Hawa Hawaai’s trailer is out and lead actor Saqib Saleem is excited about working in a film that doesn’t require rehearsed acting. Saqib is playing a skating coach who helps a kid realise his dreams. “Director Amol Gupte has a unique way on the working. He gives a bound script, organises workshops but still keeps enough scope for improvisation during the shoot. He loves to work with children and here again he shot only when they were in a mood to shoot. I have done skating in school. So I had some idea but I had to learn it all over again by spending time with some good coaches. My main focus was to get the body language and the terminology right.”
Saqib says he is not a trained actor and as a result is open to different kinds of experiments. “It helped me grow and understand myself. As Amole runs a school he had performed the entire film with the kids as part of a workshop. The kids knew what that had to do. It is I who had to fit in.” He clarifies that Sridevi has nothing to do with the film and that she only turned up to release the first look of the film.
For the young bunch of actors, he says, not playing safe is the new key to get noticed. “Take Ayushmann Khurrana. I also played a gay character last year and am open to different kinds of roles. A film might fail but a good performance is always noticed. It could be in a film. It could be in an ad film as well,” says Saqib referring to his ad film for a mobile company. “Sometimes ad films give you the opportunity to express an emotion that you haven’t conveyed on the big screen. And you never know which director notices that emotion that offers you a challenging role.”
Saqib’s father runs a popular restaurant chain called Saleem’s in Delhi. “I am keen to do a food film. My sister has already done a good one centred on food (Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana). If it doesn’t come my way I will ask my father to produce it,” he quips.
On a ride
If Saqib learnt skating, Purab Kohli, who appears as a water diviner in Girish Malik’s Jal this week, took a crash course in riding camels. “The one I got for training was rather wild and he brought me down a couple of times but the one I got during the shooting was rather cooperative. I haven’t ridden horses so I took some time to learn,” says the actor who is saddled with the urbane image for a long time.
It is rare to find animals in our films now because of strict protocol that the producers are expected to adhere. “We followed all the rules. There was a team of veterinary doctors present on the sets all the time. The good thing is in Kutch the owners take so much care of camels that even if you try to you can’t ignore them. The owner was so particular about the food of his camel that he would rebuke is own son if he showed any laxity.” Interestingly, the film also questions whether sweet water is more important for birds or animals. “It is an interesting take on the environment that we live in,” says Purab adding that he hopes the film will get him chances to play more central characters.
