Abir Chatterjee and Rukmini Maitra share a delightful camaraderie. From pulling each other’s leg to comparing their dimples, they can leave a room full of people in splits in no time! This camaraderie gets reflected on screen too! We chat with Abir and Rukmini for their November 13 big-screen release Switzerland directed by Sauvik Kundu.
How is the feedback from the trailer and the songs?
Rukmini: It has been fantastic! We as a team are very happy. Rumi, my character, is a modern Bengali woman. The love that my character has received post the trailer release is beyond belief. I had given a nod to this film because I knew something like this would happen. Switzerland is such a relatable piece of content. Everyone from eight to 80 would connect. People have also warmly welcomed me and Abir as a pair on screen, though it is our first film together.
Abir: The way people have spent these few months, I think, they are looking for something that will give them that positive energy. People can connect to the struggles and aspirations of the characters on screen. It is a story of a family. Every family has their dreams and aspirations which they try to balance within their means.
Rukmini: The reason why audiences loved the Switzerland trailer is because it is such a breath of fresh air, a ray of hope and a sign of positivity.
Abir, Switzerland is releasing on November 13. Your birthday is on November 18. What are your birthday plans?
Abir: I normally don’t celebrate my birthday...
Rukmini: But he will give a return gift to me, a ticket to Switzerland!
Abir: I can only give you a return gift when I get a gift!
Rukmini: Areh, I am like those bad guests who come and look at which is the biggest packet (laughs)!
Abir: But really I don’t celebrate my birthday. But there are people who come with cakes and gifts. But this time I have told them strictly not to come, to avoid a gathering. Otherwise every year my wife Nandini and I go somewhere. But this time I am not sure if that will happen. But if we see that around that time people are going to the cinema halls and they are liking it, if we can make people smile a little and make them happy for a while, that would be my best birthday. But I would like to add that I would love to get birthday gifts! Hello Rukmini!
Rukmini: Next question please!
Abir: I love to get cakes.
So, what gift is Rukmini planning for Abir this year?
Rukmini: I have gifted him (Shibu, Abir’s character) two little daughters through this film (laughs)! But now that we are a pair, hashtag on screen, some birthday gifts are better kept a secret!
Abir: I am very good with secrets!
Rukmini: Yeah, so we will keep it private (laughs)!
Rukmini, how did you spend your birthday on June 27?
Rukmini: To begin with, a big t2 article! I stepped out of my house for the first time on my birthday. I had a really quiet dinner with my mom and a couple of my friends. But I got loads of presents. I said even if you can’t reach me, you send me the presents. I will sanitise and I will keep it (laughs)!
How did it feel when you stepped out to dub during the pandemic?
Rukmini: Abir was done with his dubbing right before the lockdown. I actually get a little apprehensive sometimes about certain things, so when I learnt about the virus, I was the one carrying sanitiser and spraying...
Abir: Don’t lie. This has got nothing to do with you knowing the virus coming into India. You had OCD and so you did that…
Rukmini: No, I was the first one to tweet on March 2 about this...
Abir: She is talking about March 2. In January, I have seen her sanitising things. And after lockdown when we went for dubbing I was telling my director that we have pulled her leg so much that now we are all having to do it!
Rukmini: (Laughs) Yeah, he is right... I have a tendency to sanitise everything.
Abir and Rukmini. Pabitra Das
What does the word Switzerland represent in the film?
Rukmini: Switzerland represents the dreams. Switzerland is not only the journey of Rumi and Shibu and their family to Switzerland. That is the reason why I feel everyone will relate to it because it is a story of dreams and hopes.
Abir: It is about how we compromise on our priorities. We have seen people do that. They do a kind of trade off. They are happily married and well settled but this dream is slightly beyond their means. Questions come up... can you forego your integrity and honesty for chasing the dream? I love the treatment of the film.
Rukmini: Switzerland is about how far you will go to bridge the gap and pay the price. It is the story of an ordinary man held up in an extraordinary form on celluloid that is nothing less of a spectacle.
What does the word Switzerland mean to you?!
Rukmini: Toblerone! I like to eat and I love to travel. Of course it is Shah Rukh Khan... arms stretched out. It is romance. For me Switzerland is romance and Toblerone. But henceforth Switzerland will be synonymous with Rumi and Shibu!
Abir: In small ways, we have also paid tribute to Shah Rukh Khan in the film.
Rukmini, you are working with Abir for the first time. What was your screen impression of him before the shoot?
Abir: This is my favourite question!
Rukmini: I had seen some of his works before. The first impression was that he is very good at what he does and he knows exactly what he is doing. I felt that he would be very serious because I have not had much interaction with him before. I always felt he will be that big dadamoshai on set, very serious! But he is not that. Once the ice was broken, his image shattered! And we were actually having a lot of fun and he is equally fun as me (laughs)!
Abir: If not more!
Rukmini: Most definitely not! He is actually very chill. We all know how good an actor he is. I had to really pull up my socks. Abir came on set without any form of baggage. And he was willing to help not only me but also our director. So, I think, more than what Abir and I shared on screen that people see as chemistry, it is the off-screen camaraderie that we share as Abir and Rukmini, and I think that explains it.
Abir: Before the shoot she was pulling her socks but once the shoot started she was pulling my leg (laughs)!
Abir, how was your experience of working with Rukmini?
Abir: I was surprised to know that she has said yes to the film. But once she was in, I noticed that she is very prepared. Her preparation method is probably different from mine. But when the shooting started it was good to see a young actor like her to be very prepared and dedicated towards her goal. I think she is really good. But she doesn’t believe me!
Rukmini: I think he is always sarcastic (laughs).
Abir: If I tell her that she is good, then she doesn’t believe me and if I say otherwise then she gets angry. What will I do?
Rukmini: Yeah! I told you nah, our next film will be dimple twins!
In both the songs we see you dancing. Any fun anecdotes from the shoot of those two songs?
Abir: Even now I say I am not comfortable dancing, I also tried to convince my director, choreographer that it doesn’t suit my character. But I couldn’t escape. Dancing is all about enjoying. And it is great to see that people are loving it. For an actor it gives us pleasure if we can mould and break our image to entertain people. But it doesn’t mean I will do it again.
Tell us about Shibu and Rumi and what was the most challenging part about playing these roles?
Rukmini: The only mutual point which Rumi and Rukmini had is they both had their heart in the right place and for both of them their families always come first. I did a three-four day workshop with Sohini Sengupta to get into the skin of the character. The house where we were shooting, Rumi and Shibu’s house, I went there four days before the shoot and spent three days in that house just to feel that it was my own. I feel every actor brings their own into the character and that is exactly what I did.
Abir: I wouldn’t say that I had challenges but I loved the role of Shibu, who is the boy next door but at the same time he is someone who knows what is right and wrong and will stick to it. He goes through a mundane life but when the challenges come he does certain things that are not possible to do for ordinary people... there are action, chase, song-and-dance sequences. At one point he is very vulnerable; the very next moment he is actually supporting the family.
Rukmini: I think the biggest challenge for me was, I didn’t feel it but a lot of people told me that at such a nascent stage of my career I picked the role of a mainstream heroine playing the mother of two. Everyone was asking me to rethink, but I think the audience is intelligent and evolved. They need to see real, relatable stories. I thought if I can convince them that this character exists and I am Rumi, it doesn’t matter if I am a mother of two or not. I believe content is king and once the audience is engaged in your story, nothing else matters. It is a risk I took for my career but what is a life without risks?
Rukmini, from Jaya (Chaamp) to Rumi, how has the journey been?
Jaya to Rumi, it has been three years long. It has been a learning experience and I feel that I am still learning and I am grateful that all my directors have come to me with very prominent characters and scripts. I have always picked something that thrilled me, excited me and made me feel there is a quirk factor to it. I did films that I want to watch and I am grateful that people understand that for me my script is my hero. So the journey in respect to my scripts has been great and I hope to continue that.
Abir, five years ago you had told us, “the audience’s taste has changed. The making and content must change from time to time”. What are your thoughts on the new Bengali cinema? What changes do you feel should take place now?
I could have given a more simple answer if it was a pre-Covid situation. If we look at the last three years, all the films that did well at the box office, 97 per cent are content related. However, people are now more comfortable watching web content on their laptop or mobile. But cinema will be there, it has a long history. But we have this tendency to over-intellectualise cinema or theatre. The same audience sees a Hindi film with an open mind but a Bengali film with a very critical mind. We should take ourselves a little less seriously. The fun factor is missing a bit.
Changes are happening. But now we are going through a historical change, we also have to shape our content like that but now it is too early to comment on that.
Switzerland will be releasing during a pandemic in cinema halls.
Rukmini: The biggest truth that we understand right now is that the show must go on and secondly, man is a social animal. The last few months have been difficult but it has been a learning experience. In this new normal people are getting back to offices, parlours, restaurants, why not theatres? In comparison to other public places, I think theatre is providing the maximum amount of safety precautions.
Abir: Yes, absolutely. We have now understood the priorities of life. One is to survive and next is to live. You are working and all but after a point you will feel that you need something that will give you the energy to wake up next morning to go to work with all the risks. This is where cinema, theatre, music, books come in.
