‘I don’t take unnecessary pressure, stress’
by MURTUZA NULLWALA
GARAVI Gujarat caught up with Nushrratt Bharuccha to discuss Chhorii, the pressure of starring in a remake, and more.
How do you feel about carrying a film on your shoulders for the first time with Chhorii?
I think I am very eager. The nervousness has not set in yet, and I am not scared at all. I don’t feel a pressure or a responsibility, and honestly, don’t feel I am carrying the film on my shoulders alone. It’s equally the director, producers, and everybody else involved in the film’s process. It’s a shared responsibility and credit, and only if they do their job 100 times better, I will be able to do my job 100 times better, and a film will come out much better, especially, one that is a remake of an already successful film.
Chhorii is a remake of the Marathi film Lapachhapi. So, have you seen that movie? I haven’t seen the film till now. I consciously chose not to see it because for a film like a horror, thriller, or suspense, once you watch it, you have lost the thrill, fear, and the suspense of it. I had to live that film for 28 days while shooting; so had I seen it before, I would have already known what’s coming next and that would have affected my performance. Tell us more about that preparation?
I wanted to try in a different way, in terms of prepping. I wanted to know what it feels like walking into a dark room and not knowing where the chair, bed, light switch or the doorknob is. So, I didn’t want to know the film. I wanted to go into it completely blind of what’s coming next and let the reactions come as organic as it could be.Pooja Sawant, who played the lead role in Lapachhapi, gave an amazing performance in the film.
Do you feel pressure about any comparisons?
No, I don’t take unnecessary pressures and stress in life. (Laughs) I already have enough of them on a regular basis. I don’t think I have room for anymore and not consciously taking any for sure. Of course, people will compare it. Audiences and critics will do a comparison because it is a remake and fairly recent, so why not. Whatever I read from that will only motivate me or validate me in one way or the other.
What do you mean?
It’s all going to be added to my learning experience and I take it like that. As far as me getting affected is concerned, I don’t get affected by it. We have seen enough remakes and have seen actors do whole spectrum of emotions differently from what’s happened before, which is what makes an actor so individual. They have their own set of expressions or emotions. So, I have done my version of it, Pooja had done her version; everything else is up to you all. A lot of actors have earlier stated that when they work on a horror film, they feel some paranormal activities during the shoot or afterwards.
Did you face any such things while shooting for Chhorii?
Nothing like that! The location that we were shooting at was very spooky and eerie, and it had its moments like what’s there and what’s not. But apart from that, what scared me on a daily basis were the snakes, and there were some creepy crawlies certainly. I was bare feet in the sugarcane fields, and that was scarier.