EXCLUSIVE: Why did Kamal Haasan say ‘don’t do that’ to Saswata Chatterjee on the sets of ‘Kalki 2898 AD’?

Another clincher for Saswata Chatterjee is the character, this intriguing guy named Commander Manas, that he plays in Nag Ashwin’s magnum opus, which is set to release worldwide on 27 June, in multiple languages.

Also read: Will ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ gross ₹200 crore worldwide on its first day?

Admiration for Kamal Haasan

“Commander Manas works under Supreme Yaskin, played by Kamal sir in the film, and he is willing to do anything for this man. It is a negative character, in a way, who will be seen throughout the film doing all sorts of bad things just to please the Supreme,” shares Saswata Chatterjee.

Saswata Chatterjee, Kamal Haasan, along with the makers of ‘Kalki 2898 AD’. (Supplied)

Turns out, the reverence and admiration were felt in him off the screen as well, and says the first thing he did when he met Kamal Haasan was to touch his feet!

“I shot with him for not more than a day but I remember I was too nervous seeing the legend before me. But what a man he is! So soft-spoken and simply observing everybody, just soaking up everything. I straightaway touched his feet but, very faintly, he said to me, “Don’t do that (laughs)“.

If mustering the courage to work alongside an actor of Kamal Haasan’s stature was one challenge, the other (and potentially bigger) came in the form of mouthing Telugu lines. Saswata Chatterjee reveals that Nag Ashwin insisted that he dubbed his character in not just Hindi but Telugu, as well, because he had done a solid job during the shoot.

Dubbing in Hindi and Telugu

“Telugu was like Hebrew to me! So, my lines were written in English and I would spend a lot of time with one of the assistants named Akhil, who was my teacher on the sets. It was difficult, no doubt, but I kept things simple: I would pick up the words, maybe understand their meaning, and just say them out. I told myself that if I had to play a doctor tomorrow, I needn’t pass MBBS to get the job done,” Saswata Chatterjee adds, ever-so-coolly.

How did he manage to ignore the fact it was Kamal Haasan, in his all glory as the nightmarish tyrannical figure of the future, that he had to say out all those Telugu dialogues to? “Arre baap re... I just told myself to forget that it was him there and went about my business. That’s all.”

But the credit, Saswata Chatterjee says, must go to Kalki 2898 AD‘s writer-director Nag Ashwin, who kept his faith throughout the process. The two first met each other over a Zoom call in which the project, the story, and the role of Commander Manas were explained to him in a nutshell, but the scale and the vision of it all became clear only when he reached the sets at Hyderabad’s Annapurna Studios.

‘Nag Ashwin whispers instructions in your ear’

Saswata Chatterjee’s character poster in ‘Kalki 2898 AD’.

Surrounded by towering blue screens, speaking a language that he is alien to, and lugging the heavy weight of his costume (which gave him back aches, he shares), Saswata Chatterjee, nevertheless, powered through the making telling himself that he was lucky to get the opportunity and that he must not let anyone (including himself) down at any point.

“The first time we spoke, he (Nag Ashwin) just said to me that I was in good hands. But when I showed up for the shoot, I couldn’t believe that this man was handling such a large production and so many stars; he was so calm and quiet in going about things. He doesn’t shout at actors either but whispers instructions in your ear and others wouldn’t even know what we spoke about.”

While Saswata Chatterjee did not get the chance to work with other principal cast members such as Amitabh Bachchan (in the role of Ashwatthama) and Prabhas (as Bhairava, the bounty hunter), he was able to get to know his other co-star, Deepika Padukone (as SUM-80, a ‘pregnant lab subject’), quite well.

‘Deepika Padukone, a lovely human being’

“A lot of my scenes are with Deepika and I found her to be a lovely human being. I remember my first day of the shoot and we reached the studio around the same time in the morning, maybe around 10 or 10.30 am. I began giving my shots back-to-back and she had to wait outside the makeup room with her team the entire time. And her first shot that day was at 5 pm but she was always smiling,” he shares.

On a parting note, Saswata Chatterjee talks about still being recognized for his role of Bob Biswas in Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani (2012), about not wanting to mull over his past work, and also about a possible comeback to Telugu cinema, albeit with a small caveat.

“I’ll first beg to get someone to dub for me. But, on a serious note, it feels good when a whole unit shows faith in you,” Saswata Chatterjee says before signing off.

(Edited by S Subhakeerthana)

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