15 April,2023 07:12 AM IST | Mumbai | Hiren Kotwani
Akshay Oberoi
Akshay Oberoi firmly believes that looking the part, complete with mannerisms and the perfect diction, is the job half-done. For his next, Varchasva, which revolves around the coal mafia in Dhanbad in the 1990s, the actor trained for weeks to ace the Bihari accent. Manish Singh's directorial venture, also starring Ravi Kishan and Tridha Choudhary, sees Oberoi as a Bihari character, who rises against the local MLA's injustice and atrocities.
Before the film went on floors in February 2022, the actor trained with language coach Manvendra Tripathi. Oberoi says, "Since I'm trained in theatre, it's my practice to research for the characters that I play on screen. I was required to talk in a Bihari accent without sounding caricaturish. We worked on the dialect and dialogues for a few weeks before shooting. After wrapping up [my previous] project, I went directly to Ranchi, where we were to film Varchasva, to focus on my prep."
The actor shares that during the shoot, he employed Bihari twang to interact with his team and the locals, thus brushing up on his skill. "The idea was to keep working, and improve it to the point where it [rolled off my tongue] naturally," says Oberoi, who was recently seen in Gaslight.
Also Read: Here's how Akshay Oberoi prepped for his role in 'Gaslight'