Sacred Games cast expresses frustration over Vikram Motwane’s direction, teases season 2

The supporting actors of Netflix’s first Indian original series, Sacred Games—Jitendra Joshi, Kubbra Sait, Neeraj Kabi, Rajshri Deshpande and Jatin Sarna—sat for a roundtable interview with journalist Rajeev Masand recently They spoke about their experiences on the show and what fans could expect from the future.

Speaking about the challenges of working under two directors—Sacred Games’ two timelines were directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap—Sarna, who plays Bunty in the show, said that it would often get frustrating to perform for Motwane. The Lootera director doesn’t emote on set, the actor said, and Sarna would often be left clueless as to whether or not he was delivering a good performance.

Sarna compared the more exuberant and improvisational Kashyap to the more subdued Motwane. “It becomes very difficult for an actor,” he said, “‘please say something, sir.’” He said that he had to turn to assistants for any feedback on his performance, because he wasn’t getting any from Motwane. “Will this man (Motwane) ever say anything?” Sarna said he’d ask the ADs. “With Anurag sir it was fun.”

Previously, Saif Ali Khan, who plays the co-lead Sartaj Singh on the show, had hinted that Motwane would not direct the second season of the show, because perhaps the pressure of showrunning had got to him. “It might be a little premature to say, but I don’t think he’s directing the second season,” Saif said, hinting that someone ‘quite exciting’ might be brought on board for that role. “I think he was under so much pressure that he didn’t have any fun,” Saif said.

Neeraj Kabi, who plays the crooked cop Parulkar in the show, chimed in. “There is also a nice advantage to this kind of direction that I’ve found, is that when the director is not talking to you at all there’s another side to it that you can explore deeper.” He said that to push Motwane into a reaction, he would make drastic choices with his character only to see what the director’s breaking point was. “That’s what get you excited,” he said.

Sarna said that it took him three or four days for him to get a reaction out of Motwane, who came and grabbed his arm after a take, which was when Sarna knew that he’d done well.

Joshi, who plays fan favourite character Katekar, said that Motwane told him to improvise his character’s death scene. “But what should I do?” Joshi remembers asking. After a few rehearsals, Joshi said that they found the version they would shoot, and surprised even Saif with the performance, but didn’t get a ‘good job’ from Motwane. “On my last day, he came over and hugged me for three minutes,” Joshi said. “When I see the love and praise Katekar is getting now, that is Vikram Motwane.”

The cast also spoke about plans for future seasons, despite most of their characters being dead. Sarna confirmed that Bunty would appear in season 2, and so did Kabi. Meanwhile Sait hoped for a flashback appearance.

Saif has said that there are four seasons of eight episodes each planned for Sacred Games’ future.

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First Published: Aug 07, 2018 16:20 IST