Kalki Koechlin in Dev D

Born in India to French parents, theatre actor Kalki Koechlin makes her screen debut as Chanda, the new Chandramukhi, in Anurag Kashyap’s take on Devdas, Dev D, releasing this Friday. t2 caught up with the actress who also happens to be Anurag’s girlfriend...

Just a couple of days to go for the release of your first film. How do you feel?

Aaahhh... I feel tired and stressed... You know all this going around and giving interviews and making appearances... It’s something I am not used to at all. So, I guess, I have to deal with this because this is part of movie-making now. Anurag (sitting next to her) is just laughing (laughs)....

What has the response been to the trailers of Dev D because they have been anything but regular?

People are extremely curious about the film. And people who don’t even watch alternative films and stuff are keen to check it out. All sorts of people have been coming up and asking me about the movie. It’s looking really exciting. From the trailers, everyone’s thinking it’s like Requiem for a Dream and Moulin Rouge. It’s got people interested.

Would you classify Dev D as alternative cinema?

I think it’s definitely alternative in the way it’s been shot and styled. It’s not at all like a commercial Bollywood film as we know it. But at the same time, it’s Devdas, a story everyone knows. Something everyone can relate to. Plus it’s got an amazing soundtrack, which carries the film through. So, those two factors — the story and the music — should work in Dev D’s favour to make it a commercial film. But you know... it’s always going to be an Anurag kind of film (laughs).

So much of your character in the film has been sourced from real-life events like the Delhi Public School MMS. Did you do any kind of research for the role?

For the MMS scandal, I did research on the Internet, reading up on all the media work that had been done at that time. So I found out what happened to not only the girl but to the whole family. They got so much attention they wanted to move to Canada... they couldn’t take the attention and the judgement... they couldn’t lead a normal life after that. So I read up on all that. Then since my character of Chanda is a prostitute, I had to watch a lot of films. Anurag gave me a lot of world movies, on strong women characters, not only prostitutes. I remember I watched Brittany Murphy’s role in Sin City. Then a Spanish film about a prostitute who is also a mother and how she balances the two jobs. So, a lot of movies and doing research on the Internet.

How do you look at Chanda? How has the character finally shaped up?

It is a journey of self-discovery. Something happened to her when she was still a teenager. It was that one mistake that almost dictated her life because of the way people saw her after that. She is very young in the film. She is 17-18 years old. Someone going through so much at such a young age and not having a family or anything... how do you deal with it? It’s just a normal person’s life in a very unconventional situation.

What is Chanda’s equation with Dev because the Devdas-Chandramukhi relationship is stuff of legends?

When Dev leaves Paro and is going through this phase of self-destruction, he finds in Chanda a mirror to himself. For the first time he finds someone who is as angry as him, who like him is covering up and pretending to be someone else. She is his match and that is the initial attraction that he has for her. They fight... for the first time, here’s a woman who tells him to f**k off!

Is there too much sex in the film?

The way the film has been promoted it is sexualised. In the trailers it is showing moments which are the most sexual in the film. I guess that will attract the young audience and the urban crowds. I also feel when you watch the movie, it’s really not about sex so much. Each of these characters are very confident about their sexuality. After that it is more about their attitude and what they want out of life. It’s showing the young people of India today... how on the one hand you come from a very conservative background and on the other you have all these influences from the west. On the one hand you have a girlfriend but your parents don’t know about her. That’s how we live here. Those clashes are very much there in the film, something young Indians can relate to very much.

How significant is Dev D in Anurag’s body of work?

What I like about Anurag’s work is that no film of his is the same. He takes a risk and does it, which is really interesting. That’s much better than directors who are too clever and make the same kind of films to make money. Dev D is definitely a more commercial film than any of his previous films. And it’s definitely easy to understand. It’s not like a No Smoking. It is different but is also his most commercial.

That you two started seeing each other during the making of Dev D, did that help you perform better?

I don’t think it had anything to do with it. Doing my work was doing my work and this was... (laughs)...

And is your favourite track Emosional atyachar as well?

(Laughs) No, it’s Nayan tarse. I like Emosional atyachar but I love Nayan tarse...

What are your first impressions about Kalki?
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