'I didn't need any make up'

I play Bindusara, Ashoka's father. Bindusara is son of Chandra Gupta Maurya and the king of Maurya empire.

Although I did a film earlier with Amol Palekar in Marathi and in Hindi, this is my first time I've done something this massive, very mainstream on such a scale.

I've known Santosh Sivan for a while from the time he did the The Terrorist. He's a chap with a quick eye, he knows what he wants, quite remarkable.

An interesting anecdote: The first day of shooting at Filmcity. I had to travel from South Bombay to the suburbs and the traffic held me up. I was in a panic and rushed into the dressing room as soon as I got on the sets, for costumes and make up. Imagine my surprise when I was told I didn't need any make up at all. Because Santosh wanted to capture the real person.

He's someone who does his homework. He is clued in so he doesn't do too many re-takes. Besides his lightening eye has the skill and the craft captures the essence of the moment on screen.

I saw the film when it was screened in Toronto and was extremely pleased with the way it had shaped up.

Since I am used to performing on stage, the language was a problem. But everyone including Shah Rukh helped. Shah Rukh is a very generous actor, he's great to work with. Also the film medium is completely different from the stage. I had to constantly underplay my character.

Gerson Da Cunha spoke to Vivek Fernandes