Shoojit Sircar is highly instinctive: Ayushmann
From the ones who like improvisation to those with more urban sensibilities, Khurrana talks about directors he has worked with
In his five-year-long career, he has worked with a variety of directors such as Shoojit Sircar (in Vicky Donor; 2012), Rohan Sippy (in Nautanki Saala; 2013) and Sharat Katariya (in Dum Laga Ke Haisha; 2015) etc. “I think most of the directors [that I’ve worked with] are very different from each other,” he says. Talking specifically about Sircar, who launched him in Vicky Donor, Ayushmann says he is “a one- or two-take director” and never works for more than 8-10 hours. “Shoojitda says that an actor’s natural instinct goes for a toss if they over-rehearse a scene. That way, he is highly instinctive as a director,” he says. On the other hand, Ayushmann feels “Sharat loves to improvise on the sets”. “So, he would bring the actors and do the whole composition [of a scene] along with them and start from the scratch. He gives a lot of space to his actors and uses their mind on the entire scene. So he is very different,” says the actor. The Bewakoofiyaan (2014) actor feels that Akshay Roy, with whom he worked on his last film, Meri Pyaari Bindu has “more urban sensibilities”. The actor says, “He has a sense of nostalgia, plus he is cool and studied at St. Stephen’s [College, Delhi], toh uska apna hi ek zone hai (so he has how own zone) as a director.”
Ayushmann feels since Roy has done English theatre and has an understanding of Hindi cinema too, he is “very well-rounded as a person”. “He is an intelligent guy, so he finds a congruent area between an actor and him. So, Akshay plays on that common part that exists between an actor and a director,” he says.
While admitting that “every director’s sensibilities are diverse”, Ayushmann is glad that he gets to “work with different kind of directors”. So, what works best for him — an established director or a new one? “I think there has to be a nice combination. If it’s a first-time director, the producer has to be solid,” he says.
The actor-singer admits that “one of the persons in the mix should be more experienced” in terms of filming, producing, etc. “If a director is solid, you can work with a firsttime producer also. So, even if Sharat (Katariya) was like a first-timer as not many had watched his earlier films, established producers such as Maneesh (Sharma) and Adi sir (Aditya Chopra) were there, I think it was quite safe and solid that way,” he says. So, did that kind of a setup make him say yes to newcomer Akshay
Roy’s film Meri Pyaari Bindu? “In this case, the script was also intact, so it was quite cool. Even the kind of experience Akshay has got with his short film winning a National Award is fantastic. He has worked on lot of films as an assistant director, so he has got great amount of experience and his sensibilities are also correct,” he adds.
The kind of experience Akshay has got with his short film winning a National Award is fantastic. AYUSHMANN KHURRANA, ACTOR