Fronting Mumbai Diaries 26/11, Mohit on how the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks brought back memories of his early years in Kashmir
Mohit Raina is joined by Konkona Sensharma and Shreya Dhanwanthary in the series
Every Mumbai resident has a different memory of the 2008 terror attacks, each alarming and indelible in its own way. For Mohit Raina, it invokes memories of the deafening silence that had engulfed the city for four days. The actor, who is leading the retelling of the fateful night with Mumbai Diaries 26/11, says it was shocking to see India’s financial capital under siege. It took him back to his early years in the Valley. “Hailing from Kashmir, the first superheroes I saw were the Army and defence officials. You are surrounded by [a tense] atmosphere in Kashmir, and sometimes, your memories are disturbing. I used to think that I have seen everything [as far as attacks are concerned]. But then, we witnessed something like this in Mumbai, the financial hub of the country. The silence in the city [during those days] was scary and shook me. I can never forget it,” says the actor.
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The Amazon Prime Video series, also starring Konkona Sensharma, sees Raina as a doctor torn between his duty and his concern for his wife who is trapped in a five-star under siege. Reliving the dark chapter of Mumbai’s history is bound to be emotionally draining. “The subject itself was challenging. Plus, this was the first time I was dealing with a subject that had a bound time frame. We had to showcase what happened in 48 hours, over a shoot of 40 to 60 days. So, that takes an emotional toll on you. You don’t have the liberty of playing with your emotions because [the story is set in] a limited time span.”
Though television gave him his biggest claim to fame Devon Ke Dev — Mahadev, Raina is relishing his graduation to OTT with hard-hitting projects like Kaafir (2019) and Mumbai Diaries. He agrees that the OTT boom has changed the business. “Kaafir was supposed to be made as a feature film, but it didn’t materialise. It went from one producer to another, before it was made as a web series. So, stories like these, which were not being told [on the big screen], are now getting an opportunity to reach the audience.”
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