Indian History Could Have Changed If...

'Had these leaders known that Jinnah was dying...'

Arif Zakaria says he was fated to play Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 and the first governor general of Pakistan, in Nikkhil Advani's series Freedom At Midnight.

As he looks back at history, Zakaria -- whose paternal uncle Dr Rafiq Zakaria wrote The Man Who Divided India, a devastating critique of Jinnah -- tells Rediff.com's Senior Contributor Roshmila Bhattacharya, "Despite his ailing demeanour, as you see in the show, he tried to keep anyone from guessing that mortality had hit him and in two years, he would be gone."

Nikkhil Advani didn't want his actors to do any work that was diametrically opposite to the characters they were playing. Did this mean that it was just Freedom At Midnight for a year-and-a-half?

Yes, it was because I had to lose a little weight and we had elaborate shoots.

A project of this scale demands a lot of attention and energy, there was no time to divest it on anything else.

It's not a heroic statement, it just happened.

Frankly, there was no other great offer that I had to mull over or balance.

It's good that I focused on it, you get it out of your system and you are free now.

In retrospect, would Partition and Pakistan have happened had leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and Mountbatten had known Jinnah was so gravely ill?

In the seventh episode which covers a flashback of Jinnah and Gandhi, there's a scene during the 1920 session of the Congress in Nagpur when Jinnah doesn't confirm Gandhi's satyagraha movement because he has his own reasons.

While watching it, I was thinking that had Jinnah agreed, life might have been different.

Gandhi had even proposed giving him power, believing it would solve a lot of issues.

But then had Alexander not set out from his home to conquer the world or if Hitler had a different ideology, maybe the course of history anywhere in the world would have been different, right?

It is subjective, but interesting to look back in time and see how one trigger point caused something to happen.

Yes, as you say, maybe had these leaders known that Jinnah was dying, it might have altered the course of our history.

But did people really know Jinnah was dying even after Partition and the formation of Pakistan?

I'm not very factual with history, so I really don't know if barring his sister, Fatima Jinnah, anyone was aware.

From what I have read and heard through books, it was a well-kept secret with his doctors.

Despite his ailing demeanour, as you see in the show, he tried to keep anyone from guessing that mortality had hit him and in two years, he would be gone.

Have you ever been to Pakistan?

Yes, as part of a theatre group in 2013-2014, for a world theatre festival.

Several Indian groups, like the NSD (National School of Drama), visited Lahore at the time.

It's a stunning city and the people were very hospitable.

We performed there and came back in a week's time.

What next?

Oh, I've done a lot of work, but now the noise is so much that you get hidden if you are not right up.

I finished shooting Special Ops Season 2 with Neeraj Pandey last year, before Freedom At Midnight began.

There's Heer Zara Aur Pondicherry a beautiful romcom by a new director, Kartik Choudhry.

I also shot for another web show with a director called Abhigyan Jha, The Socho Project, two years ago.

You used to write a weekly column...

Yes, Potshots and Pleasures, for HT Cafe, when Khalid Mohamed was the editor.

It happened for a lark, it's one of the exercises I enjoyed as I always liked writing as a silent hobby.

People have told me to write blogs, but I'm not motivated.

(Laughs) Unless there is a deadline and you call to say you need it for printing by say Monday, it is not going to happen.

Ever thought of writing your memoirs?

I haven't led such a varied and rich life that people would buy a book on me.

(Laughs) But who knows, maybe in a few years.