Nikkhil Advani’s Mumbai Diaries 26/11, as the name suggests, is an account of the November terror attacks in the heart of Mumbai but with a different perspective. For his web series, the director chose to view the incident from the eyes of frontline workers and hotel staff, and actress Tina Desai, who plays a banquet manager of a hotel, gave us an account of the preparation that went behind her character, that played a crucial part in handling the situation.
“He (Advani) had given me access to a lot of information. The script itself has a lot of detailing, which I was very surprised to read. I didn’t know a lot of things that were added to the script. And so that itself is very informative. In addition to that, there were a few books that were recommended to me, YouTube videos, TED talks of staff of the hotel, survivors at the hotel, the patrons, the bystanders’ accounts of the incident. Then the environment that was created on the set was so vibrant that I was able to absorb and react to that, so it wasn’t too hard a job for me to feel like I was in the actual environment and react to it,” she explained.
Playing a Bengali woman, Desai had to learn a new language as well. “There is a lot of focus on having representation; to have various languages included. We have so many languages so why not use that to our benefit? And luckily, my neighbour is Bengali. So I went to her for daily lessons for about a fortnight, and I told her to be strict with me. I sat through and learned how to say the lines. I told her my lines in English and asked her to translate them and teach me.”
“Mumbai Diaries is being told from the perspective of the doctors, we’re dealing with the incoming bodies and injuries of the night, which I found was very interesting, because I didn’t have access to that information. All of the news channels usually covered all the other things. To me, it was very interesting to see how the hospital had to deal with it because it was also under attack. And the sort of detailing that went into it in terms of medical terminology, and in terms of the procedures, in terms of their challenges, was for me a fresh angle,” she added.
The actress is, however, not new to the digital space and also has made a successful debut internationally. Her 2011 British comedy flick The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel bought her global recognition and the series Sense8 added to her fame. Mumbai Diaries being her first Indian release in 7 years, Desai really looks forward to the reactions.
“I’m quite confident about the reaction. Based on the script, and based on my experience of filming, I feel quite good about the project. I think it’s a really good comeback and I haven’t done an Indian movie in seven years. I think this is a really fantastic project to come back with,” she expressed.
So, did the actress notice any striking difference between working for a web show in Bollywood and in Hollywood? She answered, “There’s a lot of dignity of labour which makes it very easy to work on a project in the West, which is now coming to India as well. Everyone eats their meals together whether you’re the producer or the gaffer. I like that respect, or dignity of labour and I think that is slowly coming into India and the hierarchy is going away. Besides that, I don’t think there’s a difference based on industry, it’s mostly based on culture. A lot of it is defined by the tone that the director sets and by the budget that a project has. That’s what makes one project different from another, not so much West versus India.”
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