One fine day, out of the blue, I got a call that Tigmanshu Dhulia wanted to see me. I asked the assistant director, Veer, “What for?” His reply was unconvincingly vague. But of course, I immediately made my way to the office. I’d acted in Tishu sir’s Yaara , which is also slated to release this year, and stars Vidyut Jammwal, Amit Sadh, Vijay Varma and Shruti Hasan, and I was hoping he had another role for me.
When I met the man, he said, “ Shave kar ke kyu nahi aaya ?” I said no one told me. “Shave kar le,” he said. So I went out to the footpath outside the office, where there was a barbershop, and got my low-density beard shaved. Back in the office, Tishu sir took a look at me and asked someone to bring the specs. I put them on. Then he asked the assistants, “ Topi nahi hai na? ” They said no. He took pictures of me with his cell phone, looked at them intently, and smiled to himself. The suspense was building. Then he asked me, “ Pata hai kaun sa role hai? ” I had a vague idea that it was a historical film he was working on, so I said, “Bapuji toh nahi hoga…” And he replied, “ Nahi…Netaji .”
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I was stunned for a few seconds. I do remember a blur of smiles and congratulations and people looking at me and my photos and smiling. And Tishu sir saying to the people with a smile, “
Later, I finally found out what the film was all about. I knew, thanks to Amar Chitra Katha comics, that Netaji’s Indian National Army had unsuccessfully tried to drive the British from India by attacking through Manipur, and Raag Desh deals with the aftermath of that failed campaign. The British government tried to set an example for others by court-martialling three officers of the INA, charging them with treason. Unfortunately for the British, the officers they picked were Prem Sehgal, Shah Nawaz Khan and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon – a Hindu, a Muslim and a Sikh – unintentionally uniting the people of the country against the trials. Raag Desh is about these Red Fort trials, as they came to be known. Netaji makes a few vital appearances in the story.
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A few weeks later, before the crew left for the first schedule, I came for the costume trials. I also needed to have the front and top part of my head shaved clean. Generally, I don’t like telling people about work I’m doing until it’s ready to come out on screen, but for this, I had to tell friends and family, otherwise the haircut would be pretty tough to explain. During the shoot, the process of physically turning into Netaji used to take about an hour everyday. It would start with shaving of head and face, then make-up to make me look older, then I’d put on some padding around the belly, and later the costume.
It was a privilege to learn about Netaji while preparing for the role. My main sources were three books – His Majesty’s Opponent , Brothers Against the Raj and The Forgotten Army . I also heard several of his speeches and watched whatever videos were available to see how he spoke. One major source of anguish while reading the books was how far we have fallen in terms of political leaders – from the extremely well-read, scholarly gentlemen of those days to the criminals and hatemongers of today. Netaji himself was something of a philosopher-warrior. He knew that freedom would not come for free, and he was prepared to make whatever sacrifices were necessary.
Living the part
The script was in my hands a few weeks before shooting commenced, so I rehearsed and rehearsed my lines – especially the speeches. I must have done them a few hundred times. It’s a matter of professional ego to me that I must not be the one to cause a retake, and also because when there are hundreds of people watching you, you had better not screw up. I’m sure glad I prepared so much, because the first day on set, I was told we were doing the biggest speech of all. All the effort paid off because at the end of the first take, I could sense that the crowd was genuinely clapping for me and not just because they were being paid to.
I remember walking back and forth in my hotel room and going over the scenes dozens of times. But the thing about working with Tigmanshu Dhulia is this: you can rehearse the scene in the script over and over, but when you reach the set, it’s very likely he’s completely rewritten it and you need to scramble and learn the new lines quickly. And the rewrite is always an improvement because he is a master at human behaviour and conversation patterns – people don’t speak in smooth literary sentences all the time. There are one-word sentences, interruptions, track changes in thought and action, staccato rhythms – and the way Tishu sir understands and incorporates these into his scenes is something I marvel at and have learnt a lot from. Being a masterful actor himself, he can suggest exactly which word to stress on or which gesture to use to make a better impact.
Having read the script, the books I’ve named and some articles online, I realise what an important story is being told through Raag Desh . There always seemed to me to be a bit of a cause-and-effect gap as to why exactly the British decided to pack up and leave. Raag Desh is a major answer to that question and deserves to be seen by everyone.