Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 13, 2017)

Director Shonali Bose insisted I take time off from all commitments and spend six months just prepping for her 2014 drama, Margarita with a Straw, in which I played a teenager, Laila, with cerebral palsy. She introduced me to her cousin, Malini Chib, who had the same condition and I lived with her for a long time, observing her in different environments. At home she was pretty relaxed as she moved around with her walker. She works at a centre called ADAPT (Able Disable All People Together) and I would accompany her there. They are equipped to cater to disabled people so it was easy to move around on a wheelchair. I had my own wheelchair and Malini had hers and we would spend the day wheeling around.

I would go with her to parties and restaurants and that’s where I saw the pressure someone with a disability faces. There are very few disabled-friendly restaurants and cinemas and I had to constantly ask people for help to get her up the stairs and suchlike. Malini is a fully grown, bright and functional woman who’s studied at the Oxford University and even written a book. For her to be constantly dependent on people to carry her in and out of places is very frustrating. I still remember something she told me after we had spent the whole day together in wheelchairs. I waved her goodbye, saying, “Okay, I’m going home now” and she quipped, “That’s the difference between you and me. At the end of the day, you can just get up and walk.” That really hit home. That’s when I decided that during the shoot, I would never get up and walk but would stay in the wheelchair throughout.

Yes, it was inconvenient when I had to go to the washroom and other places, but I stayed in character. There were a lot of people on set working with me for the first time who thought I was actually disabled because they had never seen me walk. Many of the spotboys would ask me “Were you in an accident?”

I also worked with Malini’s speech therapist and physiotherapist and understood that those with this condition have weak lungs and so are often out of breath. Also since the muscles are weaker, it’s tough to take a deep breath and in between sentences, they have to stop to take a breath and can never finish a sentence at one go. The tongue is also a muscle so it’s like someone is holding your tongue while you’re trying to speak. I’d experiment by putting marbles in my mouth and holding my tongue when I spoke. I worked on the breathing pattern too.

Another film that required intense prep was Ribbon since I’m not a mother myself and the film spans from pregnancy to when my daughter is four years old. I read up on pregnancy, all the hormonal and physical changes that happen to the body. My producer’s friend had a 10-day-old baby and I lived with the her and learnt how to massage the baby. I became a pro at changing nappies, using the breast pump, making a baby smile and sleep. We had babies from the age of one month to three and six months, from a year to five year old playing the same character and it was a great learning experience for me.