Rajeev Masand: Are you here for IFFI?
Siddharth: Yes, I’m watching films here.
Rajeev Masand: Your film Rang De Basanti was screened here. How do you feel about the movie now after almost a year of its release?
Siddharth: I think the interesting thing about the film is that we were discussing with Rakeysh (Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Director) was its shelf life. We still have not had the time to look back at it because it keeps coming back and slapping us on our face and saying ‘I am still here, notice me.’ It was screened yesterday to a packed house and it felt like day one in Mumbai. The audience still laughed at the same places and got tense and had the same feelings of confusion and anger at the end of the film. So the film is still alive. So it’s difficult to look back at something that’s still in front of you.
Rajeev Masand: When the film came to you, did you always expect it to find this kind of a resonance with the audience across the board like it did?
Siddharth: I’d like to believe that when I’m offered a film, going by the script, my conviction may not be in sync with the director’s but I have conviction in the honesty of the plot and what he wants to tell the audience. With Rang De Basanti, I feel like it was just yesterday that I was holding the script in my hand, which I incidentally turned down at first because I wasn’t quite sure of what I’d be doing in the film. The first thing that struck me was the honesty of Rakeysh Mehra and the writers and I’m very happy that at the end of the day the film is exactly the way it was written.
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