There is nothing like an 'overnight discovery' in the domain of acting. Majority of the celebrities who’ve made it big have spent several years slogging to amass all the key skills required to make a mark as professional actors. Shashank Arora, who makes his acting debut with director Kanu Behl’s ‘Titli’ feels becoming an actor is a lot like going on a journey which calls for commitment and courage, but an elaborate traditional career plan isn’t of much practical help. “I don’t go by any particular plan or agenda. I don’t feel the need for it. But I’m aware of the need to do good stories, work with good directors, people who tell stories effectively and give the viewers good films. Even though my first film ‘Titli’ has earned appreciation, I don’t want to chalk out a career plan and follow it.”
‘Titli’, an independent film which has been shot a lot like a documentary with the support of Yash Raj Films and Dibakar Banerjee Productions, promises to offer a story of a dysfunctional family and desperate attempts of a young boy (Shashank Arora) to escape from the tyrannical situation. The film’s story and actors’ powerful performances were quite evidently the reason that helped ‘Titli’ get selected for the prestigious Un Certain Regard section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.
Currently in Shillong to shoot the climax of ‘Rock On 2’, Shashank tells us why the adulation that his Bollywood debut has received hasn’t changed him at all. “I’m still the same. The impact hasn’t changed me. I have barely been able to come to terms with the fact that I got through the auditions for the film and that I got my share of glory at Cannes where I was seen with the likes of Nicole Kidman and other popular stars.”
Going by the spate of abuses, expletives and profanities used in the film, Censor Board asked the makers to dilute its strong language. As Shashank tells us, it was needed to portray the reality. “Violent language has been used to ensure the film looks real. Since the movie has been shot in Delhi and Meerut, about 70-80% of the people use violent language. If you want to ask me if that’s how I’m in real life, then let me tell you I don’t curse people while I talk to them.”
If the training that Shashank had to undergo to do justice to his character Titli who belongs to a lower social class to understand his psyche is anything to go by, it was quite a task to survive the rigorous workshops and sessions. “To grow up in a house which has no electricity, food and other basic necessities, for three months wasn’t easy. And the absence of a feminine figure restrains the male members to express their feelings and emotions. I’ve still not been able to get over the experience of surviving violence in ‘Titli’,” he says adding, “I just want people to watch the film as it is very real. I’m not so much interested in the profit that the film makes (as it isn’t my job) as much as I’m keen on having more people watch it.”
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