II SaurabhRaajJain/PAARTHASAARATHI KRISHNA AT#8II - Page 42

The most loved Krishna of Mahabharat, played by Saurabh Raaj Jain, is one of the most successful persona on Indian television today. Be it the feel of divine or righteousness, his portrayal of Krishna has been highly appreciated and recognized. Sitting for a detail interview with Saurabh Raaj Jain, he talked with us about his portrayal of Krishna on screen, about relevance of Mahabharat in today's world, his favourite sequence so far and also cleared the misconception that was created after he was quoted in an interview saying that playing Krishna wasn't a challenge for him. Here's the excerpts;

1. From daily dramatic soaps to mythologies, you have stretched your boundaries as an actor. With Mahadev and Mahabarat as your current focus, do you feel they offer more creativity, more challenges than the dramatic soaps?

Yes that is correct I am doing two shows, both are mythologies. Though I don't like calling Mahabharat mythological. I like to call it historical since we do have some sort of evidences proving all this has happened before. But anyways, these two shows that I'm doing, in Mahadev, my requirement is extremely less as compared to Mahabharat. So I give most of my time to Mahabharat than in respect to the other show. The distance between the sets is almost 200 km. So what really hectic is not shooting at the two places, but travelling between the two. But the characterization from Vishnu to play Krishna is similar as it is different. Why I say similar is because, Krishna being the incarnation of lord Vishnu has qualities that Vishnu posses but at the same time, Vishnu is a calendar image where he is into probably most of the time lying down during his lines or enacting the particular scene. Mahabharat's Krishna is in human form and in-spite of having all powers that lord Vishnu posses, he is human after all. So the kind of emotion Krishna shows is completely human than being calm, sitting and divine like Vishnu. They are similar but not completely same. Characterization wise, I feel different between the two. I try to do the best in both the shows.

2. You have mentioned in an interview before that playing Krishna is not a challenge, why so?

That is completely untrue, and I'm so happy you've asked me this question. The question that was asked to me was that, considering that Nitesh Bhardwaj played Krishna long back and he was extremely popular in that Mahabharat, do you feel challenging playing Krishna since Nitesh Bhardwaj was such an amazing actor? For that I had said no, it is not challenging for me under that criteria that Nitesh ji was famous and that was not challenging for me. It is definitely extremely challenging, but my answer was written in a different context altogether. What I meant was, that it was not challenging for me to think that someone played Krishna's role before me and was extremely popular and will I be able to do justice to it or not. But it was made into a different thing altogether. For me, playing Krishna is extremely challenging, not only that, but a lot of responsibility comes with it. You want to play Lord Krishna's character but also at times in spite of being in the human form, to keep that divinity, calm, composure is difficult and the kind of environment where we shoot in, to keep that intact definitely takes a lot from you. And initially I was not sure if I would be able to pull it off, but then my creatives, writers and producer, everyone believed in me (laughs) and then I just thought of focusing on the right things and right perspective and things followed.

3. How much focus have you placed on your physique for the character of Krishna?

When we were discussing the physicality of Krishna, I remember I had meeting with Siddharth sir, who is the producer and creative person and he told me, what we are looking for Krishna is that he is going to be lean and not with any six-pack abs or anything. We want to keep it very normal, like a guy next door kind of physique. But one thing he was very much sure of, that even I liked was that there had to be fluidity in his walk, talk and the way he was going to use his hands and fingers. There has to be a lot of rhythm attached to it so that it comes across as a divine form whenever he talks. Even when he gets angry, he should not look like a human getting angry. It should look like a divine form getting angry. So that is something we all worked upon.

4. The most important sequence of Mahabharat, the Kurukshetra, is being shot at the moment. How is it shooting the biggest and greatest war of all time?

Where we shoot, it's really hot these days, as I told you, we shoot from 7am to 7pm under the sunlight. And monsoons have yet not arrived. So, we don't have clouds over us for any comfort. But at the end of the day, I believe that keeping this all aside, I love my job and I love acting. So everything is on one side, and my passion is on the other. And for Krishna, I need to have that comfort thing in my mind no matter where I shoot. So the other things, they all take a back seat and I concentrate on nothing else.

Also Read : Mahabharat - Siddharth Kumar Tewary and Pooja Sharma Speak On Cheer Haran Sequence

4. As Krishna, which one sequence or scene would be your favourite from Mahabharat until now and why?

Woah...from Mahabharat, actually you know what? Since the time Krishna has come as in human form in Mahabharat, there have been so many scenes that are close to me. So pin pointing one would be extremely hard for me. But the Cheer Haran sequence was very close to my heart. Specially after the Cheer Haran, where there was this monologue in which Krishna tells the audience about things related to that Cheer Haran. That is close to my heart. Then the sequence of the Rukmani haran, is very close to my heart, because that shows the friendship between Arjun and Krishna in that particular sequence. Then Geeta saar, is one of my favorites, because for three episodes it was Arjun and Krishna speaking and that Geeta Gyaan sequence. That not only was enlightening but performance wise, quite a task to do.

5. What is the one thing in Mahabharat that you still think exist in the modern society of India. It can be anything regressive or progressive.

No, actually from, starting jab hum promo shoot kar rahe the, there was a line that said, Jo is mein nahi woh kahin nahi aur jo sab jagh pe hai woh ismein hai. So that means that all sort of emotions which you find in Mahabharat are all relevant today. All of them, be it the friendship, the friendship of Karan or be it the bond between Arjun and Krishna or be it the mother like Kunti. All sorts of emotions are there and I find them all relevant even today.