Abhishek Bachchan: Dasvi and lessons in jail

The actor tackles politics, textbooks and comedy in his new film, Dasvi, but confesses picking up the Haryanvi dialect was the toughest

Self-avowedly reticent and borderline apologetic about his work, Abhishek Bachchan has decided to be totally unapologetic about his latest, Dasvi. Why? Because, for him, it’s more than just a film — and a possible catalyst for change.

When we spoke a few days ago, Bachchan had just watched the social comedy and was visibly excited. “I loved it. It touched me, and that’s what a film should do,” he says. For him, it’s an emotional experience that cannot be quantified or categorised. “You just want to see the movie and live in that world, and I hope it has the same effect on you and your readers,” he adds.

Not one to bracket films, he reluctantly agrees that Bollywood typically makes movies that are either outright entertainers or films with a message. But they should be “a mixture of it all” — entertaining the audience, and enriching them. Dasvi delicately traverses this. To “not put too fine a pun on it”, there’s a “learning” at the film’s end, he says, which is not blatant but done through a very entertaining process.

The film, by debutant director Tushar Jalota, is not a commentary on whether politicians should be educated, but rather the journey of a man who realises that education can open up a world of opportunity. He wants to complete his 10th standard, even if from jail.

Bachchan concedes the difficulty of discussing the film without making it sound preachy, “but it’s really not!” he insists. For the actor, his character Gangaram Chaudhary’s greatest learning is that “you have to change” — you can’t be set in your ways because there is a larger world out there waiting to be discovered. Bachchan, 46, describes the character as a political beast for whom manipulating the system “runs in his blood.” But he’s also a loveable rogue. Ganga is a Jaat, a community that Bachchan knows through the Kabaddi team he owns. “They are rough, tough guys, but very emotional at heart”, a trait he tried to imbibe into his character.

Bachchan’s last couple of films (financial and crime thrillers Bob Biswas and The Big Bull) were intense, so he was looking for something lighter when the role came to him. He has played Ganga in a way that is real and relatable. But bringing the gregarious character to life took some preparation. He spent six to eight weeks working exclusively on body language, and the Haryanvi dialect. The latter was the biggest challenge, he admits, and took two months of training with a coach who was also present on set.

Making Dasvi was a collaborative process. Every scene was rehearsed and thoroughly discussed the night before the shoot. Jalota put a lot of faithin the actors, which, according to Bachchan, is what a director should do. “You’ve hired them for a reason,” he says.