Atul Sabharwal, the man behind the latest spy drama Berlin, interacts with The Pioneer over an exclusive tete-a-tete as he expresses his gratitude for the response and some behind the scenes of the making
Tejal Sinha
Choosing the title Berlin for a Hindi film set in 90s New Delhi is something unusual. In Atul Sabharwal’s spy drama set in an atmospheric environment, ‘Berlin’ represents a café, also referred to as a coffee house in the past, located in the country’s capital city. Hidden within a cloud of cigarette smoke and mystery, it is situated in an inconspicuous square in the diplomatic area of the city. The scene takes place in the winter of 1993, leading up to Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s important trip to India.
In the city of secrets, where loyalty is a luxury and truth is a rarity, ‘Berlin’ unfolds a gripping tale of spy craft and conspiracy.
Let’s take you through some insights that director Atul Sabharwal has to share with us exclusively and to begin with, he expresses his gratitude with a tremendous response: “When you’re making a film, you’re sort of in a tunnel vision and you don’t know how receptive people would be. Also because movies take time to get made, purely as the stories; so from the point you start, there is a certain zeitgeist. By the time you come out, the zeitgeist could shift. When you don’t have stars in your film or the so-called marquee stars, you’re relying on that zeitgeist to sort of come in your support.”
The movie depicts the government interrogating a deaf-mute man (Ishwak Singh) with the help of a sign language specialist (Aparshakti Khurana). As the narrative progresses, the distinction between innocence and guilt becomes unclear, leading to the sign language expert becoming entangled in a risky maze of lies and political machinations.
Now what really went behind, he says, was persistence. “I thought that a film like this, what really got it made was the belief that the studio showed in us because they invested money in it.As much as I thought that it was a difficult one to get made, what I was really surprised was whenever I would narrate it to actors, whether they were willing to do it or not, at least they all enjoyed listening to it. When we narrated to the studio, the team at Zee Studios, it was their enthusiastic response that there was something in it that gave me confidence. It’s definitely catching the ears and eyes.
Berlin had its own research that went behind bringing the concept live. Be it the research around the genre or the look of the actors, the research had multiple layers.
As you watch the entire film, one thing that you would closely note is that every character has its own importance, right from Aparshakti as the sign expert, Ishwak as the dumb-mute man, Rahul Bose as the investigative officer, or even Kabir Bedi as the bureau chief. “I think that’s a compliment if you’re saying so,” expresses the Jubilee fame, who further goes on to add, “Any good story should do that whether it was in Jubilee. So even if there was a cobbler coming for one scene, one episode, two shots, or even the smaller parts in Berlin, If they’re relevant to the story, then they tend to stand out and then they tend to feel needed in the story and hence, they find their own importance. So there is no conscious division of that. The only focus is on telling a good story and if you tell that story well, then hopefully the characters will remain memorable.”
Watching Kabir Bedi is always a delight and so was it this time too. But guess what? Getting him onboard was not a cakewalk; yes, you read that right? “ It was a very small role and he kept questioning me about my importance to this. I had to take him through a lot of discussions, readings and explanations. Like, even till the date of shooting, he was kind of hazy. I then explained to him why only he can do it or somebody of his stature because even though he’s there for a very little screen time, the stature that is needed that he’s running this office could come only from a person who has an aura. I think that’s what convinced him to just do it the way I was saying it.”
Berlin was no less than a challenge for him as a filmmaker too, just like any other film. Specifically, “It was challenging in the area of sign language because I had to sort of find a way for us to be able to film the actors while they’re doing sign so that their hands are always visible. So you could not take the camera too close to an actor because that would, you know, then their hand movement will not be seen. It was important to make those decisions as to for how long we should stay a little away from this character. Because once the audience gets into the rhythm of their hands, then you can go closer to the characters to see their eyes and other emotions.”
But initially, “How do we shoot sign language so that the meaning is conveyed to the audience as to whether this person is signing, this person is translating and this person is observing, reacting and giving feedback from the side of the glass?”
Well, speaking of working with some great talents, he says, “I enjoy working with veteran actors because there are stories to share. There was a time when we’d stand in line to buy a ticket for their film and I may have loved a certain film or a certain performance of theirs. I have a lot of nostalgia to discuss with them as opposed to the contemporary actors who are exploring themselves as much as I am exploring myself. I enjoy it as long as an actor is great like Apar, Ishwak, or Rahul; it doesn’t matter whether I am in love with them in the sense of nostalgia because eventually we all have to do work together. And if an actor is great, then my work becomes that much easier.”
While Atul is going to bring us some really interesting projects delving into different genres in his upcoming projects, he, however, tends to gravitate toward tragedies.
