Childhood
Mikhail Bagdasarov was born on October 8, 1960. His birthplace was the beautiful city of Moscow.
Mikhail Sergeevich grew up as a creative person from childhood. He was simultaneously interested in theater and literature. So, back in the third grade, he played the role of a fascist in a play that was staged on the school stage. But two years later he became interested in writing. He wrote a book on his own, which he called “A Novel of Knights.”
The schoolboy Mikhail Bagdasarov did not stop there, and soon he wrote another book, which became a continuation of the adventures of the famous and popular hero Ostap Bender. He liked to immerse himself in new worlds that he himself invented. Soon he began to write poetry as well.
Childhood and youth
Mikhail Sergeevich Bogdasarov was born on October 8, 1960 in Moscow. His parents are Armenians, the family was close-knit and friendly. Every summer the boy went to his relatives in Krasnodar, swam in the sea and ate fresh fruit. As a child, he was an energetic and cheerful child.
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Mikhail Bogdasarov in childhood with his mother
Childhood friends remember the tall tales he told every day. The craving for writing was expressed in the 5th grade, when the teenager wrote a novel about knights and even a sequel to the story about Ostap Bender. Misha first appeared on stage in the 3rd grade at a school play, where he played a German army soldier. Music, sports and writing were Mikhail’s favorite activities as a child.
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The school graduate went to work at the Theater Studio on Krasnaya Presnya. After a year of work, he entered GITIS. After graduating from the institute, he was assigned to three cities to choose from: Nalchik, Orel and Smolensk. But the guy wanted to stay in his native Moscow, so he went to work at the Obraztsov Puppet Theater.
Education
At school, Mikhail Bagdasarov studied satisfactorily. He had difficulties with the exact sciences. But he really liked literature lessons, and he could talk for a long time about any work, about its characters, about the meaning of the entire content.
In 1978, Mikhail Sergeevich entered the theater studio, and in 1979 he successfully passed the exams at GITIS. Studying on the course of Kasatkina and Kolosov. In 1983, Mikhail Bagdasarov, an actor whom the whole country knows and loves, successfully completes his studies at the theater institute.
Mikhail Bagdasarov, a businessman and former owner of the official air carrier of Armenia "Armavia", the football club "Mika", spoke about the reasons for the collapse and possible plans for restoring the Mika club in a conversation with Armenian News correspondent Vera Martirosyan.
Mikhail Ivanovich, last year the football club “Mika”, which had many successes in Armenia, played in the Eurocups, ceased to exist. Couldn't you save the club?
The companies that ran the club went bankrupt. Funding became impossible. We tried to do a lot, there was a clear understanding, but, unfortunately, there is now a crisis all over the world, including in Armenia. The world's very famous titled clubs are acquired by the Arabs and Chinese. Unfortunately, they are not interested in our market. There were 8 teams in Armenia, 6 remain. It all depends on the country’s economy.
But there were various attempts to save the club. First, Mika teamed up with the Russian club Kvazar, led by a young Armenian Artem Khachaturov.
“Kvazar” thought that this was the third league in Russia. We already wanted to close the club and considered any option. They brought their personnel, but the level was lower. Mostly there were amateurs. Funding fell mainly on us. And in the end nothing came of it.
And then Khoren Hovhannisyan joined the team, who in turn brought businessman Arthur Soghomonyan.
Soghomonyan was with “Mika” for only two months. I think he will soon acquire one of the Armenian clubs and realize his goals himself.
The Armenian club championship is currently experiencing difficult times. Then we didn’t have football players who played abroad; then they appeared, but did not play in top teams. And now Mkhitaryan, Ghazaryan and others are playing in strong teams. Now is the time to prepare football players and create a championship so that football players can go and play in the CIS countries and Europe. But unfortunately, the economic situation does not allow us to do all this.
If Mika had won the Armenian Cup last year, they would have played in the qualifying round of the Europa League. Wouldn't the club cease to operate then?
Yes, then I would have to stay. But since he didn’t win, the club was closed. There was no longer any motivation. Otherwise, they would have won, had to play in the Eurocups and would have suffered for another year. It's probably good that it happened this way.
Do you want to say the only reason for the closure of the club is the lack of investors?
Yes, sure. There were no more problems.
Are two new football clubs opening in Armenia this year? Where do investors come from?
Clubs are opening all the time, but none have opened yet. We like to say that we are opening “Cilicia”, “Kotayk”, but they do nothing. This is the Armenian mentality - to run ahead of the locomotive. Last year and the year before they also kept saying that they were opening a club. Maybe in a year everything will change, but today I think it’s unrealistic.
Don’t you think that the problem is not only in finances, but in proper management? Maybe we don't have enough qualified specialists?
I don't think so. We've tried everything. Croats, Slovaks, Hungarians, and Russians were invited. Everyone came and looked. I don’t think our club was managed incorrectly. There must be competition. There must be strong teams that play among themselves, and the skill of the players improves. And when 6 teams play 4 rounds with each other, there is no talk of strong competition. Now in Armenia there are fields, there are stadiums. We just need to create football conditions and raise young football players, take foreigners so that they teach our people everything they don’t know. If a foreigner works at the club, then he should be two heads taller than our football player. But on the other hand, you can also take young, strong foreign players to positions where the team has problems.
In addition, I am not a supporter of the autumn-spring championship format. It's cold in winter, and cold in spring too. It was good when we played in the spring-autumn format.
In Italy and Spain, all teams up to 15th place receive subsidies from television broadcasts. Even in neighboring Georgia, teams are given money for every point they score. In the championship, each team is given $200,000, and at the end the last place team receives $50,000. And this is just the last place. And the first place is about a million. That is, the state invests as much as the investor. This is incomprehensible to us. The Georgians had such a rugby program. They are having great success in rugby now. Football comes second. The success is not so high yet, but maybe there will be success there. But in Armenia everything is based on the enthusiasm of the diaspora and local sports figures. But coordination is needed for growth. However, Armenia has no time for this now.
That is, until the economic situation of the country changes for the better, no program will be able to bring football out of this hole?
If there is a program and money is allocated, then it is possible. But so far there seem to be no such programs. For example, in Iceland there was a program for the development of football. The result was at Euro 2020. And there it was completely dark for six months there. The Scandinavian countries have set a goal for the development of football, and it is developing. As soon as our economy picks up, football will pick up too.
Here, when the national team plays, everyone is happy, but other than that, no one cares. It's a shame that we always remember 1973. We remember, because after that nothing happened.
Kazakhs and Azerbaijanis are also developing their football. Their clubs are already in the group stages of the Eurocups.
And there are almost only legionnaires there.
Now they are legionnaires, then they will raise their own. When a club achieves such success, football becomes widespread. The kids start studying and everything moves forward. They don’t have the same football traditions as Armenia, but the Icelanders didn’t either. I remember that in Soviet times, Turkish teams were always defeated by Soviet teams, but now look at the kind of football they have. If desired, everything can be created.
It’s difficult for everyone, but there are positive examples. In particular, Chirac, which gets into the Eurocups every year and earns money there, has successfully sold its players more than once. Last year, Alashkert was able to earn money in the Champions League. So, how can clubs survive?
We also successfully sold our player to Rusneborg and played in the Eurocups. This is all good, of course, but in addition to this, you still need to invest money. Moreover, in the last year we did not qualify for the Eurocups. And “Alashkert” performed very successfully. Some of our players play successfully there.
Do you have any plans to revive “Mika”?
No. I actually got into football by accident. I played as a child, then I had to choose to play or go to college. I chose the second one. Then football was forced on me here, I opened a club, and then I began to get involved in this business.
It always seemed that football was your passion, that’s why you opened the club.
Football unites the nation. We played in Germany, Armenians came from neighboring countries. I wanted there to be a team that the Armenians would be proud of. Unfortunately, it didn't work out. There were many reasons, not just financial. There's nothing wrong. We will be replaced by smarter, more advanced people. I won’t say that I won’t have a football club, but I don’t plan on it for a very long time.
What will be the fate of the Miki stadium and base?
The basis was long ago given to the State Revenue Committee. They built a sports center there, and now they say they want to sell it to some club.
If you look back, did you make any cardinal mistakes? Would you change anything?
There were practically no super cardinal errors. But there were mistakes especially in the last year. The people who led the team and the coaching staff were unprepared. They were not team patriots. There must be loyalty in the team; it is impossible to abandon the team in the final match and leave.
Management in the team did not always correspond to the required level. Not because people did not comply, but they simply learned then. Almost all of our club presidents were very good.
I am very pleased that this club existed. I have many good episodes connected with the club. We played a lot in Europe. I learned what football is, I learned football from the inside. We had good fans. Football players, many of ours still consider themselves “Mikovites”. The club existed for 16 years. Maybe he is missing at the Armenian championship now, but that means it’s fate and it was meant to happen.
Which coach did you work best with?
Many of them are the Khoratian coach Shushek, the Slovakian Bubenko, the Russian Gladilin, Armen Adamyan, Zsolt Hornyak, Aram Voskanyan, Markarov and Andreasyan too. Not everyone understands Andreasyan, but I always understood what he wanted. He sometimes overexerted himself and got excited. Well, also Suren Barsekhyan. They cannot be compared. One came to a broken team, the other to a ready-made one. And among the football players, this is Alex. He played the most games in Mika. He was very loyal to the club. The captains were also good - Petikyan, Shahgeldyan. We had a friendly team and always celebrated holidays.
What are you doing now?
Business in Russia.
Do you often visit Armenia?
No, once or twice a month at a time.
What are your preferences in football?
I like the current Rostov. I love Juventus - a very disciplined team. We all have to support Manchester United, but they haven't shown that game yet. For now, this is a team that plays for Ibrahimovic, maybe when he leaves, the club will play better. Although he is a great football player. In Russia they also like Spartak. In Armenia I sympathize with Alashkert and Shirak. At one time, when Guardiola coached Barcelona, I really liked their game.
Vera Martirosyan
Theater career
In 1979, actor Bagdasarov began working at the Obraztsov Puppet Theater. But soon he returns to the Theater Studio on Krasnaya Presnya. On the stage of this theater, Mikhail Bagdasarov, whose biography is eventful, played in many performances. This is the role of Count Turgenev in the theatrical production “I came to give you freedom” and others.
But a year later, Mikhail Sergeevich moved to the Sphere Theater Studio. It is known that, since 1988, he has been performing as part of the troupe of Oleg Tabakov’s theater studio. He also successfully participated in the musicals of the cabaret theater “The Bat”.
But still, viewers began to recognize him after he starred in an advertisement for Invite dry juices in the nineties, where he said only one phrase about adding water.
Muscovite ambitions
Characteristic appearance, the ability to speak with an accent, the ability to shine in an episode - at the beginning of his acting career, these qualities played a bad joke on Mikhail Bogdasarov. He successfully graduated from GITIS, after which three theaters immediately announced their readiness to hire the young actor. But all three were from the provinces - Smolensk, Orel and Nalchik.
The Nalchik theater promised Bogdasarov everything he wanted (“If you want a helicopter, you’ll get a helicopter!” the actor recalled), but he, a native Muscovite, did not go anywhere. Playing in Sergei Obraztsov's puppet theater seemed more promising to him than working in small drama theaters.
Mikhail was playing the main role in the play “Crazy Jourdain” when he suddenly realized that he wanted to go on a real stage - and not sit behind a screen, controlling puppets. Having missed a rehearsal due to a sore finger, he came to give explanations to the chief director’s office, but instead “he just sent his puppets to hell and slammed the door so hard that the plaster fell down.”
The Nalchik theater promised Bogdasarov everything he wanted (“If you want a helicopter, you’ll get a helicopter!” the actor recalled), but he, a native Muscovite, did not go anywhere.
Bogdasarov later regretted his ugly act, but not even once. Oleg Tabakov accepted him into his “Tabakerka”, where the actor, although he shone only in episodes, but there were many of these episodes. But after a few years, Bogdasarov again wanted more.
“I came to him and asked: “Oleg Pavlovich, what awaits me?” He replied: “Well, what awaits you, we’ll glue you to the beard and that’s it.” He said: “You are the master of the episode, you came out to shine and left.” This offended me. I thought that I was somehow created for Hamlet, the madness of passions, as the song says. He turned and left. In general, I regret it, because then, essentially, I was hanging around.”
For ten years, Mikhail Bogdasarov served in the cabaret theater “The Bat”, played in musicals, and in the nineties starred in an advertisement for “Invite” juices. All this reminded him little of Hamlet, and the older the actor became, the more tired he became, both from work and from family.
Film career
Actor Bagdasarov’s cinematography includes more than 160 films. Thus, Mikhail Sergeevich’s film debut was the film “The Best Road of Our Life,” which was released in 1984. Despite the fact that he has a huge number of films in his creative treasury, directors still offer him episodic roles most often.
Mikhail Bagdasarov, whose personal life is known to both the press and the audience, starred in the following films: the role of a shoemaker in the film “The Secret of the Snow Queen”, the role of a waiter in the film “The Fellow Traveler”, the role of a captain in the film “Kings Can Do Anything” and others. Today Bagdasarov still remains the most sought-after actor.
The most notable film works of actor Bagdasarov were such films as “Chinese Service”, “Doctors”, “Traffic Cops” and others. Mikhail Sergeevich always plays colorful and characteristic characters. He usually gets either negative or comedic characters. All of his characters are unique and diverse.
In 2008, actor Bagdasarov starred in the television series “Daddy’s Daughters,” where he played Tamara’s boyfriend Victor in the eighty-third episode. The film tells about a family where the parents separated, but four daughters remained with their father. And the very next year he starred in another comedy film, which became popular.
In the film “High Security Vacation,” directed by Igor Zaitsev, he plays the head of the department. The plot takes the viewer first to the colony, where Victor has been imprisoned for more than 10 years, and where Evgeniy, who recently also worked in law enforcement agencies, ends up. They run away together, and their friend gets a job at a pioneer camp, because here no one will definitely look for them. This is where the real adventures of the heroes begin.
But fame and popularity are brought to actor Bagdasarov by the film “The Life and Adventures of Mishka Yaponchik,” which was released in 2011. Director Sergei Ginzburg invited the actor to play Naum Zhirmunsky in this multi-part film. This film tells about the fate of the famous king of thieves after he was released from prison and returned to Odessa.
Movies
After moving from theater to theater, Bogdasarov made his debut in the film “The Best Road of Our Life” in 1984. In the film “The Roads of Anna Fierling” a year later, he played a small role as One-Eye. The actor often got roles in episodes, but this did not stop him from becoming a famous artist. Every appearance in the frame was remembered by the audience; the charisma and charm of the Armenian left no one indifferent. In acting circles, Mikhail was called the king of episodes.
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Mikhail Bogdasarov in his youth
During the collapse of the USSR, cinema fell into decline, and actors rushed to appear in commercials to make money. Bogdasarov was no exception, with the famous advertising slogan “Invite! Just add water!" came from his lips.
In the actor’s work, all the roles are diverse; he is equally good at both comedic and dramatic characters. For example, in the comedy “High Security Vacation” Bogdasarov is the head of the department, and in the film “Vlasik. Shadow of Stalin” he got the role of a close friend of the main character with a difficult fate.
The artist often appeared on screen in the image of Caucasians; directors turned to him when they needed to accurately convey the character of their nationality. The actor’s filmography includes a large number of roles, which have long exceeded a hundred.
In 2010, the artist completed a directing course and 2 years later made his first short film, “Distant Close Ones.” Until 2017, 8 films were released under his leadership.
Roles played
In 2020, Mikhail Sergeevich successfully played the role of architect Miron Merzhanov in the multi-part film “Vlasik. Shadow of Stalin." Director Alexei Muradov showed Vlasik, who was devoted to Stalin for a long time. He was the head of security and always did an excellent job with his duties, but then both he and his family suffered for it. Miron Ivanovich, played by actor Bagdasarov, was a close friend of Vlasik. And the very next year, Mikhail Sergeevich talentedly played the role of the victim Ramazanov in the film “Investigator Tikhonov” directed by Sergei Snezhkin and Eduard Oganesyan. The detective story tells about Tikhonov’s investigations and how his personal life is shaping up.
In 2020, the film “Till Death Do Us Part” will be released in cinemas, where the talented actor and director Bagdasarov successfully played the small role of Harutyunyan. In 2020, Mikhail Sergeevich starred in four films at once: “Club”, “Dancing on Height”, “The One Who Reads Thoughts” and “Dawn on Mount Adam”.
The film “Club,” directed by Ivan Kursky, tells the story of a young man Arthur, who unexpectedly finds himself drawn into a scam involving the organization of a nightclub. He has to hide because the police are now hunting for him. In the film “Dancing on Heights” directed by Ametkhan Magomedov, actor Bagdasarov plays the cameo role of Radik. The main character posts his dance on the Internet. Everyone in the mountain village condemns him, but he receives an invitation to participate in the capital’s competition.
In the film “Dawn on Mount Adam” directed by Natalia Mikryukova, actor Bagdasarov plays the role of Edik. According to the plot of the film, three friends go on a long journey to get to Mount Adam and watch the sunrise there. This will help the girl’s dreams come true, but only if they can understand themselves and the truth before dawn.
Filming of the film “The One Who Reads Minds”
In the film “The One Who Reads Thoughts” directed by Alexei Muradov, Mikhail Sergeevich appears only in the seventh episode “Dangerous Business”. The talented actor Bagdasarov plays the role of Ilya Shperberg, who is on the board. According to the plot of this film, a former successful presenter with a miraculous gift, after the murder of his wife and daughter, goes to the homicide investigation department.
Directing activity
The biography of Mikhail Bagdasarov is inextricably linked with cinema, since he not only appears in films as an actor, but is also a film director himself. So, he enters the Higher Courses for Directors and Screenwriters. He studied in the workshop of Finn, Khotinenko and Fenchenko. In 2011, he successfully completed his studies.
The actor himself justifies this decision by saying that he was tired of acting with bad directors, so he himself decided to follow this path. His first directorial works were the films “Family Detective” and “Neighbors”, which were released in cinemas in 2012.
This was followed by other films, where Mikhail Sergeevich is the director. These are “The Border of Time”, and “Clairvoyant”, and “Unequal Marriage”, and others.
Mikhail Bagdasarov: personal life
Actor Bagdasarov is married. His wife is a lawyer. Raisa gave birth to the famous actor two sons: Anton and Sergei. Both connected their lives with cinema and theater. It is known that Mikhail Bagdasarov’s personal life is difficult. Since Mikhail Sergeevich is a creative person, he is easily attracted to women. Most recently, he had a relationship with the assistant director of Lenkom, Victoria Berezina. He even left the family. Their romance lasted five years. But already in mid-2014, he returned to the family again, begging his wife for forgiveness.
