Sushant Singh Rajput has had only four releases until now, but it feels like he has been around for ages. longer. Rajput, who made a successful transition from TV to film with Kai Po Che(2013), followed up with Shuddh Desi Romance (2013), PK (2014) and Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!(2015) says he is quite finickly when it comes to signing films. "I was clear about one thing in this industry - I will do only movies where I have some substantial role to play," he said.
MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, his latest film, is a biopic of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian cricket captain. In an interview before the film’s release, the 30-year-old actor speaks about internalizing Dhoni’s attitude and learning his shots, playing four versions of him and how a song defines every character he plays.
Did you identify with the character that you play in your reel life, that of MS Dhoni?
Yes. To quite a great extent. Both Dhoni and I pursued our 4pm-5.30pm lives. I felt an identification with him. I too grew up in a small city (Patna), so I know what that accent sounds like.
Tell us about how you prepared for the role?
Before I started working on cricketing skills, I watched Dhoni play for him for hours and hours. My intention was to pick up things, and not have to think about them while shooting—small things, mannerisms, the way he talks. All this is required to get into the skin of the character and I did all very diliigently. These things were in place even before we started working on the film. '
Did Dhoni himself offer any help?
Of course, nothing would have moved if we didnt have Dhoni to guide us all through. We had three sets of meetings during 12 months of prep. In our first meeting, I just asked him to narrate his story. In the second, I came up with 250 hypothetical multiple-choice questions for him. Since we already have a definition of ourselves in our head, when we answer normal questions, it comes from that. In the third set of meetings, I asked him specific questions about script, things like “What were you thinking in that moment?”, just to be sure that I was going in the right direction.
Dhoni’s calmness on the cricket field is legendary. You seem to be more expressive in the trailers.
The calmness you are talking about is there. The parts shown in the trailers are during his Ranji phase. He learnt a few things there and became calmer. In the film, you’ll see a few traits disappearing and others coming in. I play him from age 16-30, so you will see three or four different Dhonis.
How did you go about learning how to play like Dhoni?
I trained for 13 months with Kiran More (former India wicketkeeper) and a video analyst. The analyst would break down his shots into frames, explaining the transfer of weight and bat angle. We’d analyse, say, a helicopter shot in six frames, and then I’d try to do it. He would fix the bowling machine at one point and I would play the shot 300 times every day till the time we got it right.
You’ve said that your history as a dancer helps you bring rhythm to your performances.
I have songs that define characters from each film of mine. It can be a song from that particular film, or something that just goes with the wavelength of the film; you listen to it and it gives you that rhythm. I can’t articulate how it helps, but it somehow gives you an understanding of the character. That’s the first thing I do to get into character. For Byomkesh, there was Orbital, by Dualist Inquiry. And for Kai Po Che, it was Iktara from Wake Up Sid.
Watch the trailer here:
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