Sayani Gupta, who plays a blind girl in her upcoming film Margarita With A Straw, tells Sangeeta Yadav that she did a lot of hard work to play this character and she is proud of it
It takes a lot of guts and creative instinct to come up with a movie like Margarita With A Straw (MWAS) that talks about a specially-abled girl coming of age and dealing with a subject of homosexuality in a mature way. But for Sayani Gupta, who played the role of a visually impaired and fiery young activist Khanum in MWAS, it was an uphill task.
“Although Khanum is blind, she is somebody who is completely in control of her life. She has no inhibitions and believes in standing up for the right thing. She, who meets laila in a protest demonstration, plays a role of a catalyst in laila’s life. When laila see her for the first time, she is completely in awe of her. She understands that you don’t have to feel inferior just because you are disabled. You have the right to live the way everybody does. Khanum empowers her from inside. She almost becomes a hero in laila’s life,” Sayani says, adding that it’s a feel-good film and would inspire one to celebrate oneself. “You’ll come out of the theatre with a smile, that much I can guarantee,” she says.
Many Bollywood actresses auditioned for the role of Khanum but it finally came to Sayani. “When I heard the gist of the story, I was blown off by the fact that somebody in the country is even making a film like this. It’s very different and unheard off. Getting Khanum’s character after a month’s audition has been the biggest achievement in my life. Every actor that I know in the country had auditioned for it. I’m really thankful to those people who said no to the film,” Gupta says.
From blindfolding herself, observing visually impaired people, spending some time with them to watch movies and seeking help from veteran actors, Gupta did everything to make sure her act comes out right. “During the auditions, I watched a lot of films that had blind protagonists. I went to Naseeruddin sir to seek guidance as he played a visual impaired role in Sparsh. He gave me some exercises to do. I used to blind fold and do my house chores by myself. The biggest challenge was to identify the light and colour and have a certain body movement. I used to walk with a stick. I spent time with visually impaired people at the National Association for the blind,” Gupta says.
Many times she felt that she would not be able to do justice to the character. But it was the director Shonali Bose and actor Adil Hussain who came to her rescue. “We were not allowed to see the monitor, so we had no idea what we were doing. I was always in doubt about whether I’m doing right or not. The worst thing that I felt was I should look like somebody who is pretending to act blind. I was so conscious of this fact that, Shonali had to tell me to relax and take it easy. Adil Hussain took a two-week workshop with me and Shonali made me meditate for three hours at a stretch. It was like the last nail in the coffin because I’m a very scattered person. I want to do too many things at one time,” she recalls.
Not just in front of the camera, Gupta used to be in the character off screen as well which made people around her convinced that she is a blind person. “For the first two weeks, the crew didn’t know that I could see. They all were very nice to me and would hold my hand and take me around. They got the shock of their life when they found out that I’m not blind, just acting to be one,” she says.
Talking about her experience working with the director, Gupta says: “Shonali is a great leader and mother-like. She made sure that we stay at home and can’t go out for parties or hangouts. She is one of the strongest women I know. She is very close to Khanum’s character. She has exuberating power and strength and extremely sensible and meticulous. It’s only a woman like her who can make a film like this,” Gupta says.
A lot of hurdles came on their way and it was a serious ambience throughout the making of the movie. “There was no lighter mode. We had shoe string budget and producers were backing out. The work was very intense,” Gupta says. Movies on the subject of homosexuality in Bollywood was highly critised but Gupta feels that it’s high time that people should come out and discuss such issues.
“Sexuality is something that we in India not openly talk about but the regression comes out in the wrong channel. love is something which nobody has any control. It’s high time people should give due respect, identity and space to the lGBT and transgender community. I hope after watching MWAS, people will be encourages to come out and be themselves. I’ve a lot of friends who think they are homo-phobic but it’s not their fault,” Gupta says.
It was a great learning experience for Gupta. “The biggest learning that I can take from the film as a person is never give up. MWAS has a common saying that ‘When life throws lemons to you, make lemonade’. It doesn’t matter what life throws at you. It’s up to you how you live with it and celebrate it,” Gupta signs off.