'Soundtrack' was emotionally exhausting: Rajeev Khandelwal

Mumbai, July 16 (IANS) After playing the intense cop in 'Shaitan', Rajeev Khandelwal will be seen as a musician in 'Soundtrack', a role he says ranks as one of his most emotionally exhausting.

The actor, who also reveals that he did a crash course in how to be a DJ, said: 'Doing this film was emotionally exhausting. When you are playing a character who goes through this gamut of emotions, it is very difficult to maintain those emotions over many days.'

'I mean you do those scenes, then pack up and go home and then again come back to do scenes of similar emotions, it is very difficult,' Khandelwal, 35, told IANS.

'There are also times when you just want to do one or two scenes because it becomes difficult to deal with it any more. There were occasions when I did that. There were days when I had to do five scenes, but I just did two.

'Even the director understood that. But that's a part and parcel of this profession. I also feel that if I can feel it to this extent and then do it on screen, the audience will also feel those emotions,' the actor said.

'Soundtrack', directed by Neerav Ghosh, is the remake of award-winning Canadian film 'It's All Gone Pete Tong'.

It has been changed a little bit to suit Indian sensibilities and is the story of a musician who comes to Mumbai and tries to make it big. It's a triumph of human spirit story.

The film also stars Soha Ali Khan, Mrinalini Sharma, Mohan Kapur, Yateen Karyekar, musicians Sidd Coutto and Ankur Tewari. The film is slated for an August release.

Khandelwal, who is playing a musician and in some parts a DJ in the film, prepared a lot for the role.

'All the preparations first came from Neerav. He was well versed with the character. I followed his directions and also did a workshop with him for a month.

'We worked on the character and he made me understand it. He told me how he looks at the character and around the same time I was also taking a crash course on DJing.

'All these things really helped me during the shoot,' said the actor, who debuted in Bollywood with the 2008 critically-acclaimed film 'Aamir'.

Khandelwal also revealed that he did not see the original film because he wanted to bring out his own interpretation of the character and not get inspired by anyone.

'I haven't seen the film even though Neerav kept insisting that I should see it. I was a little hesitant. I thought that I may end up taking some inspiration from that character. So I deliberately kept myself away from that film,' he said.

The actor, who took a plunge in films after a successful tenure in TV with his serial 'Kahin Toh Hoga', is all praise for his co-star Soha, who is playing a deaf-mute girl in the film.

'Soha is a fantastic co-actor. She is a wonderful person. Easy, chilled out, cooperative, focussed. Had a great time working with her,' he said.

(Ruchika Kher can be contacted at [email protected])

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