Satyajeet Dubey on 'Mumbai Diaries 26/11': Had to convey a lot through silences

A few days after he auditioned for Mumbai Diaries 2611 Satyajeet Dubey was asked to meet creatordirector Nikkhil Advani ldquoHe asked me lsquoItne saal kahaan tha tursquordquo laughs the actor who plays a resident doctor in the Amazon Prime Video series He hopes to emulate his cine idol Irrfan Khan some day but knows he has a long way to go For now he is focusing on cultivating his skill one project at a time In a chat with midday Dubey talks about the complexities of his role and being overwhelmed by costar Konkana Sensharmarsquos talentEdited excerpts from the interviewWhere were you on the night of 2611That was my second year in Mumbai I used to live in Andheri East in a matchbox house with three guys That night police vans came to our area instructing everyone to stay in their homes For long we didnrsquot know if it was a terrorist attack or a gang war It dawned much later that the city was under attack I didnrsquot step out of my house for almost three days A gentleman in his late 30s who lived next to my flat used to travel to VT On the third day since the attack his dead body arrived To see it the fall out of the attack upclose was heartbreakingAlso Read Mohit Raina I was fortunate enough to see the passion of the frontline workersSatyajeet Dubey plays Dr Ahaan MirzaDid you feel like you were reliving the terror while shooting the seriesDr Sheikh who was at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel when it was under attack was brought on board to train us Since I was not in the midst of it all it didnrsquot feel personal But as actors you tend to make everything feel real So mentally and physically I started going through those emotions between action and cutIn your chats with Dr Sheikh did you ask him what his stand as a doctor would be about treating a terroristDoctors always take the Hippocratic Oath The show too depicts that wersquove taken the oath where we donrsquot judge the character we see him only as a patient Thatrsquos exactly what Dr Sheikh told us An interesting aspect related to this is shown in the series where certain characters are in a moral dilemmaDid you have to work extensively on picking up medical jargonI had to start from scratch There was no scope to improvise on set because you cannot fiddle around with the terminology I used to record my dialogues and play them repeatedly on my earphones like a meditation track For a scene I had to treat an elderly lady examining her from point A to point Z At the last minute Mr Advani asked me to start from the injuries and not with her head The entire flowchart went for a toss In the series my character Ahaan Mirza suffers from Imposter syndrome he feels that he is a fluke When Nikkhil sir changed the order I was lost it took me a few seconds to gather my witsAlso Read Nikkhil Advani Fictional parts canrsquot match their courageWhat about the series challenged you as an actorMy character doesnrsquot say much So I had to convey a lot through my eyes and silences By the end of the shoot I would be drained and emotionally spent When I started figuring out the kind of actor I wanted to become I was fixated with the works of Dilip Kumar Balraj Sahni and Irrfan Khan I have seen Maqbool 2004 repeatedly and would often wonder how he communicated so much restlessness through his eyesCan you easily shake off an intense characterI am learning to switch off While shooting for Prassthanam 2019 Sanju sir Dutt once told me lsquoBeta itna mat ghusa kar character mein Kharch ho jaayegarsquoDid anyonersquos performance in the series overwhelm youSandesh Kulkarni who plays a cop is a phenomenal actor as is Mrunmayee Deshpande I was trying my best not to behave like a fanboy around Konkona Sensharma I would observe her and realised that you cannot figure out how she does it We used to talk about Irrfan sir a lot She told me that some people are born with raw talent On the other hand Balaji Gauri Sister Cherian said that Irrfan wasnrsquot as great when he started out but he kept working on his skills So some people are born with it others cultivate itAlso Read Mohit Raina The silence in the city shook me