“I not only needed a capable actress but also someone who can connect with millions of viewers," says debut director Omung Kumar, when he talks about choosing Priyanka Chopra to play the role of Mary Kom. It’s almost as though he can foresee a query on why he didn't choose an actress from the North East, a question that was raised on social networks soon after the unveiling of Mary Kom’s trailer. “Priyanka took up what's probably the toughest role in her career so far,” says the erstwhile art director.
A few years ago when Omung was the art director of Saawariya, he was simultaneously writing scripts for his directorial debut. He had written two scripts which he felt were ahead of his times and put them on the back burner. He told his writer to look for a story that no actress would turn down. “I wanted to make a film that would be like the Mother India of someone’s career,” reflects Omung. The story of Mary Kom was put forth by his writer Saiwyn Quadras and Omung asked, ‘who?’ “She was a boxing champion and I hadn’t heard of her. I was ashamed,” he says. This was before Kom won bronze at the 2012 Olympics.
Omung went to Manipur and met Mary Kom to ask her consent. “Thank God she agreed, though initially she thought I was kidding. I had to tell her how serious I was about making this film.” A story of an underdog, a sports biopic, would evidently find takers, but his peers from the industry weren’t sure if the same reception would be accorded if the story came from Manipur. Omung was adamant. Then, the Olympics happened and the situation changed. “During the making of Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi , Sanjay Leela Bhansali asked me what I was planning to do with my first film. (The duo had also worked together on Black ). I told him this wasn’t his kind of film. But he wanted to hear the story and when I told him, he loved it and said he’d produce it. For both of us, this was out of the comfort zone of opulent dramas and that itself had us charged up,” says Omung.
Casting director Shruti Mahajan and Omung scouted to find supporting actors to play the four pillars of Mary Kom’s life - her father, husband, coach and sons. Nepali actor Sunil Thapa was roped in to play coach Narjit Singh and theatre actor Darshan Kumaar as Kom's husband, Onler.
Omung handed over the reins of art direction to his wife Vanita, with whom he had collaborated all these years, and focussed on direction. The first task was to find a lead actress with box office pull. “Priyanka, initially, wasn't sure if she could pull it off,” he recalls. “It wasn't about just having to exercise and look fit, she had to look muscular and learn boxing.” Priyanka had three months of gruelling training and on the first schedule, for nearly 20 days, the team shot only the boxing sequences. “From morning to night, she was taking blows from real boxers who were hired for the supporting roles. The boxing scenes had to look real, not staged. Some of my crew members and me learnt boxing so that we’d know to shoot the game,” he says.
The second leg of the shooting happened a few months later, once Priyanka completed her other films. Which meant that she had to train, again, and build muscles. The physical demands apart, this is where the story of Mary Kom was to unfold. The team shot in Manali and Dharamshala, since Manipur, says the filmmaker, wasn't a state conducive to shooting.
The film, says Omung, is only a little over two hours, despite being a biopic.
Recreating Manipur Omung’s wife Vanita, who spearheaded the art direction and production design, says she had to recreate the look and feel of Manipur in Dharamshala and Manali. “We did an extensive recce and found locales similar to Manipur. We were lucky to find two houses that were similar to the houses where Mary spent her childhood and later, post marriage. I spent time at Onler’s house and filled the sets with similar things. Mary has a trophy room where she keeps all her awards and there are quotes from the Bible on the walls. I incorporated all this. And I chose a 17th century church in Dharamshala for the wedding sequence and the decor is similar to what Mary had during the ceremony,” says Vanita. This cinematic realism, she says, was a different experience from the grandeur of Bhansali’s sets.
The rundown gym where Mary trained was another challenge to recreate. “She worked out at a craggy, messy gym and we chose a place with bare minimum facilities, where water was leaking on the walls... In short, my sets had to feel real than cinematic,” adds Vandana.
Having worked with Omung for years, she observes, “This time, we were doing something we never did before. Being our own project, we had both freedom and responsibility.”
