‘Freedom at Midnight’ actor Rajendra Chawla on why ‘Lakshmi Niwas’ mirrors his real-life journey and personal memories. The actor shared how it took him years to build his own home
Rajendra Chawla
He saves every penny for his family’s future — food on the table, education for his children, and a permanent roof over their heads. That’s the quintessential Indian middle-class father, whose struggles are universally relatable. For Rajendra Chawla, this emotional reality hits especially close to home. Playing Srinivas, a middle-class father who spends decades trying to build a home for his wife and five children in the new daily soap Lakshmi Niwas, is a journey the actor deeply understands. “My character of Srinivas is just like me,” he says. In a candid conversation with mid-day, Chawla explains how his father became his biggest inspiration for the role, his process of portraying Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and why TV storytelling often needs to be melodramatic and loud.
Excerpts from the interview.
Srinivas feels like every middle-class dad. Is there a way you tried to make it more realistic?
My character Srinivas is like me, so I didn’t have to follow anyone. [Like in the show], during conversations with my two daughters, arguments do happen, but it’s not that negative. I think I have become like my father with time. We were seven siblings, the responsibilities that he undertook is what I am doing. I have taken inspiration from my father and myself.
Rajendra Chawla as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in ‘Freedom at Midnight’
Does any specific scene remind you of your father?
No specific incident, but I do recollect that this habit of doing everything for the family’s happiness comes from my father. He got six of us married before he left, he also helped people [in the community] to get married, never expecting anything in return, nor did he impose his importance, and people respected him for that. Maybe the situations in this story are different from my real life, but the core emotion is the same, which I believe gets translated onscreen. I am also someone who lives for my wife and kids, and their better future. Of course, there are disagreements, but we discuss and move on. Like Srinivas and Lakshmi, no matter the issue, parents will not abandon their kids. They’ll reprimand them, but there is no hatred. That’s the core plot.
How was your journey to buying your first house?
It took 20 years of struggle to realise that dream and build my own home. It was my father who took me to the bank to open a Fixed Deposit (FD) account of Rs 11,000; it was a huge amount back then. I was shocked to say the least, but he told me that he was not giving me the money, instead he was injecting a habit of saving with this. I got used to doing it over the years. It was with those FDs that I finally bought my house.
Rajendra Chawla and Manasi Joshi Roy in ‘Lakshmi Niwas’
Considering you have experienced both OTT and TV, how do you keep the balance between melodrama and realistic performances?
It feels like there is a lot of melodrama on TV because the people watching it [face] ample distractions during an episode. From the doorbell ringing, children crying, to neighbours fighting, it is all happening when the show is airing. To cut across all that noise, you have to use a higher decibel. That is what TV is doing, woh haq se, chillake, kahaani batane ki koshish kar rahi hai. For OTT and films, people take time out and watch with the right mindset. That’s why TV is loud. We love larger than life stories in South movies, stunts that you know are not humanly possible, like people flying in the air with one kick or cars flying; we reward them with Rs 1000 crores at the box office because we love watching it. Then why do we complain when TV does something that is [over-the top]?
Underplaying a scene for the sake of underplaying is a crime for me. Now we are overacting the underplay. You have to understand the background of the character, where he/she hails from. When someone dies in a slum dweller’s family, his/her reaction cannot be the same as someone from the affluent society. Your expressions depend on the personality, education, and surroundings the character has grown up with. In addition to that, we are Indians, our emotions are anyway 10 per cent higher. Our dadis cried by beating their chest, that was not over-the-top, that is reality.
What do you focus on to portray a character like Srinivas or Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in ‘Freedom at Midnight’ — body language, voice, psychology?
Srinivas is inspired by my father and myself. When you think of your father, you will remember his mannerisms, the way walks and talks, it’s something in our core memory, and comes naturally when you play a similar character. As for Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, there isn’t much footage about him in the public domain. We only saw a few public speeches, and I tried to imbibe his body language as much as I could. Nikkhil Advani’s [director] diktat was to make the characters human. They may be larger than life now, but when you play them, you can’t put them on that pedestal. Sardar and Ironman were tags bestowed on him, it was not created by him.
What scares you more today — being irrelevant or being repetitive?
Both actually. Repetitive because in the industry that is a format. People have done over [100-200] films in similar types of roles, in fact, sometimes the audience also wants to see them in those same avatars. It is now that things are changing where realistic cinema has got commercial viability. But it was the need of that time and many [senior] actors have done that throughout their career. I don’t know if I have done good or bad in a role, but I have always been truthful and that I believe reflects on screen.
Another season for ‘Freedom at Midnight’?
Rajendra Chawla shares that the series was based on Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre’s book. “The series ended where the book did. The story was concluded in 1948.”
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