Rahul Bose: Working with Aparshakti Khurana & Ishwak Singh in 'Berlin' was intense

Actor Rahul Bose has worked in over 50 films and TV shows, from 'English, August' (1994) and 'Dil Dhadakne Do' (2015) to now 'Berlin', which released on Zee5 on September 13. Yet when asked about his experience working with actors Aparshakti Khurana and Ishwak Singh in the Hindi spy movie 'Berlin', he said it was "intense". In a video interview to Moneycontrol, Bose spoke about 'Berlin', how he selects projects, his work with the National Sports Federation of Rugby and why he only sleeps four hours a day. Excerpts:

You just have to find the right material. The same laws apply for me as they did 31 years ago when I started. Which is: Do I love the story? Who are my co-actors because you can't act in limbo. Who is the director? What kind of screenplay and dialogue does the story have, and what am I doing in the film? Most important, if my character wasn't there in this film, would this film be the same? Because if it would be the same, then why the hell am I doing it.

Even Manav (in 'Dil Dhadakne Do'), who is not a lead - and I've only played lead roles for most of my life in English, in Hindi, in Bengali, in Tamil - so for me to do Manav, I had to ask myself the question that if Manav did not exist in the story, would the same story survive? And the answer is no. Priyanka's (Rahul Bose played Manav, husband to Ayesha Mehra [Priyanka Chopra Jonas] in the Zoya Akhtar film) crisis is triggered by her problem with her husband and the patriarchy and the pressure that follows after that.

So those are the same rules that apply for me. And I've been very fortunate that in my 52 films, going down the line to 'Split Wide Open', 'Thakshak', 'Everybody Says I'm Fine', 'Mr & Mrs Iyer', 'Chameli', 'Jhankar Beats', 'Pyaar Ke Side Effects', 'Shaurya', and then of course in the Bengali space, in Tamil - 'Vishwaroopam' 1 and 2, I think that all the way up, I kept playing leads and then I got 'Dil Dhadakne Do' and of course 'Bulbbul', I would say would be the last one.

The writing. It's very well written. The silences, the interiority of the characters, a very thrilling plot line where nothing much happens. It's not that you're diving underwater in Sicily one day and then you're snowboarding in Iceland the next day, like a James Bond film. And yet when we asked the audiences in Delhi who saw the film: Did your attention flag for any for any period of time? They all said no.  I think in that respect it's been edited very well.

For me to say yes to a film, it's very, very important that the co-actors have to be good. You can't act alone and these boys are so good. But finally, the clincher for me was that I stopped acting with bad human beings, morally compromised human beings. It just takes too much of a toll on my soul. These boys are lovely, Apar, Ishwak, they're good people.

Aparshakti Khurana in 'Berlin', set in Delhi in November 1993, four years after the Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989. (Image courtesy Zee5)

It was intense, it was cooperative, it was collaborative. There was enormous amount of trust, but it was intense. There is no funny moment of the sets of Berlin. It was fun, but it wasn't funny.

No, never. And Atul is not a very communicative person. He is not the most gregarious person on the planet. So you just have to engage in conversations of the kind that really get him to start talking, and we had great communication - Atul and I. We were on the same, and even if we weren't on the same page, it took us very little time to get on the same page. He knows what he wants. He's clear. And that's a big blessing in a director for an actor.

No, it wasn't my India. This Intelligence Bureau, Brutalist buildings, it wasn't my India. My '90s were acting in 'English, August', you know. Acting in the 'Split Wide Open', acting in 'Thakshak'. My '90s were... I was in my 20s and I had quit advertising. It was just a brilliant moment of freedom and finally doing what I absolutely wanted to do since the age of 6. It was lovely. I had a wonderful girlfriend at the time, and we had a fantastic relationship. It was great. The '90s were fantastic.

To capture that time is not enough. To capture a sliver of the sociocultural milieu of the time is what he (writer-director Atul Sabharwal) has done. It's a sliver and it's all unsaid, but it is governmental. It is bureaucratic and it speaks of the time that these were the buildings that carried power. They probably still are. In fact, one of the buildings was the NDMC building. He (Atul) was telling us where we were not allowed to shoot, so the exterior (shots) were taken and then we shot the interiors in Bhopal, at the Institute of Forestry.

I think that the environment in which you are filming a film makes a big difference. Are you in the middle of a mustard field under a blue sky in Switzerland? Or are you in a Brutalist building where you can hear the echo of footsteps on the corridor outside? And everything is very unforgiving. So, yeah, it helps a lot.

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So, it's the National Sports Federation of Rugby. It's not a foundation, it's the Indian Rugby Football Union, IRFU, also known as Rugby India. We are the ones who control the sport of the country. We are affiliated to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the Ministry of Sports, Asia Rugby, World Rugby and I'm the President. I was elected three years ago, and I have another year in my term. Forty percent of India plays rugby, but nobody knows about it. Our women are ranked number 9 or 10 in Asia depending on which ranking you look at. We have an Olympic dream for 2032 Brisbane, to be the next sports team in India's history to make the Olympics after hockey, which is the only team that's made the Olympics in the last 70 years. So lots to do, lots happening. In the next two to three years, rugby will be among the top 5 sports top of mind of Indian kids across the country. It will happen.

Direction. I'm directing a film. And I have written a new script. The best compliment I got (for it) was somebody said this can't be written by you, and I said why, and they said because it is just too funny. It is too much of fun. It's bizarre, it's crazy and it's funny and you're not bizarre, crazy or funny. And I said, maybe you don't know me well enough.

I sleep less.

What to do? We are developing a world-class property for rugby in India, and I was sleeping from 5:00 in the morning to about 9:00 in the morning. I work from 10 to about 7 in the evening and then have a one-hour nap. And then we keep working till about 11 and then train... and then sleep at 4:30-5 (am).

I think our conversations offset were introspective. I can't say confessional, but quality conversations. Apar, Ishwak and I have quality conversations: very rich and wonderful. Even with Atul, it was great.

I can't. But even if I could, I wouldn't. But I can't at this point, I can't remember. I know there were conversations about life, about family, about personal dreams and missions, about the kind of markers we set for ourselves as human beings, moral markers. Most important, (we) never discuss money, never discuss success, never discuss other people. Yeah, it was very, very special.