‘I’ve stopped taking myself seriously’

I don’t know about being a leading man, but for me, the real trip is to become the character I’m supposed to be.

From Kai Po Che to Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, have you become more comfortable playing the leading man?

I don’t know about being a leading man, but for me, the real trip is to become the character I’m supposed to be. I’ve been acting for the past eight years and I’ve learnt that as long as I can connect with the character in my head, the rest flows. Maybe I’m not able to portray the character that well but I do ample preparation, so the discomfort of playing someone new goes away.

While shooting for Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, as a director how did Dibakar Banerjee help you?

Dibakar’s best quality is that he never told me what to do and only told me what not to do. I was reading a book on American filmmaker Sydney Pollack and even he never told his actors what to do, but he still he got them to do what he wanted. As a director, he was playing with his actors so that they figure out organically what needs to be done. That’s how Dibakar let me work. I’ve never been as close to any character that I’ve played as I’ve been with Byomkesh.

Byomkesh Bakshy has a massive pop culture appeal. How did you interpret him?

It starts with reading the script. Once you read it, you get to know the intent of the filmmaker and why this character is so important to the script. There are so many ways to approach a character. You have to figure out the similarities between you and the character, build on them and at the same time blur the dissimilarities. Since you do it day in and day out, it becomes a process and a part of you. That’s why I disagree when actors say that I’m immersed in this character. I read an interview of Kevin Spacey where he mentioned an Al Pacino anecdote that has stayed with me. During the shooting of Dog Day Afternoon, director Sidney Lumet was taking 40-50 takes of every shot and Pacino patiently went through the takes. At the end of the day, he went to Lumet and told him ‘something happened in the 19th or 20th take. Please check it.’ As an actor, the discovery of ‘something happened’ is what we live for. In the case of Byomkesh, the character came from Dibakar but I played it as how I thought he is.

All these anecdotes give me the feeling that you read a lot. Is that true?

I’m trained as an engineer so I’m conditioned to come up with a right answer to a difficult question but when it comes to art, there is no definite answer because it’s so subjective. So I try to read up as much as I can in order to understand from other actor’s experiences.

That word ‘process’ again. That’s a Mahendra Singh Dhoni patented word. So I’ve got to ask you about the Dhoni biopic. How is it coming along?

I can’t talk about the film but I’ll tell you why process is important. Tell me what is the opposite of ‘love’? It’s not ‘hate’ since it requires the same amount of emotional investment; actually ‘indifference’ is the opposite of love. Similarly, ‘sadness’ is not the opposite of ‘happiness’ but ‘boredom’ is. ‘Excitement’ is a synonym of ‘happiness’. You know I really wanted to buy a Range Rover. It was a big dream and the day I bought it, I was very happy but by the evening I was immune to it. That’s when I realised that excitement, if it’s happiness, is not in reaching the goal but in the process. Thus, process trumps over realisation.

It seems as though I’m talking to a zen master. But is playing MS Dhoni the biggest challenge of your life?

I am a zen master. Getting into any character and letting go of yourself is difficult but in this case it’s more complex since there is a visual reference of MS Dhoni.

Do you deliberately keep a low profile?

That’s how I can work. I won’t lie and say that I’m not seduced by fame but I try and remember the reason why I wanted to be in the industry.

I belong to a big family and being the youngest, I was really pampered but also very shy. I took up dancing with Shiamak and realised that I don’t need words to express myself. Then I discovered theatre and realised that I could hide behind interesting characters and say what I wanted. Television was a natural progression but I quit after two years because I could predict what I’ll be doing. Then I got a call to audition for Kai Po Che. This has been my journey so far and through it all, what has kept me going is the excitement of finding a character and living him. I want to be a part of all the good films. Like, I would have loved to do Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s role in Badlapur.

Source:: Indian Express