Umrao Jaan was “a challenge” for Abhishek 02nd Nov 2006
21.20 IST
By Nikhil Kumar
To be transported into a different era and to portray a very rare character was a “big challenge” for Abhishek Bachchan in Umrao Jaan .
In the movie, directed and produced by J.P. Dutta , Abhishek plays a nawab with a penchant for poetry. He gets strongly attracted to a courtesan Umrao Jaan, whose story the film is. Aishwarya Rai plays the courtesan.
In the contemporary times, a story set in the Lucknow of 19th century takes the actors into a different time zone altogether.
This is where, Abhishek says, lay the real challenge for his character.
“To get the right body language, right manners and right speech (of the character) was quite a challenge for me,” says Abhishek.
Abhi adds the challenge got daunting particularly because “there was no ready reference-point for the era that we were working on.”
But Abhi credits the movie’s maker, J.P. Dutta, for making things conducive to work.
Dutta shot the film at authentic locations, Royal Havelis of Jaipur and Lucknow. That, Abhi says, aided his performance very much.
RSS
Umrao Jaan was “a challenge” for Abhishek
