Agent Alia reporting...
Raazi – from the moment the film was announced all the cerebral audience, were hoping to make a beeline to the theatres for it. After all it comes with heavy credentials. It is a Meghana Gulzar film, whose last release Talvar was one of the most critically acclaimed film that year. Followed by the fact that it stars Vicky Kaushal – who is giving a new lease to performancedriven actors in Bollywood. And then of course, there is Alia Bhatt herself. The fact that she is collaborating with Meghana on this one, makes it bigger and better. With the promotions on full-swing, she chats up about National Award aspirations and more…
How was it being Sehmat, for Raazi?
For me it was a big opportunity to portray something so honest, because it was a true story, when you are a part of a true story, you feel a sense of responsibility even though you never seen the real life Sehmat ever. Having said that, it was also a great opportunity for me to create this character from scratch, even though the script very well fleshed out the characters.
How do you decode a character for your films?
I think the most essential thing is to figure how she would be speaking. For starters, if you grab the way this girl spoke, everything else is done for you. The way you speak is a very big depiction of your personality, for me, I had decided to start her off at the most basic level of niceness, she has to be… so if you want to rate her niceness, on a scale of 1-100, I would begin her at 103. That was my depiction of her.
What was your learning from this film, from Sehmat?
As such, I took it as a film only, but yes, it did change my definition of patriotism. what we think is patriotic is quite opposite to what is true patriotism. What we believe is patriotism, is loving your country, believing in it… etc., that’s not enough. You have do things for your country. Add value, participate in things that are not only beneficial for you but for your country. That’s what I understood from Sehmat.
How did you incorporate this patriotism….
By being proactive. Today, I have say x number of followers on Instagram. What am I doing with that number? What is the point of having all these followers if I am not using my voice to speak up?
We hear the prep was pretty gruelling!
It was not gruelling as such, it was intense yes. It was important for me to get the technicalities in place for the character. So I had to learn a bit about Morse Code, I learnt to drive the jonga (jeep), get my dialect correct etc… it was a month long session and very interesting.
How was the jonga experience?
Oh I thought I had got the hang of it, but when I was actually shooting I kept screaming at the set hands, telling everyone to move away from the course of danger.
Vicky Kaushal told us about many ouches and injuries that happened on the sets, all of course pertaining to you…
Yes, I am very accident prone, I have torn my calf muscle, my ligament on the ankle, I have torn a glutial muscle if that’s possible, I have had a shoulder injury during Bhramastra… you name it, and I have probably injured it.
How was it working with Vicky?
He is a fab actor, I have been hoping to get a chance to work with him since I saw Massan. He is one of the silent characters but he comes with a lot of intensity, Iqbal wouldn’t have had the same intensity had it been any other actor.
How was it working with Meghana Gulzar?
I love her work, when I saw Talvar I was blown over. I loved working with Meghana, her attention to detail is impeccable. I think it is because of this detailing that her world feels so real. I felt that with Talvar. It didn’t feel like I am watching a film, it seemed like a documentary. I am very glad that I have done a film like Raazi with Meghana because with her, I have lived this movie, through this journey I have nurtured it too. For a film such as this you cannot just go through the motions and be detached, you need to feel it, and feel for it too.