'Nobody was allowed to call me Eesha on the sets'

Eesha Koppikhar talks about her life-defining role in Shabri, which will finally see the light of the day after three years

After over three years in the making, Shabri, a film about Mumbai's first woman gangster will finally hit the city's cinema halls today. Directed by Lalit Marathe, the movie has Eesha Koppikhar play the title role based on real life incidents. Koppikhar got talking with THE GUIDE about this less-than-glamourous role.


A still from the movie

Tell us about Shabri's plot?
She is a gangster, born and bred in the slums of Mumbai with a typical but real background of a father who is a drunkard, a mother who has to do odd jobs and a brother whom she desperately wants to get out of the slums and have a good life of his own. But after certain do-or-die situations, she turns into the gun-trotting Shabri.

You are known as the Khallas girl and have done quite a few glamorous roles. What made you take up this role?
I have danced, romanced and like every actor I love to do different kinds of roles. Director Lalit Marathe saw me in the movie D and decided that I would be his Shabri. As an actor I thought that it was time to do something more substantial and pick up a character that demands a good performance and I was ready for it. There are very few movies in the industry that have women in the lead and of all films in one's career there is one movie that you really believe in. Shabri is that for me.

What kind of research did you have to do to get into the character?
I didn't have to do anything. The director was so sharp-minded and well read that he knew exactly what he wanted. He had visualised the entire film way before it came on the floors. I went by his vision. On the sets I was not referred to as Eesha. Everyone had to call me Shabri, from the director to the make-up artist. I had to change my walk and my voice while dubbing. It took me five days to get under the skin of the character.

How did the character affect you?
I lived the life of Shabri for the entire year in which we shot the movie. I experienced every kind of emotional trauma that the character would have undergone. I developed some kind of a latent aggression and kept myself aloof even from my best friends. The harshness of life hit me through the character, as if the character had possessed me - like when a foreign particle enters into one's body and thrives on it.

What was your husband's (restaurateur Timmy Narang) reaction after seeing you in such a non-glam avatar?
He loved the movie and said that I had done a wonderful job and was at my best!

Your favourite gangster movie?
It has to be Godfather. It is a cult classic. Also Scarface, Shiva and Satya.