Talktime| Ranvir Shorey
Ranvir Shorey’s name is not one that you usually associate with what you conventionally see as commercial cinema. He has won acclaim for the roles he portrays, whatever the genre of the film may be. He talks to PRAKRITI ROY about his experiences during the making of Titli, on the sidelines of The Dharamsala International Film Festival where it was the opening film
How did you prepare for the role of an elder brother in TitliIJ
I’ll reveal all the dark dirty secrets now. One thing that was common for all of us in the cast was the beatings. There were some people getting beaten up and some of us were expected to beat up. That is what we did in a lot of the workshops. Individually too, there were extensive workshops conducted for all of us. All the lead actors have different backgrounds or no background of acting. So to hammer us into one cohesive whole has been Kanu Behl’s doing. It is remarkable for the makers to pick out each character’s individual problems and fit it into this piece. A lot of credit goes to them.
What kind of challenges did you face while playing this roleIJ
One of the problems that Kanu identified very early on was that it was a little difficult for me to understand the relationships well. I come from a north Indian family of three brothers (with some violence, of course) but I didn’t know the world well. I come from a relatively affluent family so I hadn’t seen that life. So we had to spend a lot of time in Sangam Vihar which is like the hell hole of Delhi — there is no sanitation, no electricity, no water. Certain declassification was required in me physically and in the way I speak. I have not played this segment of Delhi before. But mainly it was the beatings.
Kanu Behl revealed that he employed some special technique to get the best performance out of you. How did that workIJ
Kanu revealed to me that they had employed another technique with me so that my spontaneous character remains so. They never told me how I am performing. My version of it is that it was an actor’s hell hole. You are doing these really heavy scenes, squeezing out the last bit of juice you have in you and you turn around to see that your director is not even looking at you. Forget about saying that I have done a good job or something.
How was it like on the setsIJ
You’re just left there most of the time high and dry, thinking ‘What did I do hereIJ’ because the director just refuses to acknowledge your efforts. If I had known this then, I would have thrown my weight around.
What was your experience with Kanu BehlIJ
The more you get to know him, you know that he is like a watermelon — green and hard on the outside, soft and red on the inside.
How do you ensure that your acting looks totally naturalIJ
I think there are two key steps in my process. One is reading the script like a holy scripture. I set myself up to interpret it. I try to read between the lines and finally go to the one person who is meant to propagate the scripture onto the world, which is my director. Next step is to submit (and your director still beats you up). After you finish shooting, you just hate them forever.