Janhvi Kapoor on doing Bawaal: 'I've been obsessed with history my whole life'

Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor in Bawaal, which dropped on Amazon Prime Video on July 21, 2023.

After playing an Indian Air Force officer in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, a girl trapped in a freezer in Mili and a naïve drug peddler in Good Luck Jerry, Janhvi Kapoor plays Nisha in Bawaal. In director Nitesh Tiwari’s drama, Kapoor’s Nisha is an educated girl stuck in a loveless marriage whose tanking relationship is resuscitated by a foreign holiday and a history lesson for her husband Ajay (Varun Dhawan). Kapoor spoke about the film and what she learned from the experience of making Bawaal (now on Amazon Prime Video).

Actor Janhvi Kapoor

Why did you want to play the part of Nisha?

First and foremost, because Bawaal was being directed by Nitesh Tiwari. I don't think you need much more of a selling point. Apart from that I just felt that playing Nisha would be a challenge because she's so different from the way I am in real life. On the face of it, because she takes so much, for lack of a better word, crap from her husband, you might perceive her as a weak character. But when I read the script, and when Nitesh sir spoke to me about it, I found Nisha to be extremely strong and courageous with a sort of silent strength and protective of her sense of hope. The kind of person that always takes the high road. For me, she seemed like someone who had morally aspirational qualities, she is much more mature than me and more together. Also, it felt daunting to play someone with epilepsy and to try to understand how that affects a person - psychologically, medically, what happens before and after an episode. All these things made it a very interesting part.

You said she’s unlike you. So then what aspects of her experience or personality were you able to connect with?

I think the thing I could connect to was the sense of hope that Nisha retains. She has her opinions and they're intelligent and educated opinions, but she doesn't feel the need to go screaming what she thinks at every point of time. She's okay letting other people have the last word, but she knows what she stands for. She knows that when push comes to shove, she'll take a stand. I don't know if I'm exactly like that. By nature, I’m a quieter person, especially in new settings. In most scenarios, I just prefer to remain silent and observe. I think that's one quality that's similar to Nisha.

What kind of preparation did you undertake to play someone suffering epileptic seizures?

I did a lot of reading on the internet. I saw a bunch of videos. What I realized is that no two people have the exact same pattern to their episodes. I spoke to a couple of doctors to try to understand the condition medically, what the body goes through before a seizure and how the body recovers after one; what is the feeling. I've listened to a ton of podcasts, watched a ton of YouTube vlogs. We did discuss what route we wanted to take to depict an episode, while also ensuring it’s cinematic. We were all clear about not wanting it to look gimmicky. What was most helpful was to read about the triggers and to understand what it feels like before, during and after.

The story has this historical through-line pivoting around World War II. Have you been interested in history?

I've been obsessed with history my whole life. I would even write essays for my friends. In school I wasn’t so good at other subjects, but History and Literature were my favourites. I was obsessed with World War II and Russian history. When the story of Bawaal was narrated to me, I was actually reading A Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl who was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. It’s a very interesting book and I just felt like everything came together, especially given how this period of history has always intrigued me.

There are so many things going on in the film – Ajay’s priorities, the broken marriage, Nisha’s health condition, a European tour, history lesson, etc. What would you say is the essence of ‘Bawaal’?

There's so much. One major theme is to learn from the past and to understand what history teaches you. I'm a firm believer that history always repeats itself. From Nisha we learn to accept people for who they are and not to give up on love. Another major theme, which I think is most relevant in this day and age is everyone's obsession with image building and propaganda, which has a lot to do with the social media boom. In our industry especially, because PR and propaganda is such a huge part of the game. We're all caught up in it. It takes a lot of courage to just be happy with who you are, value the smaller things in life and not focus too much on projecting an image, because more often than not, that leaves you feeling empty on the inside.

How did you execute the moments of angst and friction between Nisha and Ajju? Did you workshop those scenes or employ other tools?

I think Varun was doing this on his own. On the first schedule, he decided not to interact with me much and not to talk to me much. So, there was that sense of not really knowing this person. There was a kind of distance, which I think was important, because by the second and third schedule, we became quite close. And as two individuals, even in life, we are always rooting for each other. That's also how our characters develop in the second half. But honestly, nothing helps more than having a director with as much clarity as Nitesh Tiwari has. There were a lot of emotionally complicated themes and scenes, but he was so clear about what he wanted, and what route we were taking. If Varun or I wanted to add a beat, he would encourage us to try it out. He was extremely encouraging and had so much faith in our abilities.

What do you think you learned from this film and from playing this part?

I’ve always felt that for my performance to be good and to be at a certain level, I really need to break some bones or bleed or go through some sort of trauma. I think it's some sort of imposter syndrome or me trying to prove something to myself. With Bawaal, it was very simple. It was a fun and enriching journey. I wasn't mentally disturbed after or carrying heavy feelings of trauma. I wasn't having nightmares about being stuck in a fridge nor did I dislocate my shoulders. I was just waking up every day, going on set and working on material that everyone also really believed in. So, my biggest learning was that I don't necessarily have to kill myself for something to land.

Breaking bones?

Yes, for during the shooting of my next release Mr And Mrs Mahi, I dislocated both my shoulders and I sprained my ACL.

What else is coming up?

So besides Mr and Mrs Mahi, I am shooting for Ulajh and then there's Devara, my first south film (Telugu) with NTR Junior. I'm really looking forward to that because I can finally do a singing and dancing character. I'm very excited. It feels like a homecoming.

Also read: Janhvi Kapoor on 'Good Luck Jerry': "I had been dying to do comedy"