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The art of Xen
Rehaan Engineer reads minds in Rahul Bose's Everybody Says I'm Fine
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He was called a 'fascinating enigma' by critic Noah Cowan at the Toronto
International Film Festival. Another critic Cary Rajinder describes him as drop-dead gorgeous in a review at the London Festival.
Rehaan Engineer hates his mug being all over his debut film posters. Born in Nainital, this Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts graduate from London plays the lead role of Xen in Rahul Bose's Everybody Says I'm Fine which opens July 26 in India.
Here, he speaks to Arti R on life under the arclights:
I studied at St Xavier's College, Mumbai. I was active in theatre before going to London. Rahul (Bose) called me out of the blue and asked me to audition for his film. Having worked with Rahul before, I agreed. I read the script and was so excited by it that I found myself saying yes. But I was not sure if Rahul could come up with the money. Fortunately, he did.
Once I was signed, Rahul wanted me to learn how to cut hair. That was fun, learning to cut hair from Anuradha Yusuf at Scissors Over Combs [a Mumbai salon]. But it was tough keeping track of the schedule, coordinating the scenes that had to be shot with longer hair versus the ones with shorter hair!
We spent 45 days rehearsing. I thought it was too much! But it helped. Paradoxically, even though practice reduces spontaneity, it built a rapport between us. Besides, if you get a script a day before you shoot, there is only that much you can think about it. Acting, playing, thinking and reading for 45 days before we filmed helped me absorb it.
Filming was very tiring. The five weeks were a nightmare. Even though I was coddled beyond belief --- I had a car pick me up first thing in the morning, a chair to sit in the moment I arrived, an umbrella and tea --- the entire process of waiting at the sets for something to happen was tiring.
The tough bit was to have to talk to something that was not there. People used to the stage find this difficult. Rahul manages it quite easily.
As a director, Rahul knows exactly what he wants from his actors, the emotion, the look. He is very specific in terms of what he wants to draw out of you. He is also very encouraging and effusive once the shot is done.
I get tired of directors who tell me to 'just be yourself'. I am an actor. I can be anything my director wants. I cannot just be myself. Though I did have suggestions, I was interested in Rahul's suggestions. I was not interested in portraying the character the way I perceived it, but the way Rahul had. I am not happy with my performance. I think I am crap, but Rahul is thrilled with what I have done. That is all that matters to me.
For me the character I saw on the page excited me. As I have been told before, characters are nothing but words on a page. Even if I played a piano tuner, it would essentially be me. What one can draw on is not yourself, but the character on paper. So, personally, besides learning to cut hair, I did not have much to do.
Koel (Puri) is a good friend from college and an intelligent actress. I have worked with Boman (Irani) and Anahita (Uberoi) earlier. Pooja (Bhatt) was the only person I did not know. But we had such a great time filming that now whenever we meet, all we can talk about is the film.
The reviews I have received do not bother me, because each one views the movie from the formative sensibilities that one has developed. Lots of people liked me, lots of people did not. That was okay. Though my heart broke when someone asked me, "You weren't actually cutting hair, were you?"
At my final year in RADA, I did 16 productions and played all kinds of parts. After serial killer to playing a part in Lenin's era, mind reading was a piece of cake! But I realised in my second year at drama school that I preferred directing over acting. Actors are a self-indulgent lot; always surrounded by people, always being talked about. I am not sure if I want to live like that. I want to live a normal life.
I love being behind the scenes and am actually directing my own little production. We are shooting it in on Digital Video, but I enjoy giving the commands, the screaming and shouting. Ours is not a production that involves large amounts of money, we collected money from people's doors *smiles* and are shooting the film at friends' houses.
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