Kissing in films is mechanical: Shahana

Rajeev Masand: My guest today is a young actress who recently made a big impression in Rock On. She has been in some interesting films previously, but none that got her the kind of attention that this one did. Since then she has played the lead in another film and has some significant movies lined up for release. Her name might not ring a bell right away but we are going to see her face a lot in the months ahead. Let’s say hello to the very talented Shahana Goswami.

Shahana Goswami: Thank you Rajeev.

Rajeev Masand: Shahana you have said that when you saw Rock On for the first time, you knew you had done a good job but you never expected the kind of reviews you have got.

Shahana Goswami: Yes. I always knew that Debbie (her character in Rock On) was a well-written character. Actually all of the characters were well written but I sympathise with Debbie the most is because, for me, personally, I felt for a female lead, she was someone who was unconventional. She wasn't a typical goodie-two-shoes character. She was more real. She was practical. Sometimes almost seeming insensitive but somewhere it all fell in place towards the end when you see that she is just trying to protect someone else, someone she loves actually. When you contrast her present life to when you see her in the past, it becomes evident that this is not a personality trait but something she has become because of circumstances.

Rajeev Masand: Before Rock On you have been in two films —Yun Hota to Kya Hota and Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd. Both were small side characters. So is Rock On, in which Debbie is a supporting character. But while getting into Rock On, did you know that this was going to be your breakout moment?

Shahana Goswami: Not at all. In fact, I was very surprised when I found out that I was being promoted as one of the leads of the film, because to me I felt Debbie was one supporting character and suddenly to be on the posters and to be taken around everywhere as the two female leads was strange. I didn't expect that to be the case at all. And the response of the audience towards Debbie’s character or my work was something that I just didn't expect. But I think it helps to play it out that way. When you don't have that consciousness of the burden or the pressure that people are going to watch you and that the focus is on you, in some way, it helps.

Rajeev Masand: Before Rock On released, you had done Ru Ba Ru, in which you played the lead. Was it difficult after doing a lead to still sign up for Rock On in which you were going to be a supporting character. Was it difficult to say, I am getting leads but I am going to go for this supporting character because it's a great character?

Shahana Goswami: No. I think may be because I am not from the film world. I don't segregate my parts as leads or supporting characters. It is more about the part. I don't know the politics of all this really. I am happier not knowing it.

Rajeev Masand: Just to go back a little. You are a Delhi girl. You were born and brought up there. You moved to Mumbai to graduate and to pursue acting, which you discovered was what you wanted to do. You did Yun Hota to Kya Hota, Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd and Ru Ba Ru while you were still in college. Did it all work out just the way you wanted it to?

Shahana Goswami: I would think so because when I came to Mumbai, I only thought that I would dabble in theatre and do a couple of productions. In order to join National School of Drama (NSD) you need to have worked in at least six to eight productions. So I thought of coming to Mumbai, because the number of theatre groups is lot more than Delhi. I thought I would get that exposure and the probably go back to Delhi and join NSD. Somewhere I didn't see films coming. When you live in Delhi, your notion of films is very distant. I did not think that it was an approachable industry which threw certain coincidences but it ended up becoming the case very early in my life. So I had not planned it that way in that point in time.

Rajeev Masand: You have said you got Yun Hota to Kya Hota and Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd by accident. So both were happy accidents?

Shahana Goswami: Yes. I was almost not going to meet this friend of mine, Shanu Sharma. I had met her for a completely different project and she happened to look at me and realise that I looked 16 or 17. The next day I met Nasseruddin Shah who asked me to come in for an audition. It was just a freaky coincidence. Similarly for Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd as well. I was called in for something else to record Amisha's dialogue to get her to get something familiar with, some sort of a reference, and I auditioned for the part again and got it.

Rajeev Masand: In Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota you play Ratna Pathak's daughter Payal, who is a young Gujarati girl who is being prepped to go America to pursue a better life. In Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd, you play Boman Irani's rebellious daughter who is a bit angry and rebellious because her father has remarried and she has an angst kind of thing. Did you pick these parts because they were great parts or because these were the only films that were coming at that time?

Shahana Goswami: In all honesty, yes. For me in Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota was a big thing for me. I would even do a role of someone sweeping the floor, I would do it because, it was film directed by Nasseruddin Shah. What else could you ask for? To top it off, the character was for me because I am not trained. It was a lot easier for me to play something with fewer dialogues and more facial expressions. You can use your instinct a lot more in that. It helped me to ease into the process. By the time it came to Honeymoon Travel Pvt Ltd, I really liked the character. I may not have done it because it was not a necessity at that point for me to do it. It was a feisty sort of a character and I thought that I have not been a teenager full of angst but it would be nice to play that on screen.

Rajeev Masand: You got your first lead in Ru Ba Ru after you completed you first two films. I didn’t think much of the film but what I thought was interesting about the film was that you played this girl-next-door character. Here was a lead that looked like an ordinary person. There seemed to be no pressure to look, dress and groom like a conventional leading lady and I felt the lead in Ru Ba Ru was a very unconventional leading lady in that sense.

Shahana Goswami: I agree with you. Even when I auditioned for it, I didn’t think that I would make it, primarily because of why would they take someone so un-groomed as me. They would probably go in for a model or who is little more known or at least more acquainted to this world. Surprisingly enough they chose me. But I had to do a lot of work even to look like that because I was a lot more un-groomed than that. The idea was such that Arjun Bali, the director of the film told me in the beginning to be myself. He said, “I don’t want you to play someone else, just be yourself and we will go with your natural flow. I want her to be a real character and the best way for you to do it is to be yourself and make it come out as lot more natural.” He did not what a conventional heroine. We were also exploring a film where you are not showing the flowering of a romance. We were showing it at a much later stage where they show a little amount of normalcy. I think that is what he wanted to showcase.

Rajeev Masand: I have read the reviews where people say that you have joined the gang of realistic actresses like Konkona Sen and Tabu. I am sure they are great compliments. The question I really want to ask is do those statements come loaded with another message that they don’t see you as a Priyanka or an Aishwarya, that they don’t see you as someone who can play lead.

Shahana Goswami: No. In the case of Konkona, she has chosen not to. It’s a choice you make as an actor for yourself. I don’t think they are incapable of doing it. At the same time, I think that I am very grateful about the fact that I started off with a film where I got noticed for my work. I feel it brings out a certain amount of responsibility.

I would hate for someone to walk out of my film and say ‘oh she looked great.’ But at the same time, I think it is up to me. I will carve my own path. I will portray my image the way I want to. I am not at all averse to doing commercial films but I always say that it needs as much work in a different way as it would need for another character where you would probably use method.

There is a different method to approaching commercial films and that needs a certain kind of rigour, practice, and skill which I am more than game to do but I would need time and support to be able to do that. When I came into the industry, my main aim was to not get typecast. It might have been an idealistic notion at that time but today, I don’t think it is so difficult to do. If you can do anything convincingly, people are more that willing to take you in.

Rajeev Masand: Who are your ideals in the business?

Shahana Goswami: I really admire Konkona. I have worked with her as well. I really admire the way her career graph has gone. She is probably someone who I would say comes closest to the person I want to idealise in that sense. Tabu again is one person who has balanced out commercial and good cinema in an interesting way. Madhuri Dixit has always been a favourite. She was someone who in her era when it was all about the men when she stood her ground like nobody else has been. To me, she is the quintessential and the best example of a commercial Bollywood actress. She had the right balance of realism and ada, the dancing, and everything. She was the right package.

Rajeev Masand: You have worked with some very fine actors such as Ratna Pathak Shah, Paresh Rawal, Boman Irani, Shabana Azmi. Does working with good actors make one a good actor?

Shahana Goswami: Absolutely. Especially when you are doing it at the beginning of you career because that is when you are the most impressionable. Another advantage of being exposed to them at a young age is that they are also very helpful towards you because they feel that you are a baby. They can nurture you. They can guide you.

Rajeev Masand: Whom did you pick up things from?

Shahana Goswami: Everyone. Ratna Pathak was someone who in little ways, just the way we used to talk, would make our own back story about us as mother and daughter. Little things, like when she had a chipped nail polish, she wanted me to put the nail polish and I could totally associate with that. I also attended a lot of workshops that Nasseruddin Shah does. He makes you really think as an actor. Even while we were working, he was not the kind of director who would tell you to walk up there and do that. He always created the mood for you. He would never tell you what to do. He would just describe everything around you in such detail that it’s all emotionally and visually for you and then he would just let the camera role. With Boman, he got me into the process of improvising. He said would you would be okay with improvising and I said ‘Yes, why not’. We would rehearse by saying whatever we want by not sticking to the lines.

Rajeev Masand: Just for a one scene that you did together?

Shahana Goswami: Just for that one scene. But it just gives you an idea of the process of acting and how important it is to have a certain mental state or at least a mental understanding of what has happened before in the scene.

Rajeev Masand: Ru Ba Ru was in the news recently for what you have described as the wrong reason for kissing scenes. You said those scenes were promoted as one of the reasons why the film should be seen. I know it is something that you are not terribly proud of. My question is completely different. I want to ask if a kiss is something very a private and personal gesture, how does one as an actor approach that clinically?

Shahana Goswami: It is important for it to seem real. It is important for you to have a certain comfort level with your co-star, which I think Randeep and I had. First of all, the whole film is primarily about us. There was a lot of time we spent with each other. Over and above that, we had been spending time together before that for rehearsals. He would accompany me for my hair extensions just to get that equation, just to get that comfort. Some of the cases happened soon into the filming of the movie. It is important to have that comfort level but beyond that at the point of time you are kissing or you are shooting the kiss, it is absolutely technical where it’s not that you are given a direction. The kisses in the films are fleeting moments so there is not much direction that you can give. But to make it spontaneous is also mechanical. You have ten thousand people around you. Luckily for us, it was in one of those revolving cameras and zoom in, so there was a little more spontaneity in it. One is very aware that there are enough people around you and that it is part of an act. That consciousness is always there.

Rajeev Masand:You were directed by Nandita Das in Firaaq and that was the second time that a female director was directing you. Reema Kagti directed you in Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd previously. Is there is a difference on the basis of gender in the way women direct?

Shahana Goswami: May be I am a little biased but I feel women have more of a hands-on approach. With Reema I had few scenes, but I knew she kept a track of everything that was going on and she personally looked into every department. Similarly for Nandita, I felt that she was someone who had done a lot of homework before coming in to directing from acting. She knew every aspect of filmmaking very well. I just felt that both of them were the true captains of the ship. Not to say that the others have not been. The men are better at distributing the work to people and making sure that it gets done, whereas the women seem to follow a hands-on approach in every department.

Rajeev Masand: Do you feel like you now belong to Mumbai film industry?

Shahana Goswami: I don’t feel like I belong yet. For me the industry is still all about Aamir Khans, Shah Rukh Khans, and Preity Zintas, which I am very far from.

Rajeev Masand: What kind of offers have come along since Rock On?

Shahana Goswami: It has been mixed. There are some who have offered me bigger than what they would have offered otherwise. Some more intense character roles have also come. There have not been any out-and-out commercial films. People have approached me mainly for parts and characters which require a certain amount of performance in it, which I appreciate. That is, to an extent, what I wanted. There is enough scope to perform in commercial films as well. People are writing parts where they want people to be able to perform. Hopefully that will keep me going and keep me afloat for a while.

Rajeev Masand: Great. Best of luck. We hope we see you doing lots of interesting work. We are hoping we will see a lot more of you. Thank you very much.

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