THE SEARCH BEGINS

In thrillers, last 20 minutes are most crucial where you find what the plot was all about. After spending entire night reading the script, I was not ready for a disappointing climax .... and fortunately it wasn’t

Sharman Joshi at present is earning appreciation for his performance in Dhiraj Kumar’s Kaashi in Search of Ganga . In a free-wheeling conversation, he talks about the challenging process of translating script on to the screen, how he was fascinated by the story and a lot more. Read on... How did you come on board for the movie?

Dhiraj Kumar – Director and Producer of the film and Manish Kishore – Writer got in touch with me. I remember reading the script all night on the flight to Mumbai. I had two hours time at the Mumbai airport after which I had to go to some other city. I met my wife at the airport who came to spend a few hours with me. I told her ‘I am in the middle of a script and will take 45 minutes to wrap it up’. Luckily she agreed to bear with me and I went on reading the story.

I feel that generally in thrillers, the last 20 minutes are very crucial. Of course, the whole movie has to be engaging but the last 20 minutes, especially when the story unveils itself has to be fabulous. I had invested so much time while my wife was waiting for me. I was hoping that the climax doesn’t disappoint me and fortunately, it didn’t. The last

20 minutes worked magically. In fact, it took me by surprise. Indian thrillers me usually aisa hota hai ki climax shock krdeta hai but as an audience when you sit back and reflect on it, you actually feel that they cheated you. But fortunately, Manish has managed to write a script in which the surprise element is shown in a logical and systematic fashion.

After that, the rest of the time that I had with my wife, was spent talking to Manish and Dhiraj. (laughs) I immediately called them to say ‘I really want to do this film. Let’s keep going.’ And that’s how the ball started rolling.

From the trailer, the story looks very similar to that of Kahaani and Baaghi 2. What do you have to say about it?

I haven’t seen Baaghi 2 but Manish and Dhiraj told me it’s not at all similar to our story. As far as Kahaani is concerned, It’s in the same space but the plot is very different. This is a story which has not been told before. The uniqueness of the plot is what excited all of us. For example, romance is the key to any romantic film. Romance me

love to hoga. But how they meet and how the story progresses will be differently shown in every film. In Kaashi.., a missing person is the common factor but how everything else is told is very different. The script of ‘Kaashi...’ is very layered. It has a lot of depth in it. Through trailer, we haven’t revealed even half the plot.

The title ‘Kaashi in search of Ganga gives a hint of an offbeat film. Who came up with it?

I think Manish and Dhiraj together thought of this title. I play a Dom, a person who performs last rites at the cremation ground. Across the nation, Doms do not get enough respect because they cremate the dead. In the social structure, they have no respect or entitlements. but in the movie, the dom (my character) is quite an extrovert owing to the respect he holds in the society. He is confident about where he comes from. He says what he wants to say. Those kinds of doms Manish knew are found is religious places. Out of which he said that Banaras would be the ideal setting for the film. The domes over there have a lot of respect. That’s how we finalised the geography as well as the name of my character. Since we had chosen Kaashi, we had to choose Ganga too. We cannot dissociate Ganga from Kaashi. We thought of naming Kaashi’s sister ‘Ganga’ because they are incomplete without each other. And that’s how we came up with the title. Initially, my friends thought this was an offbeat film. But when the trailer was released, they changed their opinion. Now they feel it speaks from the perspective of women, who are ill-treated at various levels. But that is only one of the aspects; there are various other aspects as well.

What kind of preparations did you do for the film?

Manish and Dhiraj wanted to use the Banarasi dialect and I was very concerned over that. Because what happens is, in the pursuit of getting the accent right, the emotions are lost, So I made sure to start the preparation before a month. I used to record the dialogues and keep listening to it, studying and practicing so that it becomes a part of me. Then I had no idea about the world of doms. I wanted to get a sense of it. So, I requested Manish and Dhiraj if I could go to Banaras five days prior to the commencement of shoot. I wanted to observe how the dom community, who are caretakers of cremation grounds and make preparation for final rites, lead their lives. While doing this, I also got an opportunity to observe the way in which the locals communicated with each other.

How different was it working in the Hindi film industry?

I didn’t find any major difference except that here we work late nights and start shooting late in the morning. But down there, we had to reach the sets by 10 am. Also, there was a difference in language. I am a South Indian and therefore had to face a few challenges because of my accent. During the dubbing, whenever I used to say the dialogue, it had the South Indian accent in it.

Didn’t you think of making your Bollywood debut with a larger than life film?

I always wanted a good character where I could just perform and which would show people that I can act. I had barely any screen presence down South. So I was really happy when I came on board for Kaashi because my character had a lot to do. The screen presence was almost equal to Sharman’s. Performing with such a versatile actor is something every actress dreams of. I got the perfect debut film.

Share something funny and interesting from the sets of Kaashi...

I remember one scene where I and Sharman were shooting a song sequence. In the scene, I had to pretend that I am falling in the water because I wanted him to hold me. But I was so keen on doing it naturally that I actually fall into the water. That was so embarrassing and everyone was laughing at me.

Also, there is a scene where I am going in search of Ganga. We shot that scene amidst the real crowd who came to see the Maha Aarti. It was beautiful.

How did you come on board for the movie?

I met the three of them at Sharman’s place. We went through the script. I found the story very unique and interesting. My character has many shades and it caught my attention. I instantly said ‘yes’ because it had Sharman Joshi in it and there was such a great team to work with. I had to give an audition or a screen test. I cleared it and that is how I got into the film.