Actor Shreya Dhanwanthary tells Khushbu Kirti and Christy Varghese that Mumbai Diaries 26/11 covers a different angle of the fateful night
When we think of the date November 26, 2008, it takes little time for our mind to conjure the horrific imagery of what transpired during the 26/11 attacks, as the incident has come to be known among the masses, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba wreaked havoc in Mumbai.
While numerous renditions, in cinema and literature, have emerged of what happened that night, no one really gave much thought to what healthcare workers were dealing with in the aftermath of the 26/11 attacks. Working on the aforementioned premise, Mumbai Diaries 26/11 shares the perspective of the doctors who had to treat both the victims and the terrorists.
Shreya Dhanwanthary, who essays the role of a field reporter, Mansi Hirani, in the series, expresses that while she has played a journalist in the past, with her portrayal of Padmashri-winning financial journalist Sucheta Dalal in Scam 1992, this felt a new experience altogether.
Read on for excerpts of the interview:
Tell us a little about what’s in store for viewers that sets the series apart from other representations of what took place on November 26, 2008, like Ram Gopal Varma’s The Attacks of 26/11?
There have been many angles that covered this particular event that just about every Indian is familiar with, but I don’t think there has been anything around the viewpoint of the doctors, people who were working at hospitals that night.
Mumbai Diaries 26/11 is all about different forces that collided at this particular hospital, during those attacks. We are trying to give a different perspective to what happened, which might be new, yet harrowing at the same time.
The frontline workers, their life is what is being shown here?
Yes, exactly. Most of us were not even familiar with that term before the pandemic reached India. On a regular day itself the hospital goes through a lot of horror but be it a private or a government hospital. But this is set in the backdrop of 26/11 so the horror is manifold.
So, the series highlights how doctors had to go beyond the call of duty on that fateful night?
I think they do that every day, every night, regardless of whether there is something to uphold in the background or not. In every sense of the word, members of the healthcare sector are genuine lifesavers.
And in the series, we have tried to reflect how they are carrying on with their job, irrespective of what’s happening around them. That is a testament of their grit and what they can do.
What can the audience expect from your role and what, according to you, is the USP of the show?
I hope that once they watch Mumbai Diaries 26/11, they would be able to agree that this is nothing like Sucheta, at all. Because that is the question that I have been getting from most people.
My character is that of a field reporter, which is something altogether different from the financial mindset the Padmashri-winning journalist, Sucheta had.
What is the one thing this project taught you?
The one thing this project taught me is something we briefly spoke about earlier; that there is always another perspective that we tend to overlook. I think we all are bound to think along the lines of, ‘oh, I have seen a rendition of 26/11 oh so many times’. However, this show is covering a different angle, through a different lens.
I believe this is a message we should carry for life. There is more than one side to every story. After the show, that one thought has been ingrained on my mind. I personally think it is nice to know that there are more perspectives, apart from what we think we know, to any particular matter.
Since it is based on events that took place almost 13 years ago, we have to ask whether you felt like you were reliving the night?
It’s something that is still like a fresh wound in the minds of a lot many fellow citizens of our country. I have to remind you that Scam 1992, was even further back in the past. Reliving the past is a part of the experience of being in such productions.
After a role in The Family Man, then Scam 1992 and now Mumbai Diaries 26/11, you’ve come a long way. To what do you attribute your career-graph which is now pointing upwards?
Yes, I have come a long way, but I have a longer way to go, yet.
While people would think that hard work paves the path to success, I disagree. Hard work cannot beat working smartly. I have to be honest and admit that at times I ask my parents, ‘why couldn’t you have done a film when you were younger, it would have made matters easy for me’.
I think talent pays a bigger role in this industry than hardwork, because that probably is the difference between smart work and hard work.
Hard work isn’t always equivalent to good work. You can really work hard all your life for something, and still not be good at it. Hard work cannot signify how good you are at something, it just simply stands for how hard you worked, unfortunately.
Now that I have said this, you might think it is all about applying yourself, but no. There are so many different factors at play. You need to be passionate about what you are doing. There are so many people who literally work hard every day. Visit any construction site, labourers are engaging in back-breaking hardwork. Make no mistake, they do it because that is the way society is built. They don’t have access to the opportunities that we do, hence they continue toiling, day in and day out, without having anything to show for it.
It is very easy to say that hardwork se kisi ko mauka mil jaata hai. In India it is pretty easy to see what hard work gets you, and what other opportunities can do for you...
How do you try to stay relevant to the modern audience with the characters you choose?
(laughs heartily, before responding) I don’t think I have properly arrived in the industry, it is too early for me too think about my relevance in the industry.
I haven’t really given much thought to how relevant or irrelevant is a character before accepting that role. Ever since I could read, I’ve been reading books. Stories have always been my truest, closest and constant friends. When I get my hands on a script I read it like a story, bearing in mind the thought whether I feel like flipping the page, whether I am hungry to know what comes next. If I genuinely like a script, I read it again.
This time, from the perspective of my character, tracing all the nuances. Again, you can’t really control how the story may pan out. When its wriitten to when it is released, if it does release, they are multiple filters, that a script may go through, right from the creation of the script to editing of the script, to improvisations and additions that may happen during production, and then some more editing in post-production. And these are things which I cannot control, the only bits that I have some influence over is my performance of the character, provided I like it. That is my only concern, at this point in my life.
Relevance or relevance of my character, is hopefully something I would have to worry about later on in my career.
I trust you will come back to me then, so that I can cry about it. (chuckles)