‘Chopsticks’ and Chill With Abhay Deol and Mithila Palkar

Abhay Deol is all set for his digital debut with Chopsticks, alongside co-star Mithila Palkar. Chopsticks revolves around Nirma (played by Mithila), who buys a car and ends up losing it on the first day. Paranoid, she gets in touch with a conman (played by Abhay). Mr Conman tries to help her get her stolen car back from a goat-loving-gangster (Vijay Raaz). Chopsticks will be available on Netflix on 31 May.

The Quint caught up with the cast to chat about the Netflix Original and ask them about the experience of shooting with each other.

How was it? How was the experience shooting it since this is the first time you collaborated with each other?

Mithila - It was a lot of fun. I have been saying this that I went in as his fan but it was very easy to break the ice. Like, he made it easy.

Abhay - It was horrible. It was really bad. Like I want to quit now. After working with her I’m convinced this is not the profession for me. If I want to be tortured…

Do you know Mandarin?

Mithila - No, I had to take lessons for it. I had four to five days to learn it. And it’s a really difficult language. So my teacher did teach me the basics. Like from the alphabets to pronunciation, everything. Even if you say it in the wrong tone, it means something else.

What would you say are the differences between shooting a feature film otherwise and for Netflix?

Well, as far as shooting for the film is concerned it’s the same thing. I mean you’re making a film. But marketing is very different. So with theatrical, you have to travel to different cities in the country, with this you don’t have to. With theatricals, you go and visit all the studios of different news channels. In this case you don’t have to. With theatrical, you have to entertain all the online platforms. With this one, you have a select few. So yeah… those differences are there. I actually like marketing on the online ones a lot more. Because it all happens under one roof.

You have always been applauded for your choice of movies. It’s off beat. But now there are so many people who are doing it. There’s Ayushman Khurrana, Vicky Kaushal. So you think there’s a change in the content?

Well, there’s definitely a little bit more openness to experiment now. Which is great. There are definitely actors today who are more driven by their talent rather than their looks. Which is also good. Today there’s a lot more support from at least the video production houses and studios simply because they see that the audience is expecting this. And so, I hope that they keep continuing on. It’ll allow more diverse actors to enter this industry. It’ll allow a lot more diversity of thought to be expressed in the industry, something that was not very easy to do when I started out.

You feel now, in Hindi cinema, writing is the boss?

Well, unfortunately, the writing department was the one that was least attended to within the Bollywood sphere. When I started in 2005, people would very proudly say, “Sir, we have a bound script.” Like as though, it was an achievement. As opposed to just accept it as a given that I am an actor and you have to give me a script. I grew up in the film industry. I saw how the writers were treated. They weren’t paid money if at all they were paid. And when they were expected to write they were expected to lift off the west, really.

Copy something. Copyright was the ‘right to copy’, that was the joke in the industry because there was always copying happening. Now they are more reticent, more reserved in copying something because of the backlash they get. People are a lot more tuned into what’s going on around the world.

That maturity, that evolution of the writing department - yes- has been picking up. But because we have treated this department so badly for decades, it’s going to take a long time for it to come out. It depends on many factors as well. In a country like the US where people pride themselves with their freedom of speech, in a country like ours, not so much. You have to be measured in what you say. There are a lot more consequences there. So that affects writing too. Because how provocative can you be. We’re more conservative as a culture. These factors play into how far our writing will go. You’re Quint, you should know.