Admitting that she said yes to Anurag Basu’s Metro… In Dino without hearing the story, Fatima Sana Shaikh on how her approach to projects has changed in the past two years
Fatima Sana Shaikh
The way Fatima Sana Shaikh was offered Metro… In Dino could be a scene straight out of one of Anurag Basu’s slice-of-life films — imagine the lead character getting an all-important phone call, but being unable to hear anything due to poor network. “When Dada [Basu] called to talk about Metro, he started describing the story and my character. Because of poor network, I could hardly hear him. I could only catch random words like ‘this girl, that boy’. So, I kept saying, ‘Hmmm,’” laughs Shaikh, as she recalls the episode. At the end of the patchy call, she agreed to do the film. She explains, “I didn’t need a narration. With him, you surrender.”
(From left) Ali Fazal and Fatima Sana Shaikh in Metro... In Dino
This faith comes from having worked with Basu on Ludo (2020). That was enough for Shaikh to know that the filmmaker doesn’t waste his actors. That’s one of the reasons he could put together the impressive ensemble cast — Neena Gupta, Anupam Kher, Konkona Sensharma, Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Aditya Roy Kapur, and Sara Ali Khan — for Metro... In Dino. “Big or small, all his characters have depth. He never wastes an actor. Also, he won’t mislead you, saying, ‘Itna bada character hai.’ He is honest,” says Shaikh.
Anurag Basu
What adds to the joy is the director’s unusual way of shooting that relies on actors’ spontaneity. “We went to the set and discovered the story. It’s not that he doesn’t have a script. He chooses not to share it because he doesn’t want his actors to read it so many times that their performance gets set.”
Shaikh was last seen in Sam Bahadur (2023). In the last two years, the actor has not only shot for multiple projects, but also become more “open”. “Earlier, I wasn’t very confident as an actor. So, I was apprehensive to take up women-led stories. I feared that I may not be able to shoulder them. Now, my approach
has changed. I think about how much fun it would be to play a character that is out of my depth.” She has also become clearer about what to reject. “If the character is vanilla, no matter how good the film is, I say no. I’ve turned down big films because I felt the character was one-note. What’s the point of doing projects if I’m not growing as an actor?”
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