It isn’t easy to lie still and hold your breath for the entire film. NRI Banita Sandhu played comatose for most of Shoojit Sircar’s October which completes five years. She brought amazing nuances to the changes in her character’s unconscious state.Little twitches in her mouth, flicker of recognition in her eye…Sadly in our cinema good acting means throwing your weight around.
You may think it is the easiest thing in the world to play unconscious on screen. However any actor worth his or her salt would tell you being still on camera is the most difficult thing to do.
Young British Asian actress Banita Sandhu who plays a comatose girl in Shoojit Sircar’s highly lauded October says a whole lot of homework went into playing Shiuli the girl who plunges from a highrise to a near-death experience. “A lot of research was required because it’s very specific how we wanted to portray the film and how we wanted to portray a coma patient and we didn’t want it to be overdone , as we wanted it to be very realistic.”
Banita watched a lot of films on comatose patients including Julianne Moore’s Oscar winning performance in Still Alice.
Recalls Banita, “Even things down to the eye movement were carefully monitored.we didn’t want to get it wrong. So if I am paralyzed which hand should I write with and how should I write.I watched a lot of documentaries and there are several cinematic references which helped me a lot in what should be my expression be, my posture on the wheelchair .I also read Steven Hawkin’s wife’s account .So there was a lot of research and a lot of watching of films and then being able to do that correctly.
Banita actually play-acted unconscious at her home in Wales before shooting in Mumbai. “For three months I was watching videos on coma patients and my sister was caring for me as though I was in a coma, pretending to feed me , pretending to have a conversation with me and I would just be staring vacantly and then she would give her feedback and I would change accordingly.”
Banita confesses the most irksome part of doing this role was to cease all activity. “I am not going to lie , it was quite annoying being still for so long especially when my eyes were shut.We shot the film chronologically so I had my eyes close for about a week .And then when I finally got it open you can’t imagine how how relieved and excited I was able to act conscious , even if it was only through my eyes.So I really tried to grab to take advantage of any moment I had to do something and by the time it came to a physically demanding scene I was actually able to do it easily because I was so frustrated acting still for so long while everyone around me was up and about.”
Banita could feel her comatose character’s frustrations . “We were both sailing in the same boat. Rather, not ‘sailing’ at all.When I finally got to move it came out so well on screen because there was that frustration within me as an actor of being immobile.It like the character and me are kinda going through the same thing at the same time and I guess that’s why it a comes across so real on screen .I bet (director) Shoojit Sir planned it that way because he knew that that it would come out the way it did.”
Banita can’t stop raving about Shoojit Sircar. “It was an absolute luxury and a dream to have such a director .I’ve had the pleasure of working with him before for an ad.Since then I was dying to work with him again.He is an artist’s director and he does ninety percent of the work for you and he’s just so calm and always at ease, never gets lou and never has expectations that are too high to fulfil for an actor. October has lot of has lot of barriers in terms of language, playing across a comatose patient.Also this was my first film away from home in the UK.But Shoojit Sir made me feel so safe and I was in such good hands with him that I knew whatever challenges that we will face with this film he would help me overcome them.”
Born and brought up in Britain the Hindi was a problem for Banita. “Language was definitely tough but as you must have seen in the film my dialogues are very limited so we kinda got around that very well, and both Shoojit Sir and I were very stubborn that this character will have my voice because there’s so much more to the performance than my dialogue.A lot of people commented on what I did with my eyes, the frustration and all the emotions, so the languages was tough but I think honestly the hardest part was not doing anything on the screen , for 10 to 12 hours a day.I used to get frustrated as everyone around me was ACTING .I used to get jealous.”
Banita was a Shoojit Sircar fan from beforehand. “I had seen all of his films before I started shooting because I wanted to know what is his cinematic genius is all about, and very soon I realized that he doesn’t have any specific style or favourite genre and that he can take anything and he can still make it.Shoojit Sir’s language is so universal as a director , he can grapple with any kind concept no matter how random it may be and make it a great cinematic experience.
October came and went.And though the beautiful film fetched Varun Dhawan and his director Shoojit Sircar a truckload of acclaim , British-born debutante Banita Sadhu did not benefit from the glowing reviews at all.After a long break she was back in India to be a part of Shoojit Sircar’s historical Udham Singh where Vicky Kaushal played the title role.Midway through the compelling film Banita Sandhu who made her impressive debut in Shoojit Sircar’s October opposite Varun Dhawan, appears in the film as Udham’s mute Punjabi beloved Reshma.
There is no historical validation of Sircar’s romantic imagination .
In October Sircar had cast the British born Indian Banita Sandhu as a comatose entity . in Udham Singh she played a mute Punjabi kudi, thereby escaping the pitfalls of goofing up while speaking in Hindi/Punjabi.
Banita can’t speak Hindi or Punjabi.