5000 Theatre Actors Substitute For Junior Artistes In Prakash Jha's Political Rally Scenes

Prakash JhaIt's an unheard -of  screen phenomenon. For  his  intense political drama  Rajniti   w in Bhopal Prakash Jha  hired  and trained   5000 theatre  actors  to play the  participants  in  various political rallies.

Grins  the  gritty  political filmmaker, "Bhopal  has turned  into a  city  of  rallies. We'll be  shooting    rallys with Nana Patekar, Manoj  Bajpai  , Arjun Rampal, Naseer..all the  actors who  play politicians.  The  rally spectators,  all  5000 of them were  raised, selected and trained  by  us in a workshop  over  a gruelling period   seven years."

To ensure the  the local Madhya Pradesh  citizens  do  not  protest about  the hiring of  the unit's work force  from  outside  their state, Prakash cannily  culled   the entire 5000-strong  assemblage of actors exclusively  from   Madhya Pradesh.

Says  Prakash,  "If we  had hired  ordinary crowds we   wouldn't have  got  the  energy    of a real political   rally  . These actors playing  participants  in  rallies were  selected  from  Jabalpur, Satna, Indore, Ujjain, Gwalior  and other cities  of Madhya Pradesh. They are all  from street   theatre, local and folk theatre.  We  selected them and  put them under  rigorous  worskshop.  Now we've brought  them  down  to   Bhopal   , made arrangements  for  their boarding and lodging and we're shooting  with them. Our unit  is  quite   used  to working  with crowds."

Prakash  chose Bhopal  in lieu of   India's political  capital where shooting a sensitive  political film would have been  an  impossibility.

Says  Prakash,  "Bhopal  is  a  beautiful city  . And needed a  Hindi-speaking capital  city.  Earlier Ismail Merchant's  In Custody  and  Vishal  Bhardwaj's  Maqbool  were  shot  here."

Says Prakash, "This  whole  schedule  we'll be  shooting  only rallies.  My voice  is  already   gone. To manage 5,000 people at once is  not easy." -Sampurn Media

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