Swades again looks different!

Page

bhool gayi! :|

@mango

Rocker

+ 4

Posted: 20 years ago

Q: "Swades" again looks very different.

Q: "Swades" again looks very different.

A: (laughs) Like "Veer-Zaara"? I'd say "Swades" was a more difficult role to play. Here I had very few props and crutches. Every project comes with its own requirements and baggage. Every film of mine crosses a certain budget and is targeted at a specific number of people. The whole world is the target audience. One cannot afford to be different just for the sake of being different. Even when I play "Devdas", it has to be a little bigger, a little richer, larger than life. I've to play my roles on that level.

Q: How larger than life is your character in "Swades"?

A: It's hundred percent the director Ashutosh Gowariker's interpretation. By virtue of what it says, "Swades" is a very important film. It addresses itself to a core issue regarding the shape and destiny of a developing nation like ours. Hopefully, it will make the audience think, if not change their thought process. Being in the entertainment business, it's important to be focussed on the job of entertaining people and yet at the same time try to make a difference to our world. "Swades" attempts to do that.

"Swades" falls within the purview of commercial cinema and still says things which are normally untouched by the genre. It has its own stark and minimalist appeal to it. It addresses its theme as seriously as it deserves. And, let me add, it's entirely Ashutosh's dream, not mine. I'm only being used to communicate the director's vision to the audience.

Q: I remember during "Veer-Zaara" you told me you didn't bother with the script, just did what Yashji and Aditya told you to.

A: The same is true of "Swades". Since the ideas and thoughts in the film are not mine, I'm completely ignorant about their nature. In such a situation I'd rather just do my job. If I did anything more I'd only expose my own lack of education.

"Veer-Zaara" was about India-Pakistan relations from the 1980s to 2004. I'm sure Yashji and Adi had researched enough on the topic to make my character believable. I'd rather go with the creator's vision than try to confuse the issue with my own input. Again in "Swades", I let the director decide. "Swades" is set in a village. And I've never been to a village in my life except as a tourist. Maybe you haven't either. Most city-bred people haven't.