After watching him as Shahid Khan in Gangs of Wasseypur, Ak74 in Commando, Salim in Vishwaroopam, and a Mumbai Gangster in Raees; one thing was sure that he can breathe life into any character. With recently released Raazi where actor JaideepAhlawat brilliantly portrayed Khalid Mir, he has become the toast of Indian cinema. But while growing up, films were probably the last thing on his mind. Instead, his true calling was Indian army. In pursuit of moving away from the frustration that was caused because of not being able to join forces, he landed on stage that opened his path into films. As Raazi is moving towards its 100-crore mark, Jaideep who originally hails from Rohtak is basking in the glory of its success. Here are a few excerpts from the conversation with this alumnus of FTII, who helps us decode Khalid Mir and making of Raazi.
Unexpected response
I didn’t expect Raazi to do the way it did as it is a different kind of film. We were on our journey of coming up with a small innocent story. Though it is filled with emotions about patriotism, nothing is said directly in your face. The film doesn’t shout about its love for the nation. We were making a film about a spy, a father and daughter, different people and their emotions. We were sure that it would be a great film but weren’t sure how people would react to it. To be honest, we weren’t thinking at all about anything other than working on it with sincerity. And when you are working on something good, one doesn’t get into that mode of expectations. Everybody was working hard towards making such a great story reach people.
Working with Meghna Gulzar
One day, Raazi’s casting director Jogi ji called me and said that Meghna wants to meet me. When I met Meghna, she briefed the story in 20 minutes. I was quite happy that I have received an offer of Meghna’s film. I remember after watching Talvar, I was astounded. And when you have a chance to work with a storyteller, you are bound to be happy.
Working with Meghna was just like software upgradation. Everything that you learn as an actor, a new version of it gets deployed inside you. One always remembers that journey because by the end of the shoot you feel that you are enriched with more polished emotions.
Becoming Mir Khalid
I deliberately chose not to read Calling Sehmat on which Raazi is made as I already had the script for the reference. After my conversations with Meghna, we started creating the background of Mir. The only thing that Meghna told me was that this is based on R.N. Kao who was the founder of RAW. We didn’t know much about him because he was a very secretive man. After what Meghna used to tell about him, I made his imagery– the kind of man he was, how he would react to certain things, his emotional and physical side. Meghna already had a look in her mind. All the people who belonged to this world that I have seen or met in life, they were the ones I was drawing my reference from. I also followed different films, documentaries, newspaper articles etc. But one thing was sure that it has to come across within the context of the syllabus. He couldn’t be a James Bond but any other person who has been in the business for a long time. One thing Meghna told me was that when the film gets over, no one should get to know that who exactly Mir was. There is nothing that should be clear on his face. Emotions like anger or fear should remain inside and shouldn’t show anything to anyone. Nothing could be more significant than his mission.
Raazi’s impact
While filming and shooting these characters, every second we used to feel their emotional journey and graph. Every day when we would come back to our hotel, we all used to feel so heavy within. "Essa lagta that jaisekisi ne andar se kuch nikal diya ho aur aap khali ho gaye ho…." The last scene when Sehmat returns and says that she wants to go back, that day was the heaviest. When we returned to our hotel, nobody wanted to talk to anyone. I just went to my room, had my food and kept lying on my bed for hours. I’m sure it was quite heavy for Alia, Meghna, and everyone on the set. It took me some time to cut myself from the world that we created through Raazi as it leaves you with a different kind of impact where you constantly keep thinking about things that these people must have gone through. Even after a week of finishing the shoot, I would dream of still shooting for Raazi.
About Alia
Alia went through combat training and learned the Morse code. I was mostly with her during the training and had to learn the similar basics that she did for her week-long combat training. Though she had to put more efforts to it because she had to do it on screen. Since my character had to portray that Mir was expert in all these tasks so I had to look confident about everything – shooting a gun or loading. Mir’s body language had to show that he was an expert in everything. Alia is a fantastic actor who has been practically trained throughout her life. In two scenes she completely surprised me. One was the ending scene – the emotional breakdown of Sehmat in front of Mir, I knew that emotion is coming with a lot of depth behind. Another poignant scene was where we are both having tea, and she has just finished her training. She asks me if I think she can do the task and in return, I question her that what convinced her to do it. That scene is crucial as that is where the battle starts.
Destiny’s child
Before joining the industry, I failed thrice to clear interviews for the Services Selection Board examinations. I was depressed and angry about myself. I was so firm that if I don’t crack this, I won’t do anything else. This approach proved to be a bit of a self-destructive move. It made me frustrated, which transformed me into a person who somehow landed on the stage. That regret of not being able to join Indian Army will always remain, but I’m happy now. I’m still very emotional about the uniform.
Being part of Lust Stories
After Bombay Talkies, Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, and Dibakar Banerjee have once again come together for Lust Stories. I’ll be part of Dibakar Banerjee’s film along with Sanjay Kapoor and Manisha Koirala. Film’s tagline says – love, lust and everything in between, love and lust are two emotions that are always talked about, but the thin line between them has often remain explored. As it is releasing on Netflix, it will give 190 other countries to watch it, which wouldn’t have happened otherwise. With platforms like Netflix, the audience gets to watch Narcos and other big series of world cinema. This is changing the vision of everyone – be it filmmakers or audience.
What next
My next film Sandeep aur Pinky Farar featuring Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Neena Gupta and directed by Dibakar Banerjee will be released in August. Hopefully, Vishwaroopam 2 will also release this year.
Comments
0 comment