The trailer of Hansal Mehta’s upcoming series Scoop was released recently. While Karishma Tanna had everyone’s attention with her portrayal of crime reporter Jagruti Pathak in the trailer, many were also pleasantly surprised to see Harman Baweja make an acting comeback after eight long years. In a sit-down interview with Hansal Mehta before the Netflix series’ release, we asked the filmmaker how he lured Harman out of his acting sabbatical. The director confessed that his personal relationship with him and ’emotional blackmail’ led to Harman saying yes.
“Harman was an inspired choice. We were making a film together and we met at Mukesh Chabra’s (casting director) office for the casting of that film. Mukesh and I are messaging each other that Harman is a good choice. I told Mukesh to propose his name to Netflix because they had given a few other names. I said, ‘You propose this name and I will second it. Don’t let them know that I know.’ So it went to Netflix as Mukesh’s choice and Netflix’s choice. They came to me and said, ‘Don’t get upset but we think Harman is a good idea.’ I said, ‘Yeah, very good, wow, so inspired,'" Hansal said, with a hearty laugh.
“He had sort of given up on his acting career and he was producing and doing quite well as a producer and I had to convince him that ‘Please, do this.’ I had to finally emotionally blackmail him. I’ve known him since he was 18-19 years old. I finally told him that you have to do this for me. You are doing this for me and you’re doing this for your father. He will be proud when he sees this. He asked me, ‘Are you sure? It’s a small role.’ I told him, ‘It’s not a small part and your father will be very proud when he sees you on screen, you will be seen as an actor,'" the filmmaker behind the hit series Scam 1992 revealed.
Although audience will see Harman’s performance after the series hits the streaming platform, Hansal said a few who have watched portions of the series have gone up to Harman and praised him, leaving the actor emotional. “Harman enjoyed the process but now that people (who have) seen told him, ‘Oh, you’re so good.’ He looked at me and said, ‘This is why I became an actor that people will come and tell me that you’re so good. It is happening when I’ve given up this career.’ I am just hoping it paves the way for him and many like him," Hansal said.
The filmmaker added that those looking at an acting career should focus on becoming actors instead of stars. “You come in as a young person, thinking that you’ll become the next Hrithik Roshan or the next Ranbir Kapoor. There’s a life beyond that and that is the life of an actor. An actor will always remain, an actor is forever, and a star is temporary. Stars are shooting stars, they will come, they will go, and they’ll disappear. But an actor will be there until his last living breathe," the director behind films like Shahid, Aligarh, CityLights and Omerta said.
Based on the book, Behind Bars in Byculla: My Days in Prison by Jigna Vora, Scoop boasts of a stellar starcast. Besides Karishma and Harman, Scoop also stars Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub, Harman Baweja, Deven Bhojani, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Tejasvini Kolhapure, Shikha Talsania, Tanmay Dhanania, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Inayat Sood, Swaroopa Ghosh, Malhar Thakar, Ira Dubey, Ishita Arun and Sanat Vyas. The series is slated to stream on Netflix starting June 2.
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