Lalit Prabhakar reflects on his transformative role as Ajmal Kasab in Prahaar, sharing how his audition yawn secured the part and how his courtroom confession scene moved the director to tears. He discusses his admiration for co-star Rajkummar Rao and his love for the collaborative world of cinema.
Prior to its release, most of the coverage around Avinash Arun’s courtroom-drama Prahaar: The Untold Story of Ujjwal Nikam lead with mentions of Rajkummar Rao, whose character, special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, sits at the centre of the story.
But, soon after the film hit the screens, the focus quickly extended to Marathi star Lalit Prabhakar, who held the nation's attention with his terrifying role as the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks convict Ajmal Kasab, receiving a wave of praise for carrying the story forward alongside Rao.
“The film reached people without me having to explain it. Everyone is responding to it positively. They hate the character, but they love my acting. It’s a magical thing,” Prabhakar tells The Hollywood Reporter India.
Addressing whether there was any hesitation on his part to play Kasab, the actor said, “I never felt that way. Whatever work I've done so far, I’ve only done what I’ve felt is right.”
He adds that the one thing he always thinks about is, “What does my project want to say? Is my project giving the wrong message? [In Prahaar], my character was wrong, but to give the right message, the wrong character has to be there.”
In fact, Prabhakar enjoyed being on set so much that he was often told by the direction team to sit down when he was not in frame. “I was like no, I don't mind standing here. I love to be on set. I really like the world of cinema and I am in love with the collaboration,” he expresses.
The actor recalls that the hardest part about playing Kasab was his eyes. "Imagine a person who has killed so many people, who is ready to die and who is not afraid of anything. How will he look at all these things? How will his eyes be?"
While it is safe to say that Prabhakar mastered his eye game in the film — which remained hauntingly expressionless while speaking volumes — what actually got him the part was an impromptu move he managed to execute during his audition.
"What got me selected was something I did during my audition. It was the yawn."
He explains, "It wasn’t in the script. I did it in the first take, right there in the audition. After I got the part, I met Ahuja sir [Anmol Ahuja – Casting Director], who told me, 'When your audition began and you did that yawn, that’s when we knew we had found our Kasab.'"
The actor also went on to display the same impressive grip on his character while shooting. So much so that he made the film’s director tear up while filming a particular scene.
“Avinash sir was behind the camera while I was performing the confession scene. There is pain, betrayal, anger, helplessness, and I am crying. I didn't rehearse it. As soon as I finished the monologue, I looked at him and there were tears in his eyes,” says Prabhakar.
"There are some things that give you confidence that you might have done it well. That [the confession scene] was a moment of satisfaction. I felt I did something right."
Prahaar also marks Prabhakar’s first screen outing with Rajkummar Rao. Asked about working with the actor, Prabhakar says, “His journey is very motivational… If you look at his filmography, he has done a lot of different things, and maintaining that is a big thing."
“You always have an image in your mind about what it would be like to work with him. If your team leader is working with so much dedication, you will have to match that sincerity. The way he brought changes in his character, the way he worked on his physicality and the way he thought about the scene or reacted to it, it was all very enriching.”
The Marathi star has as much in store as he has already accomplished this year. Prior to Prahaar, Prabhakar also headlined three other films this year, including the Marathi love story Toh Ti Ani Fuji, Super Duperr and One Two Cha Cha Chaa.
Looking ahead, he is next set to star in the biography Dhasal as the Marathi poet, writer and Dalit activist Namdeo Dhasal himself. The film's shooting has already concluded.
The actor also reveals that he is currently working on multiple Marathi projects, along with a web show with Jamtara - Sabka Number Ayega director Soumendra Padhi. With shooting wrapped, the show is now in it's editing process. "Other than that, I haven't gotten any exciting projects," says the actor.
"As an artist, I am dependent on good scripts, good directors, good concepts. The industry I work in has some limitations. The kind of work I want to do, the kind of work I see, the work that unsettles me, why is it not happening with me? Why am I not doing this work? Why am I not doing such roles? For such work, the dependency and waiting is a fight."