The wickedness of fraud Kashipur Waale Baba Nirala (Bobby Deol) may have left many in shock but the ruthess Bhopa Swami (Chandan Roy Sanyal) holds his ground with equal aplomb. His matter of fact way of silencing opposers, his calm persona in the face of intense decision making that is in most cases a matter of life & death and overall, his relentless dedication to the Aashram as the right hand man of Kashipur Waale Baba Nirala is getting tremendous acclaim.
We decided to bring our readers the story of the man who plays the unscrupulous Bhopa in the much loved crime drama – Aashram and here’s what he had to say:
On being asked about how was he approached for the role Chandan says “Almost a year and half ago, I was approached by Prakash Jha Productions for this role and was told that I would be playing the righthand henchman of a diabolic Baba that is being portrayed by Bobby Deol. As part of my briefing, I was asked to grow my hair, work on an accent with a dialect teacher Sunitaji, a few script reading sessions and I was ready to slip into the role of Bhopa – the cool headed, efficient, conniving and ruthless front for the equally obnoxious Baba.”
Chandan says the only other briefing he got from director Prakash Jha was that he was asked not to overdo anything which is exactly how he likes to play his characters. Elaborating – he said, “Villains generally come across as larger than life characters, waving about their guns and throwing abuses. I wanted to lend grace to Bhopa Swami – he’s so powerful that he doesn’t need to be dramatic about himself.”
The sensitivity of the role and the otherwise controversial topic also appealed to him, he said, “I am playing a crook in this MX Original Series and the role is such that if I had played it wrong, I would have faced a lot of wrath of the audience because it’s about their faith and spiritual beliefs.”
On the corrupt practices as shown in this 9 part crime drama, Chandan says, “It’s important to have a show that reminds people to have faith but not be blind to exploitative behaviour. These people are preying on the faith of simple believers and it’s important to understand the difference between real spiritual guides and crooks who are cheating people in the garb of spirituality.”
Really happy with the torrents of praise coming his way, Chandan compliments the whole team for the mega success of Aashram Chapter 2 – The Dark Side, that can be streamed for FREE exclusively on MX Player.