Broken and bad in Mumbai

While innovations go into the directing a series such as Sacred Games, one can see that the role to be fulfilled by the actors is more challenging. Very much a story of Mumbai, Netflix’s Sacred Games is about its dark alleys and its darker inhabitants.

Although the series is set largely within the city, it takes its characters through a very strenuous terrain.

Centred on the story of Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a self-proclaimed god who informs Inspector Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan) about a possibly fatal countdown for the city of Mumbai, even as he goes to narrate both his history and that of the city, one inseparable from the other.

The characters in Sacred Games are not part of the glitz and the glamour of the city. Some of its characters, in fact, have such a side, but when we see those sides, we realise that they are either too hypocritical or too superficial.

At the heart of the show are people at the margins. One gets the feeling that within the city, there is a whole other city living at its margins.

From a cop who is torn between his professional stability and his father’s ethics, a Brahmin boy who gives up a life of prayer and begging to rise to be a god, to a woman officer is completely dedicated to working on the field the characters, people here have a complicated relationship with this damned city.

Two of the film’s stars, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte, were in Bengaluru for the premiere of Sacred Games. Nawazuddin was his quiet self at the premiere, simply asking the audience to watch the show on Netflix when it released on the July 6.

His shyness even prompted Anurag Kashyap to crack a joke at his expense: “That’s the most Nawazuddin has spoken without a script.” Nawazuddin simply smiled in response.

Radhika, although initially reluctant to speak to the crowd here, was not one give up to Anurag’s jokes so easily.

“Radhika, why don’t you say something?” Anurag asked.

“No, no”

“Radhika Apte,” the director said, as put his arm around her and pulled her to the podium, “She’s the one whose biopic I recently made in Lust Stories.”

Her reply was quick: “It’s basically Anurag’s biopic. He’s just shying away from it.”

Metrolife caught up with both the actors on how it was to work this crime thriller about Mumbai and what Netflix means to their acting.

Nawazuddin, the film is about Mumbai. It’s been a very big Mumbai year for you. You play Saadat Hasan Manto and Bal Thackeray in two upcoming films, both of whom are intertwined with the cultural life of Mumbai. And here you play a self-proclaimed god of Mumbai. Did your characters run into each other when playing them?

Nawazuddin: Mumbai looks different to different people, no? For those who turn out to be successful, Mumbai is one thing. To those who fail, it is something else. People bring their dreams to that place. A lot of people make decisions on where to take their life in Mumbai.

If you look at the city through the eyes of Balsaheb Thackeray, you can see the depression that he was going through after the shutting of the mill, how he viewed the city as a cartoonist, how he stood there and wanted to make Maharashtra a big place. My character Ganesh Gaintonde comes from a small village in Maharashtra. He comes from a disturbed family but he has dreams. He also wants to make it big in the city. But his surroundings are so different and challenging. He brings the baggage of these surroundings to Mumbai.
The film, while very much at the heart of Mumbai, is also made for an international audience. Did that make a difference to you?

Nawazuddin: Of course. Because it looks to me that depending on how much the story is rooted in things local, it gets that much appreciation internationally. For example, your typical Bollywood film, I don’t think, gets appreciated internationally. That’s because the characters in those films don’t exist anywhere. In good movies, the characters and the plot are real, authentic and believable. So, the more local it is, the more global it becomes.

Radhika, did that make a difference to you, playing for an international audience? Were you conscious of that fact?

Radhika: What he (Nawazuddin) is saying is true. The more local you are, the more authentic you are and the truer you are to what you are doing. It’s universal because it’s more relatable. But when you are performing a part, you don’t think about that. I have never performed for a particular kind of market. I just try doing my job as well as I can.

Sacred Games is not your regular serial. It’s breaking a lot of boundaries. It has more companions in the west than it does in India. But the film is fundamentally for an Indian audience.

Radhika: It is surely a break from traditional Bollywood. It’s a different platform. In a way, a different market. Sacred Games caters to a certain audience, which may not overlap the standard Bollywood audience. I get what you are saying. It feels so divergent from Bollywood. But the truth is that this is the sort of film we watch all the time, so it doesn’t feel like much of a diversion because this is not just something you act in. You’d like to watch this series as well. You may do some projects because you are a part of an industry, but it’s great when you actually get to do something that you will also enjoy watching.

You have been vocal about how women characters have been portrayed on the Indian screen. Sacred Games is very progressive in that direction. What do you have to say about that?

Radhika: It’s a reflection of the society in a most real way. Aren’t the women around you very strong? Everywhere women stand very strong and they play very important roles. I think people want to watch that. People are bored of black and white fairy tales anyway. It’s relatable to watch content that you see is around your life.