Call it destiny or a happy coincidence, but Manhattan-born Devika Bhise has some connection with Robert Kanigel’s book The Man Who Knew Infinity . She is not only acting in the film adapted from the book, with Dev Patel, but had also starred in a play The Partition , based on the book, during her graduation days. The film, a biopic on the life of mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, will see Bhise play Janaki, his wife. “The play didn’t even have her character as it dealt with the time he’d spent in Cambridge,” she points out.
Bhise confesses to have had no clue that this opportunity was coming to her. A Bharatnatyam dancer, jazz singer and filmmaker, the actor wasn’t really worried about the small part her role plays, as the film is primarily about the legendary mathematician . “I consider myself lucky to have gotten the offer,” she says. Bhise made the most of her two months after she bagged the role to research Janaki’s character; reading up text and gathering all the information she could to get her histrionics right. “I had only heard about the southern part of India,” she says.
“The role had me spend a lot of time at Kumbakonam and Pondicherry.” Prepping for the role included wearing the nine yards madisar sari, one of many firsts for her, for the role. She was also quite surprised to learn that the environment that surrounded Janaki was matriarchal.
“She had a say in the things that happened in the house regardless of the time period. She was a strong woman, and that’s where I found a connect,” Bhise adds. The actor had a jolly time on the sets, with Dev Patel being the ‘fun’ guy and Arundhati Nag (who plays Ramanujan’s mother) pampering her off-screen. “She (Nag) was, in fact, motherly, massaging my hair and doing everything to make us stay on the same page. This was in stark contrast to the roles we play on-screen where our equation has some tension.”
Ever since the film released in a few international circuits, it has been receiving rave reviews. “It feels surreal. The Indian community across the globe has done everything to support our film,” Bhise smiles. Though she doesn’t watch Indian movies regularly, she feels that, of late, they have embraced modernity in their filmmaking. “I enjoyed watching Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham but I’m happier to see the choices the likes of Ranbir and Alia are making,” says Bhise. Meanwhile, her friends across India can’t wait to see her celluloid debut.
The Man Who Knew Infinity releases in India on April 29
