Gauahar Khan, Eisha Chopra on Salt City: 'Mumbai is more than a landscape to this story'

“Mumbai adds salt to everything,” says a character in the trailer of SonyLIV’s upcoming web series Salt City. A sentiment metaphorically felt by many of us and adapted as a ‘dream city’ by Bollywood, Mumbai has always offered a great landscape for storytelling. Produced by Applause Entertainment in association with Sunshine Productions and directed by Rishabh Anupam Sahay, the series sets out to explore complex relationship dynamics among a family in a city like Mumbai. Starring Piyush Mishra, Gauahar Khan, Divyenndu Sharma, Eisha Chopra, Jitin Gulati, Manish Anand, Pranay Pachauri and Monica Choudhary, the show will release on SonyLIV on 16 June. In an interview with Firstpost, actors Gauahar Khan and Eisha Chopra opened up on the show’s storyline, working in an ensemble and their relationship to Mumbai. Excerpts from the interview A family drama at its heart, the trailer of Salt City looks supremely intense. Can you give us a short brief on the show? What should we expect from it? Gauahar: Salt City is about interpersonal relationships in a city like Mumbai. A family with lots of people will naturally hold lots of secrets, things that people probably don’t want to talk about, sometimes get along with a few family members, sometimes you don’t. The show deals beautifully with the truest emotions hidden within a family.  I am sure people will love it for it is something that is very relatable. Eisha: Yes, it is kind of intense and the trailer gives a very good understanding of the tonality of the show. In a family drama, what actually happens is there’s no one single story, there are always tracks. Everyone has their own individual lives, but there comes a moment when everyone comes together, and all return home. Most families continue to hold secrets, live in denial so as to survive one another, and function like that. Hence, when things start coming to the fore, it becomes not much about what you reveal, but what you hide. And you know, even in the happiest of families, you will always find some horrifying secrets lying around. Similarly, Salt City is also about a very close family, returning home, something has brought the kids of this family together after a long time but something big is about to happen.

Describe your characters, what made you say yes to the show? Gauahar: I feel my character is very real, she is not all white, she does have a few shades of quirkiness, she doesn’t shy away to take pangas with people, but she does not have any bad intentions. She is just being as real as possible. And in life, nobody is all correct, right? Everyone has their points of breakdown, where they regret making certain decisions, and that’s all she’s about. I think she’s very relatable, she’s, of course, beautiful, smart, and has all going for her, but she also has all these complexities within her. That is why I loved her and really admired how she manages to be real. You know, she holds the power to pull some strings in the show. (laughs) Eisha: My role in Dice Media’s What The Folks (WTF), which came on-screen five years ago, was very different. She was strong, determined and a feminist. It was a family drama too and even when the conflict was driven by the family, at the end of the day it was the family who came through and rescued. After WTF, people offered me some or the other version of Anita, I kind of started getting similar roles. I was surprised when Salt City was offered to me. This is not like Anita, in fact, this is quite subdued. Here she has lost hope in life. The thing that drew me in was the character arc, she starts quiet, but finds a voice and eventually grows to take a stand for herself. In the trailer also, there’s a dialogue of mine where she tells that she wants to divorce her partner. The show crafts a change, a very good character arc for my role. As an actor, I have always to explore myself more and Salt City has definitely offered me that opportunity. [caption id=“attachment_10801211” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Eisha Chopra[/caption] How was it working in an ensemble? Did you take back any learnings from your co-stars? Gauahar: Yes, it was a great atmosphere to be in. Because there was Piyush sir, Navniji, she is like a mother figure, so graceful, patient. I learnt so much just by talking to her. Eisha: You know no matter how the story looks, the shoots are always fun. Because it might be a show where people seem very intense, depressed, angry and all that but working in an ensemble makes everything fun. We had some great seasoned actors, veterans and even new faces but none had a ‘starry attitude.’ Everyone was approachable.

The title of the show is very intriguing and according to the trailer, the show and characters have a certain relationship with Mumbai. How would you individually describe your connection to the city?  Gauahar: You know, salt also represents money, it also represents work. It also represents life, and we all need that salt bit in our life. But it also needs to be balanced, it also needs to be in the right amount. And Mumbai brings that. I feel once you live in Mumbai, it is impossible to settle anywhere else. You will always miss Mumbai and that’s why the city means a lot to me. Eisha: Everything in Mumbai makes you a little tougher, a little harsher. And people I think the city is more than a landscape in this story, there are certain moments that happen which are very intrinsic to the story. The Mumbai-ness is very important to the story, I think it would have been a very different story if placed elsewhere.