Rajesh Kumar opens up about his film Haddi

Actor Rajesh Kumar, who is sharing the screen with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Anurag Kashyap, Ila Arun and Zeeshan Ayub in his film Haddi, is eagerly waiting to see the audience's reactions. The movie is all set to stream on Zee 5.

“In 'Haddi', my character's name is Satto, and he's basically a teddy bear of that particular transgender community. People who engage in some illegal activities and handle everything. He is the agony aunt of that place. He also works for Anurag Kashyap but he has his own world with these people. It is a kind of positive character, I would say, in contrast to their negative setup,” he says.

Ask him what attracted him to this particular project and made him decide to take on the role, and he says, “A lot of effort was put into this character, but it was approached differently. One, I just went completely bald. I just wanted to look like a giant version of me. So, a lot of weight is on the body to make it look like that. I also sound heavy, and it feels like this guy is more of a bear. The look kind of excited me plus the project was with Anurag Kashyap, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Zeeshan Ayub, Ila Arun. This is the kind of film that has never been done before. So, for me, it was a new genre that I wanted to explore and challenge myself. Also. Actually, it excited me in the very first reading. I wanted to go all out.”

The experience of working with a talented actor like Nawazuddin Siddiqui on set was amazing, he says, adding, “It was an amazing experience in terms of learning a lot from Anurag Kashyap because a director's point of view is paramount. With Nawazuddin, in fact, I was lucky to work in two films, Haddi and another film. I have learned from them that the more minimalistic performance you can do, the bigger impact it has. On television, we do a lot of acting and there is a lot of movement on our face. But with Nawaz and the rest of the team, I learned that you don't need to use a lot of facial expressions. If you just have very controlled expression from your eyes and you believe in your eyes, you can perform only through your eyes. You do not need to work too much. The way they deliver and carry their character, the consistency of the character throughout the film, and how to maintain the schedule is what I learnt.”