~*Sushant's Bollywood Journey#18*~ - Page 75

The Rising Star - Sushant Singh Rajput

With the slick trailer of Detective Byomkesh Bakshi getting an enthusiastic response, actor Sushant Singh Rajput who plays the intrepid sleuth is more than happy.

Sushant Singh Rajput breezes in for his interview after a quick smoke break at the Yash Raj Studio"his hair much longer than the look he sports in his upcoming film Detective Byomkesh Bakshi, is perhaps in preparation for the biopic on Indian cricket team skipper M.S. Dhoni. There is a measured confidence in his demeanour since the time he went about promoting his earlier films, namely Kai Po Che and then Shuddh Desi Romance. Singh admits to being the quintessential shy guy who never imagined himself an actor and had enrolled in Shiamak Davar's dance class instead"It was the dance lessons which gave him confidence and then came Pavitra Rishta"the television
soap that made him a household name.

Close on the heels of Ayushmann Khurrana's (another television success story) film Vicky Donor, Singh's chances looked bright when he appeared in Kai Po Che, based on Chetan Bhagat's novel titled The 3 Mistakes of My Life. Although it was a three-hero film, Singh benefitted the most from it, given his versatile looks that work well for an ordinary character as also the quintessential Hindi film Hero!
Soon after, he landed Shuddh Desi Romance, the most unusual love story, helmed by Manish Sharma and landed his second big hit, so critical to his nascent film career. And ever since, there has been no looking back. As the tally stands, he has Dibakar Banerjee's film Detective Byomkesh Bakshi, the biopic on Dhoni, a film with Homi Adajania and Shekhar Kapur's Paani, when it takes off. His stint with Yashraj was something that seemed predestined, he admits with a smile. He had once visited the premises when he was part of a troupe of dancers for a show and much later, Bhumi Pednekar, now famous as the heroine of Dum Laga ke Haisha had emailed him a few queries as YRF was scouting for young talent. "I did not reply to those mails. I did that only after Kai Po Che became what it did." And the rest is history. The actor, who was once an engineering student in Delhi College of Engineering, now counts among the rising stars at YRF and if the promos of Detective Byomkesh Bakshi are anything to go by, his clout is likely to grow stronger. He describes the experience as unique because he was working with a director, who instead of telling him what to do, told him what he certainly should not do. "It is amazing that he (Dibakar) does not tell you what he wants and yet draws a performance from you which is exactly what he has in mind!" he says with a laugh.

Singh from all accounts made painstaking efforts to get into the skin of the character"he cut himself off from regular distractions to understand and portray a character who is highly intelligent and as a result, something of a loner, following the tradition of popular detective fiction. The loner bit is the natural fallout of one's intelligence, he explains, adding that such people usually find a kindred spirit in a friend who is a sounding board for them and hence characters like Dr Watson, or in this case Ajit Bandopdhyay, are inseparable from
the genius legacy.

Off-screen life, he confesses has changed since he attained stardom. Singh is still a little wary about the lack of privacy, especially concerning his personal life. "I have always been very open about my personal life," he says, referring to his relationship with longstanding girlfriend Ankita Lokhande and as if to prove the sincerity of his statement, in a heartbeat says that a wedding will be on the cards as soon as he's wrapped up his immediate project. The break would give him a chance to put his life in order, he says with a smile,
admitting that when stardom arrived, it left him feeling listless, as though he was in vacuum. "Everything that I had dreamt of in my life till then had suddenly come true like that Range Rover I fancied was now in my possession. It was wonderful but it also left me feeling a little empty. It helped me figure out that all my energies would be directed at bettering myself as an actor, to pick interesting and challenging projects..." It also brought with it an uneasy question about the motive of people who now flock to him, "That question: what does this person want?' does crop up often," but Singh is finding his feet regardless, focusing on his craft.

The fact that the early part of Singh's life before a shift to New Delhi was spent in Patna where he studied in St Karen's, a private school run by a prominent Anglo-Indian family has made him a poster boy for several people from the state. Quite like M.S. Dhoni, youngsters idolize Singh because he's built a career that has just a handful of successful actors (Shatrughan Sinha, Manoj Bajpayee, Shekhar Suman and Neetu Chandra) from the state.

"It just takes that one person to make a feat look achievable to several others. It took a Shah Rukh Khan to make the shift from television to film seem within reach," avers Singh who is glad about being a catalyst in changing mindsets.

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I don't know about being a leading man, but for me, the real trip is to become the character I'm supposed to be.

Written by Harneet Singh | Published on:March 13, 2015 12:17 am

From Kai Po Che to Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, have you become more comfortable playing the leading man?

I don't know about being a leading man, but for me, the real trip is to become the character I'm supposed to be. I've been acting for the past eight years and I've learnt that as long as I can connect with the character in my head, the rest flows. Maybe I'm not able to portray the character that well but I do ample preparation, so the discomfort of playing someone new goes away.

While shooting for Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, as a director how did Dibakar Banerjee help you?

Dibakar's best quality is that he never told me what to do and only told me what not to do. I was reading a book on American filmmaker Sydney Pollack and even he never told his actors what to do, but he still he got them to do what he wanted. As a director, he was playing with his actors so that they figure out organically what needs to be done. That's how Dibakar let me work. I've never been as close to any character that I've played as I've been with Byomkesh.

Byomkesh Bakshy has a massive pop culture appeal. How did you interpret him?

It starts with reading the script. Once you read it, you get to know the intent of the filmmaker and why this character is so important to the script. There are so many ways to approach a character. You have to figure out the similarities between you and the character, build on them and at the same time blur the dissimilarities. Since you do it day in and day out, it becomes a process and a part of you. That's why I disagree when actors say that I'm immersed in this character. I read an interview of Kevin Spacey where he mentioned an Al Pacino anecdote that has stayed with me. During the shooting of Dog Day Afternoon, director Sidney Lumet was taking 40-50 takes of every shot and Pacino patiently went through the takes. At the end of the day, he went to Lumet and told him something happened in the 19th or 20th take. Please check it.' As an actor, the discovery of something happened' is what we live for. In the case of Byomkesh, the character came from Dibakar but I played it as how I thought he is.

All these anecdotes give me the feeling that you read a lot. Is that true?

I'm trained as an engineer so I'm conditioned to come up with a right answer to a difficult question but when it comes to art, there is no definite answer because it's so subjective. So I try to read up as much as I can in order to understand from other actor's experiences.

That word process' again. That's a Mahendra Singh Dhoni patented word. So I've got to ask you about the Dhoni biopic. How is it coming along?

I can't talk about the film but I'll tell you why process is important. Tell me what is the opposite of love'? It's not hate' since it requires the same amount of emotional investment; actually indifference' is the opposite of love. Similarly, sadness' is not the opposite of happiness' but boredom' is. Excitement' is a synonym of happiness'. You know I really wanted to buy a Range Rover. It was a big dream and the day I bought it, I was very happy but by the evening I was immune to it. That's when I realised that excitement, if it's happiness, is not in reaching the goal but in the process. Thus, process trumps over realisation.

It seems as though I'm talking to a zen master. But is playing MS Dhoni the biggest challenge of your life?

I am a zen master. Getting into any character and letting go of yourself is difficult but in this case it's more complex since there is a visual reference of MS Dhoni.

Do you deliberately keep a low profile?

That's how I can work. I won't lie and say that I'm not seduced by fame but I try and remember the reason why I wanted to be in the industry.

I belong to a big family and being the youngest, I was really pampered but also very shy. I took up dancing with Shiamak and realised that I don't need words to express myself. Then I discovered theatre and realised that I could hide behind interesting characters and say what I wanted. Television was a natural progression but I quit after two years because I could predict what I'll be doing. Then I got a call to audition for Kai Po Che. This has been my journey so far and through it all, what has kept me going is the excitement of finding a character and living him. I want to be a part of all the good films. Like, I would have loved to do Nawazuddin Siddiqui's role in Badlapur.