Mumbai, Aug 26 (IANS) Actress and theatre personality
Rohini Hattangadi played Kasturba in the late Richard Attenborough's
"Gandhi" and says that working in the multiple Oscar winning film was a
revelation for her. She said that the British film director gave a bound
script to everyone and followed it religiously.
Attenborough died at the age of 90 Sunday.
"I
still remember vividly how I got Kasturba's role in 'Gandhi'. At that
time I was doing Marathi theatre when casting agent Dolly Thakore
contacted me to meet Sir Richard," said Rohini.
"He was going
from Delhi to London via Mumbai. Luckily, I was in Mumbai that day. I
met him for an hour. We spoke about theatre and then he left. I later
got to know he had so many other actresses for Kasturba's role. So I
didn't really bank on getting the role. But the very next day Dolly
called to say I had to leave for London for shooting immediately," she
added.
It wasn't easy for Rohini to pack her bags and hop on the plane, but thankfully things fell in place.
"I
was booked for the coming weeks for my play. I didn't even have a
passport. So how was I supposed to leave for London all of a sudden? But
Dolly said she'd help me with all the travel details. In eight days, I
got a temporary passport and the producer of my play was very
accommodating. Everything just fell into place..."
"Gandhi" was Rohini's first international film.
"Shooting
for 'Gandhi' was a revelation for me. We were all given scripts and
then we were asked to do our homework. I searched for books on Kasturba,
but I found only two books, that's all. So I had to rely on my own
skills.
"At the same time Sir Richard did not allow us to
deviate from the script. He was very clear on how he wanted my English
pronunciation. He didn't want me to put on an accent. At the same time,
he didn't want any Maharashtrian or Marathi pronunciation in my speech.
Since I had gone to a Marathi language school, I had to take elocution
classes as preparation for my part as Kasturba.
"Sir Richard also made me and Ben Kingsley learn to spin the charkha. We spent two-and-a-half months learning both," she said.
Released
in 1982, the biographical film brought the life of Gandhi on celluloid
and the appreciation that the film garnered across the world was
phenomenal. It won eight Oscars out of its eleven nominations.
"Did
I expect the film to have such an impact? Frankly, when I was doing the
part, I was too young to understand the importance of it. It was just a
role for me. And it all happened so suddenly.
"Sir Richard
would often allow me to interpret certain scenes in my own way. He gave
me a lot of freedom because he said I understood the culture better than
he did.
"I remember one sequence where a man comes visiting
Gandhiji in Champaran. I was supposed to be in the background. The
question was, what was I supposed to do? I suggested I could be making
rotis in the background. So a chulha, tawaa, and all the ingredients
were arranged. The scene came out so well. The importance of what I had
done occurred to me much later," she said.
Remembering the film's
release, Rohini said: "After release we were suddenly thrown into this
situation of tremendous impact. I found myself travelling all over the
world with the film for the premieres. The impact was immense. In 15
days we did six premieres."
The success of "Gandhi" opened doors for Rohini.
"After
'Gandhi', Bollywood offered me mothers' roles. I played mother to
heroes older to me like Amitabh Bachchan and Mithun Chakraborty. When I
came into the movies, I was 27 years. I had the choice of playing the
mother or sister. I chose