MUMBAI: It’s not very often directors want to appear before the camera, though there are some master strokes we have seen, most fresh in our memory of Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra’s small, but apt cameo in ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ as a pilot navigating his team through turbulent weather.
What happens most often, as seen in the cameos of Subhash Ghai in his films is that his fleeting presence as a passing common barely registers.
This ‘surprise’ element is often kept under wraps.
Could the team of ‘Satyagraha’ not hide the fact that their ‘suprise’ element of Prakash’s Jha’s appearance in the film, in a small, but key role is worthy of an ‘aha’ moment?
The cat is out of the gunny sack…
Filmmaker Prakash Jha is not limiting himself to being behind the camera for his upcoming directorial offering, ‘Satyagraha’, based on a mass movement against corruption. He will be seen in a cameo role in the film. Prakash Jha is likely to have a small presence in the film, but the character he plays will be pivotal to the mass movement and the politics happening around it.
This won’t be Jha’s first acting experience. He was seen essaying a small role in ‘Aarakshan’ but chose to keep away from ‘Chakravyuh’.
Talking about his dedication as an actor, the source says, “He made the assistant director of the film take charge of the sequence. He spent almost four hours before he locked the final shot.”
Not only that, he has roped in someone else who isn’t bitten by the acting bug. Besides Jha, the screenplay writer of ‘Satyagraha’, Anjum Rajabali, will also be seen in the sequence. Anjum has been working with Jha since ‘Apaharan’.
Though this is his first acting stint for Jha’s film, he has faced the camera before. He has appeared in films like ‘Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love,’ ‘Ghajini’ and ‘Turning 30’.
Prakash Jha thought Anjum would be perfect for the character he has sketched and getting Anjum on board wasn’t difficult. A case of screen-writer fitting the part he writes, we think.
Satyagraha releases this Friday, Aug 30. In the multi-starcast space of the film, we hope to spot them two, now that we know their ‘secret’.
