Resisting insurgents that ravage northeast India, strong-headed IPS officer and mother of a six-year-old, Kavya Iyer, escapes unhurt from gunfire and the peril. She fights her fears and finally, comes home to her family. “My character in this show goes to work, but doesn’t know that she might be killing a militant that day,” begins the avant-garde, Regina Cassandra (who plays Kavya Iyer). “Emoting the character of a tough IPS officer, which I’m playing for the first time, getting the body language correct as a mother and daughter was demanding, but also quite exciting,” she adds. Ahead of the ongoing Srijit Mukherji-helmed thriller series, Jaanbaaz Hindustan Ke, we also catch up with the other cast members, Barun Sobti and Chandan Roy who tell us how they drew parallels between themselves and the characters that they are portraying in the eight-episode show.
Chandan made his screen debut as Vikas Shukla in Amazon Prime’s comedy-drama series, Panchayat. He tells us how his roots in the rural setup of his township in Mahnar, Bihar have lent him the prowess to mirror an organic personality in Chandan Jha, the character he is playing in this show. We know that ever since his breakthrough in Panchayat in 2020, he gained a foothold in the entertainment industry. Talking about his television encounters, he tells us, “As an actor, I became friendly towards the camera after that hit. Maybe I was called to play a part here because the previous project was a huge success. But for me, all projects are equally important. I believe the better I work, the better opportunities I get.”
In Jaanbaaz Hindustan Ke, Chandan depicts a hacker who uses his brain, agility and talent in cyberspace to defend the nation from invaders. He also mentions to us that the creators did not want to cast anyone hailing from big cities who would ‘look like a hacker’. But someone like Chandan was a perfect fit since he sticks to his bona fide roots in a so-called ‘small town’ while disseminating his character’s vehement and true-to-life sensibilities on screen.
Interestingly, he shares, “Before playing my character, I did not know anything about technology – I had no idea what we meant by VPN. Well, I didn’t really need to know it because all I wanted to know about was acting. As this character was completely new to me, the learning curve in portraying and getting into the shoes of a hacker made me push the limits.”
Regina tells us that reading articles on the lives of women at the forefront of preserving public peace helped her understand the nuances of her character to epitomise a true warrior in Kavya’s ‘empowering spirit’ and ‘humanitarian’ facets. In the throes of regular sexism and backlash for being a woman in the forces, Regina’s character still manages to make calculative and proactive decisions as an IPS officer. We get a closer glimpse of how she gets into the skin of Kavya. “Sanjukta Parashar was one of the IPS officers who became a part of my conversations with the writers and the creative directors on the set. A lot of her life and that of Swati Lakra, Additional DGP of Telangana was brought into our process. I read about what women go through as officers and in their families,” she shares, adding that she loved to explore action and dynamism by playing Kavya.
We then speak to Barun who made his cinematic debut in the 2014 romantic comedy Main Aur Mr Right and went on to star in movies like Tu Hai Mera Sunday (2017), 22 Yards (2019), Halahal (2020), and 200 Halla Ho (2021). As an IAS officer in Jaanbaaz Hindustan Ke, he will appear in a couple of episodes. Referring to Srijit, the actor tells us, “He loves to banter about the character and talk about what all of us go through. Both of us spoke at great lengths about my character and his acting workshops helped me develop the small part that I’m playing as Kavya’s husband, Sameer. I don’t limit myself to outside references as I feel that tampers with my creativity. To me, script in itself is a whole universe.” But it is interesting to learn how he echoes his character’s occupation and constructs it as relatable to the audience. Talking more about his enactment, he says, “I connected myself with Sameer as a human being. I also drew from news and real-life incidents, for example, troubles caused by terrorist activities in a country and how the common people are affected by it.”
Streaming now on ZEE5.
E-mail: chokita@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @PaulChokita