We think India only lives in metropolitan cities: Anupam Kher

Veteran actor Anupam Kher says there is a wide-spread misconception that India is all about metropolitan cities.

"We think India only lives in metropolitan cities. India is in smaller places, towns and villages," Anupam told IANS over phone.

The actor -- who will perform his popular monologue "Kuchhh Bhi Ho Sakta Hai" at Sahitya Aaj Tak literature festival here on Sunday -- says it will be wrong to say that the younger generation is unaware of Hindi and Urdu literature.

"I don't think younger generation is unaware of Hindi and Urdu literature. This is to some extent the arrogance of people from English-medium school, that they don't read Hindi literature," Anupam added.

The veteran actor says that people from smaller towns are right now "ruling the world".

"We should not undermine small town people and small town youths. They are the future of the country. Look at Dhoni (cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni)... People come from smaller towns and right now are ruling the world. They have an amazing drive, they are made to feel that you are from smaller town.

"In today's time, I have an acting school and the students and individuals have come from every corner of the world and their sense of Hindi literature is very good," added the National School of Drama (NSD) alumnus.

The literature festival, which will start on Saturday at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts here, will also have eminent personalities like Javed Akhtar, Ashutosh Rana, Prasoon Joshi, Ashok Vajpeyi, Piyush Mishra, Anurag Kashyap and Devdutt Pattanaik.

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