Anshul Chaturvedi (BOMBAY TIMES; May 7, 2018)

Alia Bhatt — seen in a “completely new physicality” in Junglee Pictures and Dharma Productions’ upcoming Raazi, in director Meghna Gulzar’s words — struggled to get the “ veryyy simple layer” of her character right. There were parts where she could draw from her own personality, like her character’s vulnerability, and those she couldn’t — a simple Kashmiri girl in 1971 deciding to marry a Pakistani to spy for India. But Alia says her ability to “let people in” is what helped her there. She let Sehmat in, and lived as her for the film’s duration. She tells us about her process of becoming Sehmat.

The character of Sehmat, who isn’t an experienced spy but a young, vulnerable 20-year-old – is that vulnerability simply acting skill, or is it a part of your persona that you can bring up at a given moment?
I am also a little bit vulnerable as a person, maybe that’s why. Because I’m not a very confident person, I would say. I mean, I’m confident in an ‘actress’ kind of way, but I’m unsure. And I’m very doubtful of most things creatively that I do. I know when I’m enjoying something and when something is feeling right, but I don’t know if it’s the best. So maybe that’s where the vulnerability comes from. And also people tell me that I’m a very transparent person, so even if I’m affected by something it will show immediately. So maybe the vulnerability also shows because of that reason.

Actors often speak of how they prepare for playing characters, things like staying in a gloomy room...
No, no, no, I don’t believe in doing all that. That’s taking oneself way too seriously. And also I don’t like a ‘process’ to be involved with acting. It’s about feeling. What is the point of going into that dark room and feeling gloomy? You may feel that gloom in the seventh minute in the room, and you may not feel that in front of the camera. So I believe in trying to feel it in front of the camera. That’s my ultimate struggle, that’s the effort I try to make.

The moments in this film where I have empathized with this character have been innumerable, because I feel empathy is the best way of understanding. Even with Udta Punjab, I kept saying, there’s no other way for me to understand this girl apart from empathizing with her. Because I have never been in a situation like this. So there’s no relatability, but there is a way to empathize. I’m the same person who cries when I see an animal being hit by a car. The sheer sight of it just makes me cry, because I’m very open to letting others in. And others’ problems also in. So that also happens with my characters. I kind of let them in.

Did Sehmat seep in and stay?
Yeah. Which is also what happened with Highway. We shot this film at a go, start to finish, 48 days. There was no time to get out of the character. My days on set would just go like that (snaps fingers) because I was constantly shooting. When you get time in between, then you think okay, it’s a performance, it’s a character. When you’re at it relentlessly, it’s not a performance, it’s a life. You’re leading that life. You’re always rolling, the camera’s always rolling. So this character did seep in. It’s like even when I look at myself as Sehmat, it’s another person, it’s not me. So I’m very protective of her, of the film, of the character. And that’s why I feel very nervous when a film like this, so close to my heart, is up for release.

I was asking Meghna, if you were to go to the same college today, where you were shooting, and propose something like that – what Sehmat’s father asked of her – to students, what is the likelihood of somebody even willing to hear it?
No, no one would do it. People don’t have that, I don’t think we have that ability within us, to give up our lives like this for your country. We don’t. There are (however) people who are doing that actively as we speak...

The whole concept of ‘watan’ and sentiments like that, is it something that’s essentially uncool among the younger generation?
It’s not about being uncool. People think it’s not cool because they’re scared. Nothing is uncool. I mean, technically it’s the coolest thing to do. But you hide behind the garb of it being uncool, ‘it’s not important’. But actually it’s really important. Nobody has the ability to do it, that’s why people say that. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

So when this was narrated to you, was there any part you thought you wouldn’t be able to do easily? Were there questions that arose when you were starting off, and how did they end by the time you finished?
Yeah, there was a simple, veryyy simple layer to this girl that I was very apprehensive of portraying, not because I didn’t think it was correct, but I was just like, I hope I don’t come across as a child, but just as a very nice person. That’s a very big difference – of being really nice, and being a child. She’s a young girl, and a mature girl, but she’s a very nice, young, mature girl. Now that to bring about is not very easy, because how do you do that, in what way? So I mentally struggled with that thought of, how will she speak? It’s as basic as that. Like what kind of a ‘talker’ will Sehmat be? How will she communicate? How will words escape her mouth? You can tell a person’s personality by just the way they speak. That’s something I thought a lot about.

Meghna made the point – you speak very fast, and she was trying to bring ‘ thairaav’...
Thairaav ki talaash kaafi thi. But that’s why I sat and I prepared and I read and read... cleaning up my Hindi, speaking in Urdu, getting the Kashmiri diction right – all those little things added a lot to the way Sehmat speaks, I think.

Apprehensions? Any particular thing, ‘yeh cheez theek thi, woh cheez theek nahi thi’? Or things you are completely clear on, that this I have done the best.
I could have done a couple of things differently. But I find it a complete waste of time going back and saying, ‘Sh*t! I could have done this better yaar’. I mean that is too much fuss over yourself. You have done it, learn from it and move on. I can say I don’t like this scene as much, you like it, cool, it’s not working for me. That’s it. That’s the way I look at my performances and that’s why I like doing more films. Because I like applying things that I didn’t apply in the last film. That’s my constant evolution. But I am proud of this film. I am proud of this story that we have told, and I am very proud of Meghna. Because it is not an easy film, and she has made it under difficult circumstances. We had to really make sure that this film was made in a certain number of days. And she has still done it and that’s amazing. And as someone who is, I would not say a fan, but I adore her work and adore her personality, I really am glad that she has made a film like Raazi. I feel it is just a glimpse of what she’s capable of.

Do you ever want to be in her shoes and make a film?
No. I can’t make movies. It is too much stress!
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Meghna, one question you’d want to ask Alia if you were in the interviewer’s shoes?
MEGHNA: Because I know the film, and I know the stuff you are doing in the film, did you, at any point, during prep or during the shoot, or even after, second guess that maybe this could be a wrong decision? Because it could all go the other way and people will not approve of things you are doing in the film.

ALIA: No. Not at all.

MEGHNA: Because it is pretty grey, and twisted.

ALIA: Yeah, but I love grey!

MEGHNA: So that fear, you know, that the audience might not approve — because audience approval is very important for an actor.

ALIA: Yeah, but I may think about that if it didn’t go well. So I wait for that, cross that bridge when I come to it. But I also believe that you can be a good human being and do bad things. But the sheer situation of it is so grey... I’m not actually doing very good things, but people will let it go because of the reason I’m doing it.

MEGHNA: Do you as a person approve of what you as Sehmat have done?

ALIA: Approval would be a wrong word... I wish that one would not have to do something like that, but that’s the question we all need to ask ourselves as human beings. That when is it okay, when is it not okay? I don’t think it is okay, what she had to do, but I don’t think even she thinks it is okay. That’s the important part. To not think that it is the right thing.