Watch: Kalki Koechlin talks about being differently-abled in Margarita With A Straw

You could be mistaken for thinking that acting is all about glamour and gloss, but sometimes, it’s painstaking, laborious and utterly unglamorous. Ask Kalki Koechlin, who plays a person suffering from cerebral palsy in the upcoming Margarita With A Straw.

Talking to Firstpost, Koechlin revealed that during the shoot she did not leave her wheelchair throughout the day. “I didn’t get up in between, during lunch breaks and stuffs like that,” said Koechlin, who developed back pain as a result of keeping herself confined in a wheelchair for two months. Not just that, the actress also took speech therapy to understand how people with cerebral palsy speak.

In the process of preparing and shooting for Margarita with A Straw, Koechlin says she realised what it feels like to be disabled. The character of Laila, played by Koechlin, is inspired by director Shonali Bose’s cousin, Malini Chib who has cerebral palsy and has written about living with disability in her autobiography, One Little Finger. Malini was also an inspiration for Koechlin’s portrayal of Laila.

Koechlin was so convincing on the sets of Margarita with A Straw that many new actors often came on the sets and didn’t recognise her. Since she was in her wheelchair and in character as Laila, the heroine of Margarita with A Straw, they mistook her for a real disabled person. “They were all sort of thrown off by the fact,” recalled the actress.

“They didn’t know what to say to me, they would whisper to each other, like ‘what’s wrong with her? Is she ok?’,” said Koechlin. “People stared a lot as well, especially people in Delhi. People on the streets would stare a lot at Laila, the character. So, I guess that put me in that zone of, what it must feel like being somebody in a wheelchair, especially in India where people probably aren’t educated enough on disability, hence they don’t know how to behave around the disabled.”

Koechlin said that as Laila, she also realised how difficult it must be for a disabled person to break the ice with others and strike up a conversation. “I used to try and reach out to break that barrier, by making a joke, by making people feel comfortable about the fact that I can talk, I can communicate, that I can speak to you like a normal person,” said Koechlin. It was a struggle to do this and to think that those not considered ’normal’ have to keep countering such awkwardness and even resistance is unnerving and can be exhausting.

While Margarita With A Straw isn’t the first Bollywood film that deals with differently-abled people, most have mostly misrepresented disability and/or disabled people grossly. At best, we’ve had over-the-top portrayals, like Priyanka Chopra’s attempt at playing an autistic girl in Barfi! or Shah Rukh Khan’s Rizwan Khan, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, in My Name Is Khan. Rarely have any one of these films touched upon serious and emotional issues from the point of view of the differently-abled person.

Talking about Margarita With A Straw, director Shonali Bose said, “The film has complex emotional things, which is why in the beginning I thought I need to cast somebody who has cerebral palsy, but you need an actor because it is not a documentary.” She said that playing Laila required more than being physically accurate. “People keep thinking she (Koechlin) has got the physicality right, but her performance is luminous because she has portrayed the emotions. That’s what makes it an Oscar winning performance.”

Initially, however, Bose had her doubts about Koechlin. “I was worried about her (Koechlin’s ) Hindi, but then I thought about the fact that Laila has garbled speech. " said Bose. “Laila is a North Indian girl and authenticity is very important for me. Usually she (Koechlin) is not being cast as the typical Indian girl because of her Hindi, but I said, Laila has garbled speech so, I am sure she can pull this off authentically. So, let’s give her a shot.”

Bose wanted Koechlin to audition for the role and Koechlin readily agreed. Koechlin took her time and prepared for the audition. “She gave me that jhalak,” recalled Bose of Koechlin. “When I saw that audition, I just knew it in my heart. So, she was our Laila.”

Margarita With A Straw is hoping for a commercial release next week, but it has already done the rounds of film festivals. Koechlin has received several accolades for her performance. The actress won Best Actress award at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and another film festival at Vancouver.

“Anywhere the film has been screened abroad, because they don’t know Kalki Koechlin, people thought she has cerebral palsy and any place she walked on stage, like in Toronto (at TIFF), she got a standing ovation,” said Bose. “In two film festivals where she won best actress awards, both juries thought she has cerebral palsy. When they were told she is an able bodied actor, they were like, ’ can we give her two awards? she blew us away!’”

Margarita With A Straw opens in theatres on 17 April, 2015.