‘My character says the most obnoxious lines sometimes,’ reveals R Madhavan as he and co-star Surveen Chawla present mid-December drama, Decouped
Both R Madhavan and Surveen Chawla are not new to streaming. 51-year-old Madhavan made his debut with breathing Best of all, peripherals in 2018 when streaming is considered. 37-year-old Chawla won the gold medal in the second season of sacred games in 2019, After starting their journey on television – Zee TV’s will make your point And Son-in-law who stays at wife’s home For Madhavan or Ekta Kapoor where would it be As for Chawla – his career touched upon both Hindi and Tamil films, before first taking to streaming, and now together, with his Netflix show Decoupled.
Created and written by author Manu Joseph (serious man), directed by Hardik Mehta (successful, ruhi, decoupled Uses the frame of comedy to see a couple in Gurgaon navigating a divorce. Madhavan, who plays a writer in the show, says, “I have never played a character like this before. He is known to have a good grasp on the screenplay and contribute to the script, be it with his previous hits Minnale (2001), 3 Idiots (2009), or more recent irudhi sutru (2016).
In an interview with two actors for The Hindu Weekend, edited for length and clarity, they speak about how the pandemic and streaming have shaped their craft, and decoupled,
what attracted you to these parts decoupled,
Madhavan: The show is in English, and we are not making English a Tamil or Hindi show. The character says things the way he sees it, and sometimes he says the most obnoxious, offensive lines. My challenge as an actor was to see that he did not become a negative character. That he can say anything and still turn away from her because of his innocent intention.
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Being in front of the camera was a big relief especially after the pandemic. Since we were all in the same hotel, there was a great rapport with the people, and the party was good too. I had more than one reason to accept the story.
Surveen: This is a couple from Gurgaon with a young daughter. My character is that one person in the show who brings back Vivek and normalizes things amidst sarcasm and arrogance. But Hardik said that we do not want to create a relationship of hatred between people. [He wanted] To bring enmity and yet the audience feels that they have pieces of love left.
How involved are you in building your characters now?
Madhavan: When I approve a script, I know what has touched me. Sometimes, I notice that we’re not touching the markers that got me excited in the first place. Then I come in and guide [the team] As we originally imagined, which is often the case. Sometimes, young directors with a lack of experience – they have passion, and they want to tell a story, but there’s a way – I have to say, maybe we don’t want to indulge in something we didn’t . Explore in pre-production. Also, Surveen and I were open to improvisation. Ideally, we don’t want to do anything more than an actor’s work because we are paid for it. I would love to go on the sets of Mani Ratnam or Rajkumar Hirani’s film and surrender completely as an actor and not worry about anything else. But these are luxuries that are few and far between.
Surveen: I’ve experienced collaboration on OTT on a far wider level, because it’s a longer format and you’re spending more time with your director.
Do you prepare differently to perform on streaming?
Surveen: Together decoupled, And sacred games, The filming process was at a stretch over the months. It is much easier to shoot every day as opposed to shooting with breaks, but it is also difficult because you have to keep that rhythm going for the longest time. decoupled, Although, The fastest shoot has been because we were in the bio-bubble in Delhi for two months due to the pandemic. We shot continuously and then went straight to Goa. So, it was easy to tie the character.
Madhavan: Intensity, involvement and commitment are the same. It is easy to play a character in films as the shooting days are short. It’s easy to pick from the last scene we shot. In films, however, you may have to be more careful with your looks, as the big screen will capture all the nuances of your preparation.
How do you rate the success of a show on OTT?
Surveen: decoupled is a modern story, and it will resonate with an urban elite, English-speaking audience. The public cannot be targeted by this. Then, social media would be a symbol of success for me, where people give us their reviews.
Madhavan: The solid proof is the remuneration that is given to me for the next series (laughs).
Madhavan, you have talked about how the pandemic has forced you to rethink the stories you want to pursue…
Madhavan: After the pandemic, we have to cater to the emotional state of the audience, which has changed. I am looking for age-appropriate romantic stories to open up the screen, and show them greenery, snow, and make them feel that life is not as meaningless as it seemed during the pandemic.
Surveen Chawla
Surveen: I am done with those dark and heavy roles as well. After a point, it reaches you. I wasn’t feeling the excitement of going on the sets, doing something I hadn’t done before.
Madhavan, you too are preparing to release Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, Nambi Narayanan biopic. You said that you consider it “more of a national duty than a film”.
Madhavan: It is a pity that we do not know anything about Nambi Narayanan. As a nation, we have no road in his name, nor do he have the credit he deserves for building indigenously built rocket engines on a large scale. I didn’t know him, never met him before this movie. But when I did, I felt this overwhelming resentment and sense of duty – how could we not know of a patriot like him in this country? So I put my money where my mouth is and funded the project.
Surveen, any future projects?
Surveen: There is something, but…
Oh no, NDA!
Madhavan: I miss the good old days where there was no contract. When I first started, people didn’t have contracts. I used to be the one who insisted on contracts and scripts in Tamil cinema. I still hate those two things. (laughs)
Decoupled premieres on Netflix on December 17th
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