In a career spanning almost 30 years, Rohit Bose Roy makes his debut once more — this time in voice work. The actor-director voices the protagonist in the Audible India original Woh Kaun Thi? that combines thrill, murder and horror. A t2 chat with Rohit.
Congratulations for your foray into the audio medium. What is Woh Kaun Thi about?
I am in happy shock that at the age of 50-plus, I am getting to debut in something or the other. I am lucky.
That’s a sign of the times, right? Considering that new avenues are opening up....
Yes, the longevity of an artiste depends on how he keeps himself relevant with the changing times. I had been toying with doing something in theaudio medium for a long time. During the pandemic, I realised how powerful it could be and also a genuine form of entertainment. If you go back in time, India has been a land of audio entertainment. The favourite pastime of any grandmother was to tell stories to their grandchildren. Your life, family or holiday would not be complete without your grandmother coming into your room every night and narrating a story to you, whether it was a fictional story or it was from the Ramayana or the Mahabharata or from any of the scriptures. I feel that the stories we hear in our childhood stay with us all our lives. And now with the coming of the audio medium, it has become so accessible.
I was in Kerala doing a Panchakarma course and I didn’t feel like reading. I would walk for an hour, plug in my earphones and listen to an Audible audio series or a podcast. You get immersed in the story and you become part of it. While listening, my visual senses were not getting taxed and it is very easy to access and consume.
I was looking to start off in the audio medium. In fact, I would love to host a show for radio. Audible being the biggest and the best, when they approach you to do something like a Woh Kaun Thi? which is a very interesting story, it is a win-win.
Woh Kaun Thi? has mystery, drama, horror and thrill. It must have been a challenge voicing multiple genres in one series....
It was. But I have always believed that when you want to learn swimming, you have to push yourself to the deep end of the ocean. That’s the only way you will learn. Woh Kaun Thi? is a difficult series to voice. It’s a multi-layered story. It has got Inspector Vinod’s (voiced by Rohit) personal life. There is a murder trial going on and there is an investigation angle.
Everything had to be pitched correctly. If your voice modulation and your pitching is not correct, then you could be misleading the audience. And I have never done that. My audio series is very clean and clear. If there is something which needs weightage, I have given the weightage through my voice or my modulation But if it is a simple exercise, I will not mislead the audience. It was difficult for me to weigh the pros and cons and do it correctly and not cheat the audience while listening.
Personally, it was very, very difficult for me. But what they have done with it is incredible — the background sound and the effects and all of that. You will feel that you are in that zone, in that place where I have taken you.
And you didn’t have the so-called crutches of the visual medium like gestures and expressions....
It was that challenge that interested me in the first place. I have been a presence on screen for decades now and have been referred to as ‘good-looking’, ‘charming’ and so on. This medium took away that visual charm of Rohit Roy. So what was I left with? My voice, how I can modulate it and how I can communicate the story to you without you seeing it. If that challenge wasn’t there, then it wouldn’t make sense for someone like me who has been around for so long to dabble in the medium. The challenge is the beauty of this medium. It has been a learning curve for me. And when I do the next series for Audible, all the mistakes that I might have made will get corrected and all the positives that I take away from Woh Kaun Thi? will get augmented.
Will this new skill set also help you in front of the camera?
One thousand per cent. There are two mediums which have impacted my performances on screen. One is theatre. I have done two plays which are both just two-actor plays for two hours. The last one I did, called Unfaithfully Yours, was just me and Mona (Singh) singing for two hours and we aged from 27 to 67 in that time period. That challenge of throwing your voice to the last row and making sure 300-400 people are captivated for two hours without a break... those challenges have impacted my performances on screen. I genuinely believe that in the last seven-eight years, my performances have become better than they were in the first phase of my acting career.
Similarly, this audio series experience will help me modulate my voice on screen without having to put in effort because I have already done it. And when you do something for a long time, it becomes second nature. Woh Kaun Thi? may be my debut but it is also a masterclass that I have taken over eight episodes for myself.
Are you a big listener of podcasts?
Huge! Not only podcasts, I listen to books, fiction, non-fiction, spiritual.... I find it very relaxing. When I want to vegetate, I look at television. My brain doesn’t need to work then. But when I am listening to audio, my brain is working. I feel energised and immersed. With this medium, the listener forms his own visuals. There is a blank screen in front of you with a earphone in your ears and you are actually transforming visuals of what your brain is telling you on to that blank screen.
It’s been about three decades for you in the business. How do you look back?
We started Swabhimaan (on Doordarshan) in 1995, so two years short of 30. Oh, gosh, I am old! (Laughs). I have very interesting stories about how little girls used to run home from school to watch Swabhimaan. Those girls have now become mothers and their kids are watching reruns of Swabhimaan! That is something that I will take home when I finally hang up my boots.
In terms of creative satisfaction, what kind of career phase are you in?
I am probably in the most creative part of my career because along with acting and hosting — which have been my bread and butter over the years — I have now gone back to my original passion, which is writing and directing. I have always said I am an actor by accident. I never wanted to be an actor. I got opportunities. I took them because somewhere deep within me, I was enamoured by the profession, by the glitz and glamour and not really by the hard work that goes in.
But once I got it, then I kept working and I didn’t get a break to really follow my passion, which is writing. I am happiest when I am writing and directing. That’s the phase of life I am in now. From 2024, you will see a lot of directorial and writing work from me, whether it’s on OTT or cinema. Television is not something I am looking at doing right now because it’s too much commitment.
Would you look back and say anything to Rohit the actor of 30 years ago?
I would tell the Rohit of that time to stop copying Amitabh Bachchan! I am not a trained actor. The only school that I went to was ‘Amitabh Bachchan Films’. So, as Rishabh Malhotra (his character in Swabhimaan) — which became quite a rage — my right shoulder would droop, my voice modulation was like that of Amitji. I did copy him blindly. And then it became a part of me. Even unknowingly, when I was doing a drunken scene, there would be a little bit of Amitji in it.
In fact, while shooting Swabhimaan, we used to play table tennis with Amitji. And one evening, he told me: ‘I saw your show.. very good!’ And I was like: ‘What?! Amitabh Bachchan telling me my show, my work was very good!’ I was in seventh heaven. At 11.30pm daily, there would be a repeat of Swabhimaan. I went and watched the repeat and I realised that I had done a drunken scene exactly like him. I have never been so embarrassed in my life and I realised he was just being sarcastic.
But I guess all of us were influenced by him. Aamir Khan is a fantastic actor who has never been like anybody else. But in Dil, he did a drunken scene which was exactly like Mr Bachchan. I feel what Allu Arjun has done in Pushpa is all Amitabh Bachchan.