Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; August 7, 2019)

After a lean phase, Sidharth Malhotra is raring to go with three films coming up in the next one year, starting with Jabariya Jodi. The suave actor will be seen playing a character from the Hindi heartland for the first time. With colourful shirts and desi thumkas, the 34-year-old looks like a tapori, and a far cry from the city-bred gentleman we are used to seeing him as. With the release date being shifted several times, there is a possibility of the actor not being present when the film hits the theatres. Nevertheless, the Delhi boy is looking forward to the audiences’ response to the movie as it is his first attempt at essaying a Bihar-based character. Here, he tells us about the prep that went into playing the role, and the reason actors want to play characters from the hinterland. 

Lately, every other film is set in the heartland and even actors desire to play upcountry characters to connect with the audience. Do you agree with that?
I think it’s the mood of the nation. If you look historically as well in the ’90s, India was aspiring to go international. I was a student in the ’90s and we all thought chal foreign chalte hain, kuch karte hain... That’s why films of that time mostly had characters either based in a foreign land or had songs that were filmed there. In the last seven-eight years, the mood has changed and gone back to people wanting stories that are relevant to them — from their cities, colonies, galis. That is a shift even India has gone through as a nation. Any culture or art form is the reflection of what the current state of the country is. In that sense, it is a much larger thing. I am happy that writers are coming up with very good content that is based within our cities — some of them are socially relevant, like Jabariya Jodi, but with a different twist, others are inspired by real-life stories, then there are those based on certain issues, including politics. All this gives a chance for the viewers to introspect and yet be entertained. It’s a good phase that we are going through.

As an actor, how has it helped you?
As an actor, it makes it interesting to play something that is relevant to me than to essay characters that are from some other land. In my next three films, I play characters from different cities — one from Mumbai (Marjaavaan), another from up North (Shershaah), and one based in Bihar (Jabariya Jodi). It gives me a variety and the audience won’t feel bored. In my filmography, I’ve tried to play characters from different worlds. None of my characters, posters or trailers look the same. That’s always been my effort, and with this regional flavour, it becomes big and absolutely diverse. 

Was that the reason you decided to do Jabariya Jodi?
It has a lot to do with the fact that I hadn’t done a role like this. When I got the narration, I thought it will be interesting to play a character in this world, which I have never done. Also, Indian cinema has never shown this subject — pakadwa vivah that happens in Bihar. So, it was a combination of having a good concept and for me, especially, that of playing a heartland character. Because I hadn’t played such a character before, people started assuming I can’t. This is my version of a desi Patna boy. I have grown up in Delhi where I have seen this leheza and this world.

Were you aware of Pakadva Vivah concept before? 
I had heard about it socially. I didn’t know in depth how big an issue this was. It is definitely an eye-opener. As we started working on the script — I was shown articles on real-life cases. Some of the inspiration for my character has come from real life. Sanjeev K Jha, who is the writer, has been inspired by various bahubalis who get these marriages done. Some of them are in jail or in politics! That’s why my character says hamara focus bistar se jyaada kursi pe hai. I would say it is a fictitious story on real-life incidents. It’s an attempt to take a social cause and give a comic take to it, of course, through a love story.

What kind of prep did you have to do for the character?
A lot of prep definitely went into my character Abhay Singh. First of all, if I am playing a boy from Patna, I should sound like that guy. A lot of work went into getting the accent right. We consciously made the characters speak in Hindi as it’s a Hindi film. But it has a heavy accent of that region with some words in Maithili, Bhojpuri and Magadhi. Personally, I prepped for a month-and-a-half — I had a personal tutor. We even worked on the look, like, gave him hair colour, earring, and since he is Shiv ka bhakt, he has tattoos of Shiva. He is smoking chillum, which I had never done before and which we call Shiv ka prasad. Maximum amount of character building went into it and this is my favourite. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking this language and pulling off this character, which is strong yet colourful.

When you and Parineeti Chopra did Hasee Toh Phasee, both of you were relatively new, and now you are reuniting on-screen after five years. Has the equation changed? 
As you said, Pari and I worked together early in our career. There is definitely a lot of maturity in both of us in the sense of friendship and comfort, which helps in a love story like Jabariya Jodi. When you want to improvise or try something new, you are not scared of experimenting with a co-actor whom you have worked with before and are friendly with. Our director benefited from us working in the past. He could just give one input and we would try anything. Pari is coming in a new avatar with red hair. She is fitter and a 2.0 version of herself. Not so much into pizza now!

The film has been shifted so many times, what is your frame of mind now?
I am excited. It (the date change) is a distribution call taken by our producers where they felt that the previous weekend would have more releases and lesser space. Because of multiple films coming in and English movies releasing, there was a lot of crowd at the box office. Now, our film will get more space on a much larger scale with more screens. I really believe in this film. It’s a special middle-class mass love story. A new concept, in which I play a new character. But, unfortunately, I might not be there for the release, as I might be shooting for another film.