Neeraj Kabi explains why he did not use the hotel bed to rest at night

Neeraj Kabi was in the City of Joy to attend the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival. He took part in an acting Masterclass. While talking to his audience, Neeraj explained how he got into the character of Mahatma Gandhi in Shyam Benegal’s series Samvidhan for Rajya Sabha TV. 

Their unit was situated in the Taj Hotel at Jaipur for the outdoor schedule. But every day, when the hotel staff came to clean Neeraj’s room, they found the bed neatly tucked. If there was anyone living in the room, they wondered before realising that the actor was not using the bed to get into the character. 

According to Neeraj, research about a person is the most important thing if you want to play them on the screen. Then, it is also necessary to live as the person lived. “Otherwise, the character may be incomplete on screen. I used to wake up at 5 am every day. Then, after the prayer, I did Bhajan and worked with the spinning wheel. Gandhiji used to sleep on the floor. I also put a towel on the floor and slept on it. Every day the hotel staff came to clean the room and got startled. There was no need to clean. There was a towel and a spinning wheel at one end of the room, and I used to study Gandhi on my laptop--that was my job during the shooting,” he said. Not only that, Neeraj used to eat boiled food and turned to completely vegetarian food during the shooting. 

Neeraj told another story. The press conference of Samvidhaan was going on in the Rajya Sabha in Delhi. The journalists asked the director to show them the actor playing Gandhi. Neeraj said, “That time, I kept long hair and a beard for the film Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!. The journalists just did not recognize me. They rather expressed their surprise about Neeraj's casting for the character. Shyam Benegal told them that, after the series gets released, they would understand who played the role,” he said.