April 21, 2018
Staying still with her eyes shut and not doing anything
on-screen was the hardest challenge for British Indian actress Banita Sandhu
while shooting "October".
Banita, who plays a comatose girl in Shoojit
Sircar's highly-lauded film, says a whole lot of homework went into playing
Shiuli, the girl who plunges from a high rise to a near-death experience.
She says the most irksome part of doing this role was to cease all activity.
"I am not going to lie. It was quite annoying being still for so long
especially when my eyes were shut. We shot the film chronologically, so I had my
eyes closed for about a week.
"And then when I finally got it open, you
can't imagine how how relieved and excited I was able to act conscious, even if
it was only through my eyes.
"So I really tried to grab to take advantage
of any moment I had to do something and by the time it came to a physically
demanding scene, I was actually able to do it easily because I was so frustrated
acting still for so long while everyone around me was up and about."
Banita could feel her comatose character's frustrations.
"We were both
sailing in the same boat. Rather, not ‘sailing' at all. When I finally got to
move, it came out so well on-screen because there was that frustration within me
as an actor of being immobile.
"It was like the character and me were
kind of going through the same thing at the same time and I guess that's why it
comes across so real on-screen. I bet Shoojit sir planned it that way because he
knew that that it whould come out the way it did."
Born and brought up in
Britain, the Hindi was a problem for Banita.
"Language was definitely
tough but as you must have seen in the film, my dialogues are very limited, so
we kind of got around that very well. Both Shoojit sir and I were very stubborn
that this character will have my voice because there's so much more to the
performance than my dialogue.
"A lot of people commented on what I did
with my eyes, the frustration and all the emotions. So the language was tough,
but I think honestly the hardest part was not doing anything on the screen for
10 to 12 hours a day. I used to get frustrated as everyone around me was acting.
I used to get jealous."
The film features Varun Dhawan.
Banita
found him sweet, humble and kind-hearted.
"I honestly couldn't have asked
for a better first co-star. For Varun, 'October' was also like a first film
together also. So it was kind of like going through this journey together.
"We watched each other's back. The film, its mood and shooting were not only
difficult for me but it was challenging for him too to go through all that
emotion. I'm so lucky that I had a great support system in Varun, Shoojit and
the entire team."