From reflecting upon his journey in showbiz to giving us a peek into how he brings his characters to life on screen, Rajeev Siddhartha gets chatty in an exclusive conversation with Cutting Shots.
As Bala, the vengeful assassin in Abhinay Deo’s 24 (2016), Rajeev Siddhartha literally proved that he is here to ‘slay’. In a course of time, he build his acting resume with shows like Romil & Jugal, Four More Shots!, Marzi, Hundred, Aashram, amongst others. This year, he ‘whipped’ up a delicious performance in the Zee5 film Love Sitara, followed by a slimy act in Jio Cinema’s crime thriller series Honeymoon Photographer.
Every time you watch Rajeev on screen, he reminds you that there’s more to him beyond those eye candy looks and Duchenne smile. Well, I second this once again after having this freewheel tête-à-tête with him.
Excerpts.
Q. From a wealth advisor at Edelweiss to becoming an actor, I must say, your transition is quite interesting. Your previous job revolved around the world of investment which is all about doing assessments, developing strategies and selling opportunities to clients. Did those skills help you to create directions, and deal with people and challenging situations in a better way especially at the beginning of your acting career?
A. As a wealth advisor, I was basically in charge of going to high-net-worth individuals. Our investment bank had some financial instruments ready. They wanted us as advisors to advise them on how to make more money. You know, even though I had a background in finance, I just felt very out of place.
So every time we would go to a high-net worth-individual, I would be like, kind of a hypocrite, and think these people are already so rich. What am I telling them? How to become richer? I mean, they obviously know much more than I do. Right? So I guess in situations like that, I was basically just playing a part and enjoying.
I think my acting riyaaz and exercises started there only and you know you’re right because I think marketing and selling is very similar to acting in that sense because even here, you’re selling a film, selling a story or just making people believe in your story and character. It was difficult to convince HNI’s and other wealthy individuals to purchase our products, but I can tell you that being in the film industry and especially when you have absolutely no connection whatsoever, is by far much more difficult.
So even though I think it did prepare me to just interact with various individuals, when you come here, you realize that any preparation you had, anything you know about life, goes out of the window and you have to start afresh.
Q. Though Dil Dosti Etc was your acting debut, my first memory of watching you on screen was Jolly LLB where you played this guy who is involved in a hit-and-run case. How did you land up with both these film offers?
A. Technically, I would say Jolly LLB was my debut as a professional actor. Because during Dil Dosti Etc, I was studying in Delhi University. When I was in my first year of college, the production team came there and asked all of us who were part of the dramatic society, that you know, who wants to act and all of that. All of us were obviously very thrilled and kicked. We were just curious about how a film set should be. So, we put our hands up. And I think all of us went to the audition, gave them our pictures, etc., and I just got selected.
And that time, I had no dreams, no ambition, no thought of becoming a professional actor. It was just an opportunity, and I just did it for the fun of it. But I still remember the director, Manish (Manish Tiwary), told me that you’ve got great screen presence. So you must definitely try and, you know, act and all that. So I said, okay, okay. But obviously, I did not take it so seriously because it takes a tremendous amount of courage to convince yourself that you can take up acting as a professional choice and professional career. I guess I wasn’t very sure then.
When I came to Mumbai and finished my MBA in finance, I took up a job. It is then when I finally decided that no, no, I can’t do the corporate setup anymore. I decided to act.
My first play was Adhe Adhure with Lilette Dubey and Mohan Agashe, and my first film role was Jolly LLB. I also did the first season of 24 with Anil Kapoor as the main villain. So that’s how it started. Both Jolly and 24 had a proper auditioning process.
I played the bad guy in 24. I love playing a range of characters, and I got to play Bala, the assassin who comes to avenge his father’s death. And I remember for that, I had to wait in line the whole day for that audition because when you’re starting out, nobody knows you. You don’t get into a room straight away. You have to stand in line. So I remember standing in line for like 3-4 hours.And obviously, by the time the casting people also must have been a bit tired. So when I reached and my turn came, they were almost like, ‘Aarey yaar, which role have you come for yaar?’ So, you know, toh mujhe woh baat thodi chub gayi. Because, yeah, we all work hard to do whatever audition or part.
And I think that really helped me only because whatever nervousness and excitement, I had about auditioning for the main lead, main villain and all of that, that went away and I was just like, chalo ab tumhe dikhaate hain hum kya kar sakte hain. That sort of attitude came. I think that really helped me in my audition. I immediately did the audition, and probably in 1-2 days, I also got the part. So, I got work through work only.
Q. Speaking about 24, it had a star-studded cast, and the ambitious show was almost shot like a feature film. You had director Abhinay Deo fresh off the success of Delhi Belly, and co-stars like Anil Kapoor, Tisca Chopra, Kishore Kadam, you can say a pleothora of talent. Did it felt like being a kid in a candy store?
A. Yeah, I did. When you’re starting out, the more you are surrounded by people who love their job, and who are supportive and encouraging, it really matters, especially in acting and when you’re anybody in acting. It’s very easy to feel demoralized and demotivated. So, when you’re starting out, when you’re surrounded by talent like this who are not only good at their job,but are also extremely good at being supportive, kind and generous, it really works wonders.And not for once did I ever feel, at least while acting, that, oh, I’m surrounded by so many veteran actors. Because even though they were such veteran actors, on set, they just behaved like such nice, normal human beings. It was just beautiful. I think of 24 and Jolly LLB as a very nice training ground.
Talking about Jolly LLB again, Arshad Sir (Arshad Warsi) and Boman Sir (Boman Irani) are absolutely fantastic human beings. It’s just that in an industry which is so tough and competitive like ours, it really helps when there are people who are genuinely nice, and care about people as human beings.
Q. Prior to doing these projects, I guess the only experience in acting you had was from the bit when you were associated with the Shakespeare Society at St Stephens College. What is that one major lesson from that period that you continue to carry till date?
Q. When you are doing theatre, you get to spend time with the director, the co-actors during rehearsals, and writers to understand the material. Your performance is live, and you feed off the crowd’s energy. And if your play gets re-runs, you get a better understanding of your character arc and get to finetune your act. On the other hand when we talk about cinema and series, you have the camera which captures even the smallest details, so there is a lot of emphasis on the body language. You also have elements like cinematography, editing and special effects to add a layer of refinement to your performance. Out of these two mediums, where do you enjoy the most, your process as an actor?
A. I love both. It’s not diplomatic, but I genuinely love both and exactly for the reasons that you have mentioned. Because in theatre, it is a one-take medium, right? If you miss your lines, if somebody doesn’t take his entry on time, you have to carry on. And so many times, things have actually gone wrong on stage, and you have to improvise to keep the show going.
Honestly, by the way, I genuinely, I look forward to things going wrong on stage. Because then suddenly, it becomes very fresh and new. Suddenly things happen, which you haven’t trained for, which you haven’t rehearsed. So I think they make you come alive.
In fact, I remember in one show of Adhe Adhure, which is my first professional play, I was going up the steps in the play and the steps broke. I almost got badly injured. But because we were portraying a lower middle class environment and a house, basically, where everything is dysfunctional. The house is falling apart. So that seemed natural that it could happen in this house. I used that in the play by pointing at that and then looking at my mother in the play, and and telling her that, you know, our house has become like this. So it doesn’t, even though a major injury could have happened, it didn’t happen. But I used that moment.
So, I would say it helps you grow as an actor. It helps you be on your toes as an actor. And like you said, because you interact so much with your co-actors and your directors, it almost becomes like one big family. You are meeting, interacting with everybody of the cast and crew. In film and in web series, that doesn’t happen because you generally only interact with actors who you have scenes with.
Nowadays, of course, there are workshops which happen. But like in the theatre, we rehearse for one and a half, two months for the play. Here, even if the workshop happens, it’s for one week, maximum 10 days.
But having said that, in both the mediums, you have to be honest and truthful. Like even on camera, you have to be truthful. Even on stage, you have to be truthful. Yes, on stage, you have to project your voice slightly because there are people in the back rows who have to hear your voice. But other than that, there is no overacting or underacting. You just have to be honest and truthful in the performances. And therefore, I quite like both of the mediums because I feel now, I feel at home in both the mediums.
Q. Sometimes, an actor has to portray a series of emotions within a limited time in a single scene. Like for example, the scene in Love Sitara where your character Arjun learns that Sitara is pregnant and rushes to meet her, only to learn a shocking revelation from her. In that sequence, there is a switch of emotions for your character from excitement to concern to disbelief to disappointment and indifference. When you are enacting such a scene, do you hold on to one primary emotion, and then build more subtle emotions around it to bring that shift in the audience’s perception?
A. My father really admired Uttam Kumar’s acting a lot. Long ago, he had told me about a scene in a film where the actor conveyed joy to grief to angst to three-four emotions in just 20 seconds. .So, I said, Dad, you know, because just like in the film, I was seeking a lot of validation, I was like, ‘Main bhi kar sakta hoon.’ (laughs)
You are right. This scene involves so many things happening in a limited frame. In this case, my thing was obviously, you know, I’ve read the scene and I’ve prepared it in my imagination. So, I let it run in my imagination as to how it would play out. I would keep doing it many times. Because of my theatre background, I like to be prepared. Because once I’m prepared, then I can improvise. If you are improvising just for the sake of it then you can end up changing the meaning of the scene. You can really deviate from what the writer or the director wants.
So, for me, I just let it play in my imagination over and over again, and I just see it happen. But on the day of shoot, I just, as a character, know that at the beginning of the scene, I’ve heard that she’s pregnant and I’m excited and I’m happy, and I’m going to see her. And I don’t know why she haven’t told me this. You know all those things are running in my head. I go with that. And then I think if you’re present in the scene, then automatically your preparation, which you’ve been doing for a while, and being in the moment and reacting, it brings out that.
It’s funny because I remember, it’s a heavy scene. I remember when Sobhita and I were sitting, I think the energy became so intense that one or two paintings kept falling down again and again, before the scene. So, I said, let’s go because of our energy, it’s not able to stay for a while (laughs). But I would say that what was prepared for me was what I just said.
Q. Actors evolve through the characters. When you step into different kinds of roles, you get to challenge yourself in a creative way. But at the same time, there is also this tiny bit of fear at the back of your mind that whether you will be accepted in a certain role. How do you navigate through these thoughts?
A. I have a very simple goal as an actor -to portray as many characters, or the range of characters as much as I can. I know that deep down inside, we have everybody else also within us, right? Because we have good and bad, we have jealousy, we feel anger, we feel envy, all the human emotions. I think all of us have it within us. And it is basically, and all of us choose to utilize one particular range of things for a day-to-day basis in our lives. I feel that.I think sometimes when people say, he acted out of character, or she acted out of character, it’s not so true because it is always there within us. It is just that a particular situation brought that out of us. So in that sense, again, because as an actor, we are going to empathize with all sorts of human beings.
Now, it is easy to empathize with somebody who is well regarded, successful, nice in the eyes of society. It’s so easy to empathize with them, right? But to empathize with somebody who is a discard, who is rejected, who is not looked up to by society, it’s difficult. But you have to, because they’re also human beings at the end of the day. And they are who they are not because they just became like that, right? Something must have happened. Some circumstances must have created that.
So, for me as an actor, that’s the joy of acting. I don’t think much about how will we proceed, per se. I just want to do the best job, and then I leave it up to the universe. But I know that I should not be slacking. I have to give my hundred percent to everything. And I think that’s how I feel a sense of satisfaction as an actor.
Q. It is said that the relationship between actor and character is an interaction that’s not truly present until the performance happens. When the actor and the character blend during a performance, the audience sees the optical illusion of an identity. Thus, it’s upon the actor to create that illusion. Now some people say that to build that illusion, the actor should know how to make a distinct separation between character and his/her personal self. They view actors as those who don and doff masks. Then there are some who view acting as a fusion between man (their own thoughts and emotions) and the mask (character in the script). Which school of thought do you belong to?
A. For every part, there is a different set of processes per se. And because of that, I don’t think it will be correct for me to say, there is this particular school, I belong to what I believe in. But for me, in general, when I’m acting, I like to be as close to the character as possible.
So even though, suppose my character has a particular way of walking, if he has a particular way of speaking, if he has a particular way of dressing, I would ensure that I am like that even when there’s cut, because you have to make all your characters traits habitual for yourself.
And in any case, our inside and outside, everything is interlinked. So sometimes I realize if I just choose the correct tempo, rhythm of speech for my character, I understand the spine of the character very well. Sometimes I know that if I just go back to the history of the character’s childhood, I suddenly get the character. Sometimes when I’m reading a particular scene and I realize, Oh, this is my character. So, it’s basically looking for the character within yourself and then focusing on that part of yourself. You give a nice backstory to that part and then I think you can justify that part yourself and believe in it.
And that is why I said it is so easy to play and empathize with good heroes and this and that. It is so difficult to empathize with somebody not looked up to by society. But that is why I think as an actor, it is our duty to fully humanize each and every character rather than make it a very cardboard cutout and all of that, you know, ours is to fill the character with life.
And for me, I just feel that whichever process I used to get to the part, be it a voice, be it a speech, be it a walk, be it somewhere internally. It always that I want to be as close to the character as possible. As an actor, I know that I’m portraying a character, but I love to get lost in the character’s world.
Q. Initially, when the medium of OTT was carving its niche among other storytelling mediums, many actors got their breakthrough through this platform and gained recognition. Some were newfound talent, some had earlier worked in short films. Slowly, you had the mainstream actors and Bollywood stars warming up to the idea of OTT. Then, there were senior actors from the 90s who got an opportunity to reinvent themselves, and looked at it as their second innings. Today, you have bigger players and a bigger playground here. How do you view the competition that exists on this medium now?
A. Everybody is welcome everywhere (laughs). But I genuinely feel that the platforms who run all our shows and our films should, I mean, they also have a responsibility. When the OTT started, it was to give opportunity to so many talented people who weren’t getting opportunities to showcase their skills in storytelling, direction and acting otherwise. I feel that the medium should try and remain faithful to it.
I think everybody should work everywhere. I don’t like to stop anybody or to say, you know, these kinds of people should work here. Everybody should be free to work everywhere. But I think the people who are running the show, people who are green lighting everything, they must be having, and they should have a sense of responsibility. They should stick to their ideals. We should try and stick by it because it’s such a beautiful platform for so many skilled people to finally showcase what they are capable of, and such good stories are being told on OTT. It’s amazing. Thank God for it.
Q. Lastly, three things every actor should tick in their checklist before they walk up to the camera to give their shot.
A. Just one thing- What does my character want in the scene? That’s right.
