond to the entire thing? And that's what came to my mind at that time. And I said, if I surrender physically, emotionally and mentally, then I can use and my craft will come to use on its own. I don't have to bring it into the scene. Yeah, you see the entire sequence, physically, also that surrender was there mentally, emotionally, that surrender was there continuously. And the craft took over and the craft was doing everything.   When you work, you know, that's something so beautiful. And what the beautiful thing as well, because obviously when you see someone do beautiful work with another actor, you know, one of the reasons their work was so beautiful is because of what the other actor gave to them. And what is so beautiful about your process is that your process definitively lets the other actor know, you can trust me, which is huge. One of the worst things you know, you can have is to work with an actor that you don't know that you can trust their process. It hampers your own process. And I just want to applaud the the uniqueness of your process being yours, yet also being open to the other actor. And your process is what made Schwozztick's process blossom and flourish. Thank you. Yeah, really beautiful. Sorry, I just thought of a joke. Anyways, we don't have to talk about that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you know, this is not even internet safe. But yeah, I want to talk to you about the OTT platforms and your your view on them. And we think it's a fantastic thing that has come to the Indian cinema world because it's given fantastic artists that aren't the quote unquote Shahrukh Khan's or the stars basically of the world, that the chance to shine that are like the true like the fact that Monaj has family man and obviously put a lock came out with all of you guys in it and then sacred games. And there's so many other platforms now. What do you do you feel that same way that it's giving so many so much more opportunities for great stories and great actors to absolutely absolutely bang on because I think before the OTT platform existed, we had a limitation of many, many things, not that cinema was limited. Cinema has done his journey in a huge way. I mean, but when OTT came in a lot of people and I would include myself as well into that. A lot of us got a space to explore content which we would not have otherwise explored in films. So that gave us that space and also the liberty because there was no censorship. I'm not just saying liberty in terms of using sex and violence, but liberty and expression, liberty in terms of time, you get nine hours to take your character from point A to point B. That's mammoth. That's huge. Right. I mean, you can really get into the most detailed intricacies of your character and express them. You can design a performance through nine hours of work, through nine episodes of work. In film, it's just two hours. And you've got to be very brief. You know, you've got to know that, okay, I've got certain traits which I need to express, which I need to come out with, with the audience. So I just have two hours and my character is there only for about an hour or so in the film. How do I put all this information over there? Here you get nine hours of space for the writer, director, actor, everybody. And you see the flux of talent, amazing talents have surfaced. We never, ever heard of these people, neither actors, writers, nor directors, nor art directors, nor DOPs, none of them we had heard of. And they began surfacing from nowhere. And that's, that's the beauty about the OTT. Yeah, I wish that OTT garners and gathers more audiences. They still don't have a mass audience following. Yeah, I just does, you know, I don't get that. It'll get there. It's it's building here in LA radio. There was a segment that happened about two weeks ago, specifically talking about how investors were looking at the OTT platform specifically with India, because they were recognizing with Amazon and Netflix were doing. And they were seeing the increase. So we so hope it love. Yeah, so hope that happens because I agree from an acting standpoint, when you're on a series, it's like what Mel Gibson did Hamlet, but he just did the motion picture and he was asked about it. And he said, I feel like I've never done Hamlet because I was, I worked on it for three weeks and was gone. I really don't even think I did Hamlet because it didn't get to live there. What are some other projects that we can be made aware of? I mean, we can go to IMDB and see what's going on. But what for you are is in the forefront that we can look forward to that you're excited about? But don't lock season two. But don't lock season two. I don't know. Yeah, possible. I can't say anything at this point of time. Yeah, as the producers will recall. But yes, there are a few web series that I've done. And they are talking about season two for that. Yeah. But I can't comment on that. But yes, there's a feature film by the Barker Banerjee, which is produced by Netflix. That's something I'm looking forward to. It's a concept like the ownership of thesis. It's got three stories woven into each other. So that's that's an amazing film I'm looking forward to. It's another kind of character that I get to create with one of our leading actresses of our industry. She had been unwell for some time and then she came back to work. And this, I think, is one of her opening works. So it was a pleasure to be working with her. So that's one project that I'm looking forward to. And there's another one very beautiful one, which is a Hollywood project. It's been produced by it's a web series has been produced by one of the biggest producers in Hollywood, and will be up on one of the biggest channels, not Netflix, not Amazon. What it is, I cannot comment on that. Hello, that's okay. That's a beautiful project. I am really looking forward to that. We have already begun shooting last year. But because of the pandemic, things have come to a pause. We'll resume again, probably early, very early next year, not this year. And this goes on has gotten on some of the cast from the US, from a certain European countries and also from India. So you're coming to Hollywood. Fantastic. But yeah, this, this will be there on that platform. My So yeah, sorry. No, no, no, I was just gonna say anything we can do to promote that and talk about that, you know, we're going to. Yeah, that yeah, we have. Yep, yep, you need to come. People need to that's one of our biggest things is that we want people that just aren't in India to realize how much talent is in India. Because obviously there's so many actors that we absolutely love in the world should know about that.  I'm not going to watch it. I don't like subtitles. Unfortunately, but hopefully it's changing with them. It's changing parasite winning the Oscar. Hopefully that changes some things. But we'll see. I don't know. I want to finish it off by doing some rapid fire. But also I did hear that you don't do big song and dance movies, which is really sad that I will not see you in a dance number with Rithik.  I've done this beautiful romantic film called Once Again. Okay, I don't know if you've watched that. It's a very nice feature film. I think it's on Netflix. I think so. Okay, see if you can get that. It's called Once Again. Okay, it's with one of our leading actresses, Shefali Shah, a brilliant actress herself, who's done Delhi crime. She's the lead. Yes. Yes. So she and myself, we were the two performers. It's a middle age love story. And it's a beautiful love story. I haven't watched my words so much as much as I did for this film. I watched this film at least about four times. And that's a lot for me because I don't watch it so many times. Any of my work. I love that film. You must watch. It's a beautiful film. It's on Netflix. It's my opinion, my desire to do commercial films always. I would love to do a dance number with it any day. I can't wait. Oh, in fact, I was doing a workshop with one of the dance choreographers. Again, I can't name him right now, but he is one of the top choreographers we've gotten right now, probably in himself abroad and he's come back. And he did an acting workshop with me. And at the end of it, when we finished, I said, I won't let you go from this workshop till you and I dance together. So we did an entire number together. It was great fun because he taught me certain moves, you know. I said, I'll teach you two techniques of advanced acting. If you teach me two dance movements. Yeah, I said for free. So he did that. We we hit it so wonderfully well. I'd love to work with you. I like dancing myself. Yeah. So that's not something I would say no to speaking it in speaking it into the universe. We'll get there. Anyway, heard it here first. I want to finish it off with some just a rapid fire questions. I want to once again, thank you so much for talking to us. But these are just little random questions. Coffee or chai? Chai. Favorite alcoholic beverage? Yeah. What kind? Well, any kind, but not too much if it money. Gotcha. Favorite Hollywood film? Oh, that too many. Um, um, when he won recently by by by Scorsese, Shutter Island. Oh, Shutter Island. Favorite Indian film any region? Um, a big only feature film by Satyajit Ray called both hit Panchali. Do we we didn't watch that one? No, we didn't. No, let's watch this. Great. You've seen the trilogy and one of one of his other ones that this is one of the opportunities is the first one. Oh, then sorry, I don't know why we had a brand. Yeah, we've seen the whole trilogy. Yeah. So that's the first one. The first one. Yeah, I spoke it in the Bengali lingo. Actually, but here, Panchali, that's how it is. That's right.  It's fine. The favorite Hollywood director? Scorsese. Favorite Indian director, if you can, if you can, one which I worked with or anybody, anybody, then I would say Satyajit Ray. Favorite Hollywood actor? Robert De Niro. Favorite Shakespeare? Macbeth. And your favorite book? Ah, I haven't read when I learned of reading a book, I just read part of it and then I thought away. I just got it. I haven't really read books completely. But otherwise, I would say a book called The Autobiography of a Yogi. Interesting. And one last question I've asked is to almost every person we've interviewed. Why, in your opinion, do you think white foreign actors in Indian cinema are just terrible? I'm sorry, I didn't get that cover. Why do you think white foreign actors in Indian cinema are so terrible? Wife. No, white, this white foreign actors. White. White. White skin, you're saying. White skin. Why are white actors so bad in Indian cinema? So. We got there. OK. I guess I haven't. So. Well, I don't think I should be saying anything. That's fine. That's fine. We we've asked everybody. It's fine. But if you ever know anybody who does need any white actors, you can hit us up. I want to thank you so much for talking to us. It was a pleasure. It was basically like going to school, but actually having a good teacher unlike somebody I had. But it was lovely talking to you. Your talent is obvious to anybody who watches you. And I want to thank you just for doing that and sharing your talent with us and with the world in general. And I can't wait for you to come to Hollywood. Rick, go ahead. Rick, thank you. Pleasure talking to you. Really. I think we it's really an honor. We've been really blessed over the past year and a half to interview Swarovski and Manoj and Nawazidin. And we can go just go down the list of these actors that we have first fallen in love with because we're we're actors and we love the art form and we love film and just we are big fans of yours and the love you have, the way you can articulate being a teacher at heart. Just wish you all of the best and anything that we can know about that you're doing, especially when it comes to training actors. We want to know about that and continue to support you in every way that we can. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, thanks. Yeah. Thank you. You have a great day. All right, man. Have a great future.


I keep setting goals for myself every five years. My ambition is I want to build the largest beauty company out of India. Hi, I am Manish Taneja. I am the co-founder and CEO of Purple.com, we are India's latest unicorn in the beauty space. I am on the digital cover of Entrepreneur India for July 2022.


He's got a lot of experience, a lot of big stage wins, the Heisman, a lot of pressure, things that he's had to deal with. I'm gonna lean on that experience. I'm gonna lean on his poise. One of the first things I mentioned about Bryce is when you watch him play in college football and you saw him in those big games on TV, whether it was early in the season or whether it was later in the season against really good opponents.  His countness is the same and he's just cold-blooded. And so those things were what really encouraged me to say, this is gonna be the top guy coming out because he's the guy, he is him. That's the, is that what people say nowadays? He is him, sure.  And so now it's about just giving him tools, giving him the green light to use those tools in an appropriate fashion and playing a brand of offensive football that we're proud of.


Today, we're here to tell you about our first announcement of what will be in our budget 2024. But before I get into the details, I want to step back and talk to you about what this upcoming budget is going to be all about. In one word, fairness. Why? Because for Canada to succeed, we need everyone to succeed. When you look out at the economy these days, it just doesn't feel very fair. With inflation, with high housing costs, with so much uncertainty here and across the world, it feels like there are some people doing really, really well, but a lot of people feel stuck or worse like they're falling behind. And when you look at who's feeling it the most, it's hard not to think about the young people trying to get their lives started in these complex times. Maybe young people want to start a family, but they don't know how they can afford something bigger than a one-bedroom apartment, and with the costs of groceries, monthly bills, and all the other realities of life going up, up, up, well, that can make it hard to save for the future, hard to get ahead. The Canadians are facing many challenges, and we have solutions to these challenges. Now the foundation of a good life is stability.   This morning, I want to talk about renters. In today's Canada, more people are renting than ever before, and that number is growing at double the rate of those able to buy a new home compared to a decade ago. Nearly two-thirds of young Canadians rent their homes, and they spend a greater share of their income on housing than other generations. And in cities like Vancouver, where we are today, this is even more true. This is the most expensive city to rent in in the country. Renters matter, and young Canadians put a lot of their hard-earned money towards rent. We think that should count for a lot more. So today, we're announcing new protections for renters and new pathways to home ownership. As part of our upcoming budget, we're going to create a Canadian renters' Bill of Rights. It would create a nationwide standard for lease agreements, give renters a clear history of apartment pricing so they can bargain fairly, and make sure they have more agency. We're also going to launch a new legal aid fund that will protect tenants against unfairly rising rents, renovations, and bad landlords. And finally, we're going to help you make your rent count towards you becoming a homeowner. We'll do that by making sure that the fact that you pay your rent every month, which remember is a pretty significant amount of money, that that payment and that demonstrated reliability that you've shown over months and years is taken into account when you apply for a mortgage. We're going to amend the Canadian Mortgage Charter and call on landlords, banks, credit bureaus, and others to make sure that your rental history is taken into account in your credit score. This will make it easier to qualify for a mortgage or even qualify you at a lower rate. And just think about all the other things that will come from having a better credit score, loaned to help you start a small business, for example. We're going to make the economy more equitable for tenants with the new Canadian Charter of Rights for tenants. We're also going to set up a new legal aid fund for tenants. These two measures will help you keep the rents equitable, prevent renovations, and give more power to tenants in the market. In addition, we're going to adopt a measure so that the rent paid on months and years is taken into account in the loan credit score so that it can obtain a mortgage loan and perhaps even a better interest rate. These solutions will help protect tenants who are very young and help them become owners. In a world where you pay more than ever for rent, what could be a better demonstration that you're a good investment? And what is a better investment than in you, young Canadians? You make up the largest share of our working age population. You work hard, you're creating, inventing, and developing incredible things that are building the future of Canada. You hustle, you are the heartbeat of the economy, and Canada's success in the 21st century depends on you. Now, there are renters of every age across this country, and these protections and opportunities will be there for every one of you. This is just one of the things that we're going to be doing in this upcoming budget to build an economy that is fair for every generation.