‘After Haider, I was offered dozens of terrorist roles’
Remembered for his portrayal of a terrorist, Zahoor Hussain, in Haider (2014), actor Ashwath Bhatt stars in Meghna Gulzar’s recent release, Raazi. He plays Mehboob Syed, the elder brother of actor Vicky Kaushal’s character.
Revealing how he got the part, Bhatt says, “Jogi Malang — the casting director of the film — called me when I was travelling. I sent him a self audition based on the rough script that he had shared. Later, I told him that I need to send a better audition video, but he refused saying, ‘Nahi nahi… perfect, perfect’. When he realised that I was unconvinced, he said, ‘Meghna ko pasand aya hai’. That’s when I realised who I was being auditioned for.”
So, was working with Meghna a big part of why Bhatt agreed to do Raazi? “After Haider, I was offered dozens of terrorist roles. And I wondered why? I understand that there are a lot of constraints in commercial cinema [when it comes to casting actors]. But, just because I’m a Kashmiri and I play intense characters doesn’t mean that I should get all terrorist roles,” says the actor who has worked in Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012) and Oscar-winning Danis Tanovic’s Tigers (2014).
In Raazi, however, he agreed to play an officer from the Pakistani forces. “Because to me it was about playing an officer from the armed forces. It didn’t matter if the officer was in the army of India or Pakistan. The character has to be substantial. I’ve been to the Pakistani cantonment as part of a German theatre company, and on other occasions. So, I have seen the pressures under which army personnel work. That’s why I could relate to the story of Raazi,” he explains.