Exclusive! Yami Gautam on Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga: ‘With no dearth of work, now the challenge is to stand out’

Yami Gautam doesn’t like to be stereotyped or caged in one image. She thinks herself to be fortunate to be a part of new age content. With no dearth of work, now the challenge is how to stand out. She believes that reading a script allows her to imagine the film better. And as for actor Sunny Kaushal, he believes when you read a script you understand the potential of the film and that’s how he agreed to be a part of Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga.

 Edited excerpts from the interview:

What excited you Yami about Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga since we have seen films on hijacking before? How was the script different?

I feel even in the thrillers, like you said that we have seen in the past, while we cannot predict the execution, how it’s going to pan out while we read the script, there is a certain sense of faith you see in the team you are going to associate yourself with. It’s about both hijacking and heist. I feel it’s the emotions and the characters the audiences engage with, that’s what makes a thriller. This is the case with any genre; the technicalities can be on point but the audience is not going to feel anything if it won’t connect with the characters. That’s what I liked about the script. This is a completely different ground that you have seen me in as compared to the characters that played in the past. I saw a potential in the script to connect with the audience.

Sunny and Yami, how much thought process goes behind choosing a project?

Yami: I am just looking for good scripts. There is no overthinking, but definitely there is a thought process; as an actor I prefer reading the scripts, I don’t prefer narrations. Reading a script allows me to imagine a film better. It allows me to imagine the vision of the director better, it works for me that way. It’s mostly your gut feeling and how consistent the script is. While no film is perfect, no script is perfect, how close we are to that vision is what we all strive for. It’s also very important for me to know the intention of the filmmaker, the idea.

Sunny: I also go with my gut feeling because that is something that never lies. I do choose to sleep over it for a day. Be it a narration, or a reading of the script, the first thing that I do is treat the script as an audience. If I feel it is nice I’ll give it a go ahead. When you read a story, you immediately know the potential or whether you want to be a part of it or not.

As actors, what do you have to say about the way cinema is changing as roles are not stereotypical anymore?

Sunny: Cinema is changing, and always will be. That’s the nature of storytelling and that’s the nature of cinema. That’s also the nature of society: the people you are living with also keep changing. Right now, content is changing the most because of a lot of mediums that have come on play. A lot of stories are being told and the attention span of people is also decreasing. And that includes me as well. Even my attention span is decreasing when I’m watching something. The reason why I’m saying that the attention span of the audience is decreasing is because the short format has also come into play and the audiences want the best entertainment in the shortest time possible. 15 seconds of videos and 20 seconds of videos are becoming popular on Instagram. The viewers are always on the run, that’s what I meant by attention span. The competition in storytelling is increasing. As actors, the onus is on us to give the audience better stories.

Yami: I think as actors, we are very fortunate to be a part of this new-age content. My first film was based on the subject of sperm donation. The commercial success of Vicky Donor showed how progressive the audience is. It was a path breaking script, and the audiences took it in their stride. And in my 10 years of journey as an actor, I feel this is the greatest time. The questions about getting stereotyped are getting lesser and lesser because of new wave cinema.

Earlier there was only cinema which had theatrical releases, but today you have the luxury of watching movies in your living room in your bedroom. You have the luxury of pausing a film, stopping the film so you have to be good to keep the audience engaged. My last film was Lost, and this is titled Chor Nikalke Bhaga, so the title itself is so different. I cannot watch both these films with the same perspective. There was a time when I was a stereotyped for whatever reasons; I had to understand the industry, and try to understand myself as an actor. The fact that I am getting different types of scripts shows that they’re not judging me on the basis of my previous films. I also did a film called Bala. You don’t want to be stereotyped, you don’t want to be caged in one image. Now the challenge is how to stand out since there is no dearth of work.

Women today no longer do ornamental roles. What do you have to say about women’s roles changing in cinema?

Yami: First of all, I would like to say that you are one of those rare people in the media fraternity, who has used the word ‘cinema’. It’s important to see how the media sees cinema. This idea of how pivotal we are in the film is a big change in itself. I have said this before that India is a huge country, very diverse. There’s an audience for every kind of film; as an actor, you want a substance in your role, you want a substantial part in the film. Like you said, we don’t want to be ornamental anymore.

As an actor, I feel that even if you’re doing a song, you should be able to add something to the story. Not only for the story, but also for yourself. I need to ask myself did I learn something? Did I add something? Women and actresses are asking nowadays what their roles are. I need something better because I deserve better. I will always celebrate my co-actresses’ movies and success. This is totally because of females leading the story, but because we need to tell great stories. If you talk about Bala, it came across that way because it was a greatly written role. It all comes from the writing. The audiences have also evolved, today for them actors and actresses or characters for them. We are as good as what is given to us as a script. And actresses across all the genres are aware of this conversation.

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