For actor Sushant Singh Rajput, it is time for a leap of generations
that could fracture any actor's performing abilities. But Sushant is all
set to make a 110-year journey in the course of two films - "Detective
Byomkesh Bakshy" and "Paani".
While in Dibakar Bannerjee's
"Detective Byomkesh Bakshy", Sushant plays a detective in Kolkata in the
1940s, in Shekhar Kapur's "Paani", he is cast as a ghetto-boy from
Mumbai in the year 2050.
The cultural and chronological leap is
tremendous. And Sushant, who with just three films has prepared a roster
of character-portraits rather than star-vehicles for his career, is
revelling in every bit of the challenge.
"I'm ready to make a
110-year leap from my last film to the next. In '...Byomkesh...', though
I had to go back in time to the 1940s, I had solid reference points. I
watched a lot of films from that era. Then of course Dibakar was there
to guide me.
"With 'Paani', there are no reference points. I've
the freedom to interpret my character in any way I like. In the
rehearsals and workshops, Shekhar Kapur has allowed me complete freedom
to do what I like with the character. Such supreme freedom is also a
kind of captivity, as you tend to go overboard. With Shekhar's help I am
trying to make my character in 'Paani' believable," he said.
About
his very unorthodox selection of roles - as an aspiring cricketer in
his big screen debut in "Kai Po Che", a horny wastrel in "Shuddh Desi
Romance", a 1940s' detective in "Detective Byomkesh Bakshy" and a
ghetto-Romeo in futuristic Mumbai in "Paani", Sushant says the irregular
is the regular for him.
"I don't think I'd be comfortable playing
the typical loverboy romancing pretty girls in designer clothes. I'd
die if I've to play stereotypical characters," he added.
