Satyajeet Dubey on Aye Zindagi: 'I had to shrink a lot, wasn’t a pleasant experience'

Satyajeet Dubey is gearing up for _Aye Zindagi_ with Revathi. In this drama about hope and humanity, Dubey essays the role of a liver cirrhosis patient and how he rekindles his relationship with life after an encounter with the veteran actress, who plays a grief counselor. In an interview with Firstpost, he spoke about his experience of shooting the film, working with Revathi, and had a rather unusual take on Rajesh Khanna’s iconic character Anand in the iconic film Anand.

Do you remember your first reaction when you read the script and the details of your character?

I remember I started reading at 12:30 at night, finished reading by 3:30, and it held me by my gut. Many a times, I had to keep the script aside as I could feel palpitation in my body. It just felt like the universe has sent the script to me with a lot of surety, and from there, it was my duty to make it come alive. I would have been very disappointed had I not got this film. I have given my heart and soul to this film in every possible way.

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Share your experience of working with Revathi in the film.

It was divine. It cannot be articulated in words. As an actor, you just have to forget that the other person is a newcomer or a legend. While working with her, there was such beautiful exchange of energies, no pretense, no nothing. It was pure love and respect for each other’s craft.

What is your take on mental health, someone’s mental well-being, a topic that’s being discussed so widely on social media off late?

So everything is interrelated. Your physical health is interrelated to your mental health. We all have had our share of ups and downs, sometimes it’s very severe, sometimes it’s not. It’s our own responsibility to look after our mental health with the right kind of diet, and I’m not saying this for the heck of it since I’ve done this to myself. You eat healthy, disconnect from things that are not making you grow. Things that are not feeding your soul, you have to disconnect from that. I know these sound like big words but if you do follow them, they do change your perspective. Yes, if there’s a clinical problem, you have to go to a specialist.

Despite being a patient of liver cirrhosis, your character is regularly attending office. In this day and age of corporate culture, do you feel there’s pressure to deliver and a lack of empathy?

This is not in the corporate culture but everywhere, this lack of empathy. This is what I was talking about, to feed your soul, heart, and mind, to cultivate that compassion and empathy for others. We don’t have to wait to takeover artificial intelligence. We have become artificial intelligent people. And with a guy like Vinay, who’s 26, just out of college, he tries to make a space for himself in the work space. When you come from a middle class background, you don’t have a financial backing. He’s in constant denial. How me? Why me? I’ve never drunk or done anything wrong, how come the universe chose me for this? And then, you see his journey of denial, hope, acceptance, and everything he goes through.

How did you prepare for your character and what was the experience shooting as Vinay?

It was a very hard-hitting space, every scene used to trigger anxiety in my system. Loosing those 10-12 kilos in a span of one month, being on a very low calorie diet and surviving somehow. I was in an extremely vulnerable being, both physically and emotionally, during this film. This was the most vulnerable I was in my entire life because I was pushing myself, and was surrounded by nothing but compassion and empathy. You didn’t ask me this question but I’ll answer it. We celebrate great personalities like sportspersons or actors, but it’s high time we celebrate real people, because people like Vinay are true fighters man.

Rajesh Khanna’s character in Anand knows he’s suffering from a terminal illness, and yet, he believes in living life to the fullest. But we also have characters that are completely shattered when they come to know they don’t have too much time. Is it completely normal to feel devastated and not be happy-go-lucky when you know you’re going to depart soon?

Rajesh Khanna Saab’s portrayal of Anand was really beautiful, but, I could be wrong and might get flak for it, it seems dreamy, beautiful, and doesn’t feel real real to me. Because when you go through something like this, your mental health, what you spoke about, goes for a toss. A 26-year old guy suddenly comes to know he’s going to pass. Either you have to be so spiritually awakened to accept death as it comes or it will really mess with your system. I have tried to keep the portrayal as real as possible. We have used prosthetic for the tummy, but physically, I had to shrink a lot, it wasn’t a pleasant experience (Laughs).

What could be the one takeaway for the audience after they watch this film?

I keep repeating this that cinema is all about entertainment, but there are certain films that go beyond entertainment and this is that film. It will really touch you.

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