EXCLUSIVE | Saiyami Kher: 'Audiences are saying Pushpa 2 will break all box-office records, that should not be the discussion, it should be…'

It’s double the fire this weekend. Pushpa 2 in cinemas and Agni on OTT. In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Pratik Gandhi and Saiyami Kher decode the world they have been thrown into for the Amazon Prime Video show, and the lack of box-office pressure on the streaming platform.

Edited excerpts from the interview

Pratik, having worked with Divyenndu in Madgaon Express, how did the transition feel from comedy to drama?

The transition was good fun actually, I almost shot back to back. There is a lot of drama and comedy in this film as well. For this film in terms of prep, we had to undergo a lot of technical training, especially how to handle these fire fighting equipment, how do you give commands and then follow these commands. As far as working with him is concerned, we kept our banter constant.

Saiyami, be it Mirzya or Ghoomer or Agni, how do you prepare as an actor when you have such challenging characters to play?

It should not be easy otherwise it is no fun at all. As far as this film is concerned, we all went to the Byculla station together and felt that all we had to do was splash and throw some water. But we realized that the hose pipe has to be held in a particular manner, and the force of the water is so strong that it actually throws you back. There was a letter that we all had to climb him and I really had a great time. We trained in the same space as the actual firefighters do without any light and with fire and our suits. I got to learn how to ride a horse, how to be a left arm bowler, and now how to fight fire.

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Pratik, how do you blend your characters with heroism and vulnerability?

It’s very human to have vulnerability. I would like to thank all the makers of my projects for creating characters with human aspects, and that makes my job easier as an actor. In real life, the definition of a hero has changed and evolved to a large extent. We don’t get to see a quintessential Hindi film hero in real life for most of the people their real life heroes happen to be their fathers. I want to make these characters very real. And I’m happy that you have mentioned it so that I can realize I have translated that on the screen.

Saiyami, how did the whole team come together to create this sweeping world of fire and fighters?

The credit must be given to Rahul Dholakia’s vision. There was no reference point because we have not seen anything like this in Indian cinema before. And then Mohanan sir came in and he’s one of the gentlest and nicest human beings to work with. There are certain sets when people are throwing tantrums, but in this case, everyone’s energy was the same. He is a legend in everything that he has done, but this is one of his finest works. We used to feel jet lagged after a point due to shooting in the night.

Pratik: This was a very unique experience for all of us. The sets used to take an entire day to be built, and we had to burn them at night. When we went for the shooting on the first day within half an hour, we forgot that we were actually on a movie set. It actually looks like a real fire station, so a huge credit to our production team.

Pratik, since you have done so much theatre, how do you create chaos fire or anything like that on stage?

It’s very tricky. It’s very very difficult and challenging. We really have to study this in detail on how to show live fire on stage. In the west, you create a particular set for a play. People travel from all over the world to watch that play. In India, plays travel to reach out to people. It is a big challenge to be able to create something like this on stage.

Saiyami, how liberating is it for you when there’s no pressure at the box-office?

I’m not talking just as an actor, but as someone who loves watching movies. I don’t know when we started discussing things like ‘50 crore ki opening banani hai.’ When I was growing up, when I saw Dil Chahta Hai, I didn’t know how much money it made. I loved the film and I said I would go back on Saturday and then I would go back on Sunday. My 13 year-old cousin tells me a film has taken a Rs 30 crore opening, and I’m like how does it matter to him.

We shouldn’t be talking about ‘Pushpa 2 is coming and it’s going to break the box-office. That should not be the discussion. The discussion should be whether you like the film or not. It is as simple as that so I feel we are failing as an audience. We need to go back to the times when we kept things simple. When I signed my first film Mirzya, Rakesh sir told me he was making this film because he really wanted to tell this story. He didn’t know whether it would be a hit or not. It was something experimental, and this was something he told me before I signed my contract. He said we would have fun making this, but he was unaware of the result.