Every character that the actors play in a film comes with its set of demands and challenges. For Banita Sandhu too, it was not an easy ride for her role as Shiuli in October. In fact, for Banita, it was a bigger challenge especially since she wasn’t familiar with Hindi and this was her debut film.
In an exclusive interview with HotFridayTalks.com, Banita who has given an outstanding performance as Shiuli in October shares all the challenges she had to face for her role as Shiuli.
Banita says she had never in her wildest dreams thought she would be acting in a Bollywood film some day. “I never thought I would be able to give justice as a Hindi film actor because of the language barrier. I am from a completely different culture, so outside that world. I have a very strong British accent so I never thought I would be able to overcome that barrier.
I only came to India to do some ads. I knew nothing about this film, All I knew for sure was that Shoojit Sircar was directing it and that was enough for me and despite the language barrier or all the scepticism I may have had beforehand, I knew that I was in such safe hands, all of that completely went away and I knew I had to do this film. I could not say no to it!” says Banita.
Image Credit: Pinterest
Among the many things that Banita had to do for the film, the most challenging or heartbreaking was to chop off those lovely long tresses of hers. For her role as Shiuli, director Shoojit Sircar needed her to cut her hair off and wanted no wigs since he believes in making relatable realistic cinema. Banita literally controlled her tears while Shoojit and the hairdresser chopped off her hair!
Catch Banita’s reaction behind the scenes while Shoojit and the hairdresser cut her hair off!
Another huge challenge Banita had to overcome was the language barrier. Banita who has been raised in the UK has a very strong British accent and spoke no Hindi at all. So for her to be debuting in a Hindi film and not knowing the language was a huge barrier. But Banita overcame that too!
Banita says, “I was worried initially because I was in university and I had promised my parents I would get a degree so there was no way I could pack my bags and come to Mumbai to learn the language. So I called Shoojit sir and told him I didn’t know what to do.Since I was offered the role well in advance so I had time in hands and so we came up with the idea to Skype back and forth every day, even if the conversation was in English. To hear the accent even that helped quite a bit. When I came on set, I was the only British person, everyone else was speaking in Hindi so you learn and adapt. Now I can pretty much understand, though I am not very confident about speaking. When I signed I didn’t want someone to dub me because there was so much more to the performance than what I say.”
Image Credit: Movie – October
Post-October, Banita is more comfortable with Hindi and Hindi films. “There’s this misconception that all Bollywood films are all about singing and dancing, glitz and glamour but that’s not what it is anymore. So I think, for the digital era that we live in now, a foreign language films for a predominantly English speaking audiences are not a barrier anymore if the content is good there is no reason why a British audience can’t watch a Hindi film.Look at Netflix, we have French, Spanish, and films in every other language so films should be out there as well,” says Banita.
After her exceptional performance in October, we sure hope to see more of Banita in Bollywood!
Read Also: October Movie Review: Touches Your Heart And Soul
