Dalip Tahil in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag: From playing Nehru’s friend to Nehru

Dalip Tahil played Zia, Jawaharlal Nehru’s friend, in the Richard Attenborough film, Gandhi back in 1982. It was one of those “by-the-way” roles he did at the beginning of his career just to be a part of a project as prestigious as Gandhi. For a day’s work, he was paid Rs 3000, an amount Tahil describes as completely unexpected and fabulous in those days, which he promptly went and blew up at the Sea Rock Hotel bar in Bandra, Mumbai. [caption id=“attachment_325748” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Tahil met Milkha Singh and was struck by the trials and tribulations of the athlete’s life. Raju Shelar/Firstpost. Location courtesy: Taj Lands End Hotel, Mumbai”] [/caption] Never did Tahil think at the time that he would one day get to play Nehru, which he is, in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, that traces the life of Olympian athlete, Milkha Singh. “I was called in to meet Rakeysh and his wife, Bharti and the film’s production designer and the minute I walked in, the three of them looked at each other in a way that confused me. Then Rakeysh went on to explain that they had called me in for another role, but looking at me, they all felt I was their Nehru. And I said I’d love to play Nehru – I was delighted! I love prepping for roles and I threw myself into this one completely – the look tests, the prosthetics, getting to look like Nehru. Vikram Gaikwad has done a fabulous job in bringing about the Nehru in my physical appearance in the film. I got my sherwani in place and shaved my hair off and started reading and researching the part from that very day. I didn’t want to go wrong there,” says Tahil of his role in the film. Once the project started filming with Farhan Akhtar playing the lead role of the Flying Sikh in the film, Tahil met Milkha Singh too subsequently and was struck by the trials and tribulations of the athlete’s life and the part Nehru played in his career. “You know, Milkha Singh didn’t win the Olympics – he was a common, everyday Indian, not a freedom fighter who epitomized India and demonstrated with his running skills that Indians could achieve anything they wanted to, in any field globally. Nehru was instrumental in guiding Milkha like a father figure and creating the iconic status for which he is known today. Milkha represents the story of a wounded India which found its bearings eventually and I think Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is one of the most important films to be made in a very long time,” says Tahil of the film which releases towards the end of 2012. The actor is also involved in supper theatre, conceptualized by Geetha Gopalakrishnan called The Lesser Known Side of Gandhi, a Tata initiative wherein three people – Gandhi (Tahil) a narrator and Mother Earth, engage in a conversation piece about Gandhi. This is a fund raiser, the proceeds of which go to the Tata Cancer Hospital and Medical Centre in Kolkata. The Lesser Known Side of Gandhi has performed so far in London at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower in Mumbai.