Chat with Actors of SETU for Shah Jahan

Transcribed by : Divya Mendiratta

Gauri :  Welcome to Foundations TV everyone. We have a whole group of talented people here tonight. These are the most talented people in town, who have been handpicked for special roles in Shah Jahan, which is coming up on Sept 27^th through 29^th . I’m personally extremely excited about that show. I have watched SETU’s Mahabharat before. And most of you, actually all 4 of you were part of that show. And I’ve seen you perform. I’m really excited to see how contrasting this one is going to be from Mahabharat. Lets talk about the main character of Shah Jahan, the main role being portrayed by Anurag Jain. I’d like to welcome you to Foundations TV and would love to hear from you how different your roles are in Mahabharat and Shah Jahan.

Anurag :  Thank you Gauri. The roles are very different. I was very scared, in fact, to jump into these roles. And I thank director Subrata Das for having confidence in me. This is something I’ve been saying all across. The Duryodhan was mighty, screaming loud. And this role requires a lot of variations of an older person. So there’s definitely a lot of a variety. And I think that’s what makes it challenging and very interesting.

Gauri :  Excellent, I have seen you perform in Mahabharat . And I’m looking forward to seeing you perform as Shah Jahan here as well. Our next guest is Jayanti. Jayanti is playing the role of the daughter of Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan , just by the name of the drama seems to be a very male dominate sort of a drama. What I want to hear from you is how significant is the role of the daughter of Shah Jahan. And did you have to do some research to educate yourself about the role.

Jayanti :  Thank you Gauri. First of all I did want to echo Aunrag, that Subrata’s direction is superb. He really lets you do your own research, find out about the character. So it’s a free reign in many ways,  while making sure everything is ok. I’m doing the role of Jahannara. In a very male dominated world, this play however has a significant character Jahannara, she spends a lot of time with her father Shah Jahan being in-prisoned. But at the same time she even goes to Aurangzeb’s court to challenge him. The character has a lot of different emotions, frustrations, anger, sadness because she was kind of a mother to all the siblings because their mother passed away very young.  I’m very excited about doing this show. I’ve read Jahannara’s diary. It’s quite a challenging role, and I’m looking forward to it.

Gauri :  Excellent, we are also looking forward to it. Before I move on to the other side I have one more question for our Shah Jahan here. Shah Jahan is known to be a very romantic person of course since he built Taj Mahal. Are you a romantic person in real life?

Aunrag :  As most men like to believe, I am. If you ask my wife, it’s a zero I score in that department. There’s always a romance, I mean, if you take romance out from the male female, there’s always romance of the arts. I’m a Romantic of the arts, I’m a romantic of expression, and I’m a romantic of talent and art and creativity. So yes, I think I’m a romantic person that way.

Gauri :  Thank you so much. This is such a beautiful answer. Alright, so moving on to my right hand side, we have.. Monty, Sridhar, Arjun. You’ve played different roles, of course Sridhar is his original self. I’ve seen him in different roles before and totally different get ups, and looks and feels with wigs on and make up as completely different characters. This is a whole new character for you, and I want to hear from you, Sridhar, is this exciting for you, and how it is different from what you’ve done before.

Sridhar :  Yes, this is very exciting. When Subrata da was looking at who to cast in the script , I couldn’t wait. So I called him, and asked him, “So, are you thinking for something for me or not?” He said, “Yes, I’m thinking. It’s a very important role.” He didn’t tell me what it was. So I called him again, and then he told me it was Dara what he was giving me. I read through Dara, and it felt very much like Arjun to me. As I had played Arjun in Mahabharat, I wanted to do something negative this time and I wanted to do something different. I was really looking to do this role, so I asked him if he would consider me. And when he gave it to me, I was happy. Although Aurangzeb really doesn’t come out negative when I actually look at that role, but yes I’m really looking forward to showing that subtle negativity, actually it’s in the result. Also being somehow normal and doing negative things. So let’s see how is comes out.

Gauri :  I like what you touched upon on a little bit. He was not really a bad

person. But he was doing certain things…..

Sridhar :  …..For a purpose.

Gauri :  And he did end up doing some bad deeds. Which is how life is as well. Sometimes good people will end up doing some bad things in their lives. Not to get too philosophical but did you want to talk anything more about your role?

Sridhar :  I’m enjoying this, a lot, because there are lot of characters, and there’s a lot of history out there. The thing I like about SETU is the kind of themes that they pick. It’s wonderful, because with Mahabharat I didn’t have to do anything to teach Mahabharat to my kids. All they had to do is watch me practice speak through the doors and see what papa is doing. So it was fun. They got the whole jist of Mahabharat. In fact I got it better than what I knew. And I think the same is going to happen with Shah Jahan. I think in that sense it is a double win for me. It’s a pleasure of actually doing the role, it’s a pleasure of making new friends, as well as creating something and my kids learn too.

Gauri : That’s a very good point that you’ve just made. It’s a way to share our history and culture and tradition with next generation. And we do invite all the kids to watch the show, because it’s going to be very educative. Something they can learn from. I think drama has such a deep impact on people. Watching Mahabharat was,as I call it, once-in-a-lifetime kind of an experience for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was completely mesmerized by the sets, the costumes, the acting and the whole effect. And Shah Jahan is a character or a person in history, who I don’t know much about. I hope to learn a lot from this too.
So that takes us to introducing next guest here Ravi. Ravi, I actually met you for the first time today. I have seen your work before, but I’ve met you for the first time today. And my first impression of you I have to say is very positive, very composed, very calm kind of a person. That’s my question to you, how does your personality, as you, relate to the role that you are playing in Shah Jahan.

Ravi :  Thank you Gauri, I’m so humbled by your introduction and I hope I can answer your question. It’s totally a contrast, my Character vs myself.

Gauri:  Oh Really.!!

Ravi :  But it’s a tough job to do. I’m trying my level best.

Gauri:  From what I hear your best is going to be really good, because of what you did in Mahabharat. You actually jumped in and you took up a role, just 3 days before the show went on.

Ravi: I understand, about 5 days to do the character. Yes, I did it, I hope it came out good.

Gauri:  It did. It did. I watched it. So it was easier to jump in 5 days ago, or is it easier to do it now, that you have enough time to rehearse.

Ravi :  No, I have enough time now. I’ve been practicing pretty good now and, hope it comes out pretty good and hope everyone likes it.

Gauri: Excellent. Are there any characteristics of this particular role, Dara that come to you as it relates to his emotions, or any specific characteristics as a person.

Ravi :  It’s more of an emotional character. Most of the time, he is emotional with his family, dying, seeing them die. And finally assassinated or killed I would say, executed.

Gauri: Getting a glimpse of all the roles that each one of you are playing, it has been a journey for each one of you to learn a lot about our history. It’s going to be a great experience for each one of the persons who come and watch you, to learn about the history as well as feel the emotions, the drama and the effects of this wonderful play. Thank you all for joining us at Foundations TV today.

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