On April 3, the world will get to see maverick maker Dibakar Banerjee's neo-noir take on Sharadindu Bandopadhyay's popular detective Byomkesh. Before that, Sushant Singh Rajput " who slipped into a dhoti to be the private eye in Calcutta 1943 " tells t2 what went into the making of his "most honest" role. Expect the Unexpected' says the Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! trailer. Isn't that putting a huge amount of pressure on yourselves even before the film has released?
(Laughs) Everyone who has seen it is fascinated by the trailer. They are really liking it. There is the question of the purists who can think that we are tampering with the spirit of Byomkesh, but honestly, if we were to just imitate what has already happened, then there was no reason to make the film. It's our interpretation of Byomkesh. When I read the script, I reacted to Dibakar's interpretation of Byomkesh... not to the genre or the way Byomkesh has traditionally been perceived by the audience. Once I got comfortable with the script, there was nothing to hold me back. Everything that I had expected the Byomkesh experience to be, Dibakar surpassed that. I am really glad that I decided to do a film like Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!
The thought of Expect the Unexpected' came after we shot the film. That's because what we set out to do with Byomkesh and the detective genre in a Bollywood commercial space, we feel that we have surpassed that. Dibakar's treatment of Byomkesh is totally out-of-the-box. When you see my Byomkesh " a young man of 22-23 in the Calcutta milieu of 1943 " you will see how Dibakar has taken the essence and the ethos of Sharadinduji, but he has given his own heady spin to it... it's nothing like that the audience will go in expecting. Every frame, every dialogue, every scene, every character will throw up something new. When t2 had spoken to you in the initial days of Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! you had said that you were doing many things to become Byomkesh, but were still figuring him out. So, how did Sushant Singh Rajput become Byomkesh Bakshy?
It's very difficult for me to tell you exactly what I did and the point at which I became Byomkesh, but I can tell you that I spent a lot of time with people, books, films... I experienced all those things which I thought could take me one step closer to Byomkesh.
I spent weeks and months trying to understand Byomkesh, the way his mind works, the era in which he was such a dashing hero of Bengali literature and I kept questioning my director on his intent of making a film like this. Normally, the basic things that any actor can do is changing the body language, changing diction and gaining or losing weight... these are all superficial things, but what you do internally is what helps you become the character. You keep conditioning your mind to start thinking like the character. With Byomkesh, I kept doing that for months... even in my life off-screen, I would think: What will Byomkesh do to tackle this situation?' or How would he approach this problem?' Until there came a day when I felt I had become Byomkesh Bakshy (smiles). Will this Byomkesh be all Dibakar Banerjee or will we see Sushant in him too?
There were many things that Dibakar didn't tell me to do while I was shooting the film. He handheld me through the initial stages of getting to know who Byomkesh is, but when we started shooting, he left me pretty much on my own to play Byomkesh in my own instinctive way. Dibakar did tell me what not to do right at the beginning, but he weaned me into the character gradually as we shot the film, keeping me posted with nuggets about Byomkesh. He did it in such a way that I felt that I was the one who was actually coming up with those nuggets about Byomkesh... and that, for me, is the mark of a great director. He knew that I had less time to prep... less than a year... and that he couldn't really expect me to become a full Bengali (laughs), but I think that's what's worked because our Byomkesh is not really traditional enough to fit into a mould. But I can tell you that I haven't approached a character with as much honesty, integrity and an innate sense of wonder as I have done with Byomkesh. In an industry where people are always so eager to typecast, did you have any apprehensions of playing a Calcutta detective of 1943 in a dhoti?
I have always worked in a way that I may say yes' to some films and no' to most others, but once I have given my nod to a film, I don't let anything come in the way... I don't pay heed to what anyone says and I don't really need any validation from outside. When I decide to do a film, there is a voice inside me that says: Irrespective of what anyone says or thinks, you have chosen to do the film and you should have full faith in your own decision'. When I shoot a film, I just focus on playing my character and I have blinders on. How will people perceive it, will it be a box-office success... those kind of thoughts come later. That's what I am feeling currently as we approach release (smiles). Dibakar has been eating, drinking and breathing Byomkesh for years now. In the beginning, did you understand all that he was telling you or did you struggle to match up to his enthusiasm for Byomkesh?
That is precisely one of the main reasons why I said yes' to the film. If I knew everything about Byomkesh, if I was familiar with the history of Calcutta in 1943, there was really no point in doing the film. I approached Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! with a childlike enthusiasm because I was learning something new every day. If there was a lot I understood of what Dibakar was telling me, there was a lot more that I didn't! (Laughs) But that was the beauty of it... I was a constant learner on set. What was the toughest bit of being Byomkesh?
The most challenging bit for me was to convert my mindspace into the character's mindspace. It's the 1940s we are talking about... so the milieu is completely alien to someone like me. As actors, we relate to characters of today, or even those of 10 years ago, but to get into the head of a young Bengali man choosing to be a private detective in the Calcutta of the '40s when everyone around him was becoming a government officer, threw up a lot of challenges.
Byomkesh isn't your average run-of-the-mill young man... his mind works in ways that you can't think of even now... and imagine that was how he was in 1943. He's so layered... I had to feel him and then had to turn things around so as to make Byomkesh a lot more edgy and exciting than he has been so far. It's fascinating. Dibakar wanted me to become that Byomkesh... even right down to how he walked. There were some days when I managed it like clockwork and there were days when I struggled... but now, when I look back, I feel I didn't do badly at all (laughs). How was it sharing screen space with our very own Swastika Mukherjee who makes her Bolly debut? Your liplock with her has been in the news for months now...
I speak about so many things, but the only stories regarding me that come out either have to do with my marriage or my kissing! (Laughs)
I have just learnt to take it with a pinch of salt. But yes, to be honest, I had no idea about Swastika before this film. When we started shooting together, I was taken aback by her range as an actor. She knew exactly what she had to do. We hardly spoke when we were not shooting and all the images of her in my mind are that of Anguri Devi. And I can tell you that when I first read the script and imagined Anguri, Swastika turned out to be more Anguri than that visual... and that speaks a lot about her talent as an actress. Come April 3, how do you think Byomkesh will be perceived by the viewer who has grown up on Byomkesh and the viewer who has never known Byomkesh?
For all those who have seen Byomkesh and grown up with Sharadinduji's stories, I can tell you that I feel we have managed to keep the essence alive. They will not be disappointed... in fact, I think the Byomkesh fan will be pleasantly surprised with our interpretation of Byomkesh. I remember Dibakar telling me: We are not making a period film... what we are doing is making the generation of today feel that they are using a camera to go back to 1943 Calcutta'. It's a very contemporary take.
For those who haven't ever seen or read Byomkesh, this will be a worthy initiation into that world, even if I say so myself (smiles). You've only had three releases so far, but your career choices and unconventional roles have always kept you in the spotlight. Are you happy with your Bolly story so far?
I came in without anything... no financial support, no godfather, no idea as to how to break into films... and yes, I think I did okay (smiles). No one from my family has ever been in this profession. I studied to be an engineer and it's just my passion for films that's brought me here. Along the way, I have been lucky that filmmakers like Dibakar, Shekhar Kapur (Paani) and Neeraj Pandey (MS Dhoni: The Untold Story) have thought that I am good enough for their films. Having done it all on my own, the sense of achievement is much bigger. There are many distractions in my profession, but what seduces me is a good script. I hope to keep it that way. |
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