In his last role as 'Bob Biswas', Abhishek Bachchan played a mild-mannered contract killer and in his upcoming Dasvi he portrays the role of a jailed politician ‘Ganga Ram Chaudhury’ involved in a scam and who takes up the challenge of passing Class 10 examination from inside a jail. Nimrat Kaur plays his wife, and Yami Gautam is an IPS officer giving him a tough time. Bachchan chooses to call his character endearing. “Gangaram Chaudhary is a very loveable rogue and I am glad we have retained those characteristics, we didn’t want to keep him very harsh. He has got his character traits but from the first frame, he is somebody that really endears himself to you. There is that innocence about him that is sweet. He knows how to get his way but is not used to not getting his way as well. He enjoys his power but there is still something very endearing about him. I wanted to retain that core of him and that was very important. That would warm him up to the audiences and I think we have managed to do that,” says the actor.
“You have to look to do work that you haven’t done before and Gangaram Chaudhary is the person I have never played before," says Bachchan when asked what attracted him to the part. "That kind of character who is so debonair, so in your face. I really enjoyed the confidence that he has. There is a certain attitude that he has that I loved portraying. It is a completely fictitious character. He is very unique. You would have never ever heard about someone like him. Tushar (Jalota, debutant director) and I zeroed down on how he should look, how he should feel, walk, talk…” adds the actor, who had to give a lot of emphasis on the Haryanvi accent for the film.
“Prepping and workshop were extensive but it is like we do for every film. I feel awkward talking about it because in every film you prepare for but in this film obviously there is a lot of attention given to his speech because he has to speak in a Haryanvi accent. So we spent a good two months prepping to get it right...we worked extensively on that. We were conscious to get it right and it should not look forced, The language has a definite attitude and I was greatly aided because I own a kabaddi team with a pro-kabaddi league and a lot of my players are from Haryana so I am used to hearing the language a lot. It became that much easier for me to get into it,” he says.
Most part of Dasvi, which was wrapped up just a day before the second lockdown was announced in April last, was shot in Agra Central jail to bring in that authentic feel to the film. “We have this preconceived notion of what a jail should look like. When I walked for my shoot on the first day, I asked the director, ‘Tushar, yeh set toh nahin hai?’ We are used to seeing jails in our films which are very dark and dingy and grey...people wearing those white clothes with black stripes but it is nothing like that. Dare I say, it is a very happy place. It was such a nice thing to see how our government is approaching reform and correction of facilities. You will see it amongst the qaidis, also, all of them have acted in the film as background artistes. They actually are the real guys because Tushar felt these kinds of faces you are not going to get anywhere, actors will always look like they are acting. That really adds to the authenticity of the film. We had to be very careful obviously, there were a lot of protocols which we had to adhere to. But I am so glad we went through that trouble to do it because it added a certain character and flavour to the film,” says Bachchan.
Last couple of years have been extremely busy for Bachchan, in fact, he has said that he has been busier than he has probably been in the last 10 years with back-to-back films and web series. While one would like to believe that his second innings is far exciting and which could be because of the choice of scripts, the actor says it is very difficult to analyse that. “Look, I have never known how to answer the question whether there is any change in choosing scripts. Part of me wants to say that it has always been a good story that is going to work. Is that any different now? Is the requirement any different now? I don’t think so. Till date the audiences want to be entertained. But part of me wants to say that today we are getting to be part of films which maybe many years or before my time also people may have not even considered. Say for example Bob Biswas, I don’t know if a movie like Bob Biswas would have been made in as mainstream a fashion as it was. That could be because there is that opportunity and there is an audience that is patronising these kinds of films. But I would still say we always made interesting, different and diverse films but we are now pushing those boundaries a bit more. I am often asked if this is the best phase of my career... yes, absolutely... but I would have always said that whenever you would have asked me this question because if you don’t believe it is the best phase of your career you are not going to give it your best,” he articulates.
Bachchan may not have worked with too many debutant directors but he enjoys working with them for their “unique” voice, “And once you see Dasvi you are not going to believe that this is Tushar’s first film. Be it Tushar or Diya (Annapurna Ghosh) who directed Bob Biswas, this generation is coming up with such unique ways of telling a story. What is so wonderful is when you see Tushar he is this good Bandra boy (laughs) and you would never think he will make a movie with a character like Gangaram Chaudhary. You wonder how you would even understand something like this. He has no experience of knowing people like that but he has told the story so beautifully and authentically. What really is nice about Dasvi is that despite being so modern where you have the opportunity and possibly the exposure and mindset to do something which can be really cutting edge, he has made such a nice, sweet, family entertainer, It is such a clean film. Sometimes we get very scared when we come to know films are releasing on OTT or Netflix and is it something where I can sit down with the family and watch, this is that film,” says Bachchan, who is all praise for his co-stars. “It is the first time that I worked with both, Nimrat and Yami. It was such a pleasurable experience. They are both so unique in their styles and it is so wonderful to collaborate with both of them. I learned so much about acting from them, just by observing them and their unique approaches. They are so dedicated and professional,” he says.
Though the film was designed for theatrical release, the uncertainty a few months back before theatres started opening up forced the makers to go for digital release. Interestingly, this is Bachchan’s fourth film to have an OTT release, following Ludo, The Big Bull and Bob Biswas. He is also part of a web series titled Breathe: Into The Shadows. “Ideally Dasvi should have been a theatrical release but then the industry is coming out of very traumatic and difficult times and there was so much uncertainty about what was going on...Are theatres going to open up or not? I would have loved to see this film on the big screen. But the happiest thing with Netflix and Jio Cinema is, the number of people that are going to see this film will be huge, possibly the kind of reach, or more, theatres would have,” he says. Bachchan has just completed R Balki's Ghoomer (plot inspired by the incredible achievement of Karoly Takacs, a Hungarian right-hand shooter who won two Olympic gold medals; his second with Balki after 2009 release Paa), and he is currently shooting for Breathe Season 3. "And as we speak the post-production of Triple S (Single Slipper Size - 7, Hindi remake of R Parthiban's Tamil film Oththa Seruppu Size 7) is underway," he says.
Bachchan, in a candid chat, recently said that it has taken a lot of heartache and heartbreak to make it through these 21 years in the industry and that he has seen both sides of the spectrum -- of being employed and unemployed. So, what’s the industry and people's perception about him now? “I would like to hope and pray that the industry is looking at me with a lot of confidence and belief. That no matter what we give him he will do it. I have been very lucky to have been offered the kind of work that I have in the last three to four years and I am so happy that those films have been liked by the audiences. Be it Manmarziyan, be it Ludo, or Big Bull, or Bob Biswas and now Dasvi. To get this kind of positive response is very reassuring to me as an actor. It partly tells me that I can throw my name into the ring with actors where people feel, ‘Okay, Abhishek is somebody who can do justice to whatever we give him. I hope to be able to live up to that. I am enjoying the fact that they give me a variety of different roles,” he signs off.
Seema Sinha is a Mumbai-based mainstream entertainment journalist who has been covering Bollywood and television industry for over two decades. Her forte is candid tell-all interviews, news reporting and newsbreaks, investigative journalism and more. She believes in dismissing what is gossipy, casual, frivolous and fluff.
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