In an exclusive conversation with The Pioneer, actor Aditya Rawal opens up about the learnings for his character, doing research for playing the character, and more.
Tejal Sinha
Hansal Mehta helmer Faraaz is based on the real-life incident of the 2016 Dhaka terror attack, when five armed young men stormed into the Holey Artisan Bakery, and killed as many as 20 people, most of whom were foreign nationals, and took several others hostage, which mostly included Bangladeshi Muslims.
The film shows the contrast between two young men on opposite sides of an ideological divide being established right away. Faraaz (Zahaan Kapoor) belongs to a wealthy family and has a world of choices before him. Nibras (Aditya Rawal), Faraaz’s former football teammate, has turned into a sadistic, hate-filled fanatic. Much like his previous films, Shahid and Omreta, Hansal takes a leaf from a real-life incident with Faraaz and delivers a powerful movie once again.
Without any further ado, The Pioneer made a call to Aditya Rawal to get more insights on the preparations that he had made for his character, and how acting happened to him.
At a point where there have been multiple debates and protests going on due to religion and many other aspects around it, it could have been very tricky and risky at the same time for Aditya to play such a character. With such a sensitive story, and a character to play, Aditya shares, “One thing that Hansal sir was very clear about was that this was not going to be your run-of-the-mill film or a ‘naarebaaz’ terrorist film. Yes, they are mainly this angry and vicious person, but they are human beings at the end. It is critical that we look for the humanity within this, not just the darkness.”
In order to play such a character as Nibras, Aditya shares that he had to dive deep into doing a lot of research to play the character.
“I felt that the only way to do this was to dive deep into the research on why and how the young man, the character that I play, gets radiculitis. In nobody’s head are they ever villains, and their actions are always justified, and how does one who commits such a heinous crime justify that act. To understand that, I had to understand the nature of radicalisation and how young men become so extreme. There was a lot of research that went into it. Of course, Hansal sir was never far away. In the process, we were also aided by Ekhlaq Ahmed Khan, an old associate of Hansal sir, who is also the associate writer of the film. He helped us with a lot of aspects of Islam. He helped us understand the nuances of the Quran, how to recite the suras, and how the same suras can be interpreted in so many different ways. That has also been the nature of the story. The whole focus of the process was to find the human being under the layers of brutality, so I think one has done enough to accomplish what they had to.”
The actor was recently seen in the Disney+Hotstar series Aar ya Paar. Aditya, who is the son of actor Paresh Rawal and singer Swaroop Samrat, no doubt hails from a family that has been worshipping the art.
Hansal Mehta, in fact, said in a recent interview that he is launching two nepo kids in Faraaz. Being the child of an actor, especially an actor like Paresh Rawal, who has been one of the most loved actors in the industry for the way he plays his characters, is obviously an advantage. But, in his case, Aditya is here to make his own mark.
A little-known fact about Aditya is that he was a professional sportsperson before he made his entry into the acting world. Taking us through the transition from sports to acting, he shares, “I had always been deeply involved in sports. I played cricket until I was 14- 15, and then I took up football professionally. But even when I was doing that, I was always exposed to the arts. My father used to do so many play rehearsals, and we used to watch movies together, both of which I used to accompany. I used to be on his sets a lot, not for the shows but for the rehearsals, watching movies together, and reading plays together. My mother is an all-round artist. From having a bachelor’s in fine arts to winning the crown of Miss India, or being an actor, that was something that we were always exposed to and always practiced. We were always in touch with that.”
He further continues, “When I used to play football, so when you’re playing football professionally or doing training maybe once or twice a day, you’re training for 3 or 6 hours a day, and then what are you doing for the rest of the day? I was the kind of teenager who enjoyed afternoons smoking a number of cigarettes with my friend and doing nothing, but then I started making the most of that time by writing. It was something that I really enjoyed, and it slowly became something that was close to me. I started satisfying a creative urge that I didn’t know existed within me. Then there was a sort of point where the decision was supposed to be made in 2021. The profession is very demanding and competitive. So when I had to take the call, something within me just stirred, and I felt that this was something that was close to my heart. I was focused on my career, which, if you’re lucky, is a journey of growing as a human being, an actor, and a writer for 10-15 years until you die. And this was something that inspired me, and I felt like I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. I hope I’m able to do it professionally well into the future.”
