Shahid Kapoor on the challenges of shooting for an upcoming social drama in the hills
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 16, 2018)

Shahid Kapoor has just returned from a long schedule of Shree Narayan Singh’s social drama Batti Gul Meter Chalu in Tehri, which kicked off in Uttarakhand last month. And the actor admits that it wasn’t easy jumping straight from Padmavaat’s 13th century Rajasthani royal to the local dialect of the Uttarakhand hills. “It sounds cool but it’s very difficult to pull off. My character is a small-town lawyer, a regular bloke who fights for an issue with which so many people in our country are grappling — power cuts and outrageously high electricity bills,” the 37-year-old informs, quick to add that while being socially relevant, the film is entertaining too.

A city boy himself, Shahid reveals that he would rather shoot on location, even if it means venturing into interiors of a region and subsequently making do with fewer comforts. “Some of my best performances have come from filming in real locations as opposed to shooting at a studio because you feel the character there. When I was driving around Kashmir during Haider, I could feel the heaviness in the air. Similarly, during Udta Punjab, I could see people from our script around me and didn’t have to just draw from my imagination to play Tommy (a drug-addled rockstar). That helps an actor,” he reasons.

In the film, which also features Yami Gautam, Shahid reunites with Haider co-star Shraddha Kapoor.