National Award-winning filmmaker Vinod Kapri ‘s search for the lead actors of Pyre took several years, countless auditions and a few unexpected turns. He had considered actors such as Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah, and even tried making the film with the real-life couple who inspired the story. But the faces he was looking for eventually came from two rather unexpected places.
Why Vinod Kapri could not cast the couple who inspired Pyre
Because we went there unprepared and they don’t even understand they don’t have even understanding of cinema or camera or acting or anything, “That was my first attempt to make this film with them and but I failed miserably.
I realized that should look for more mature actors,” he said.
How Vinod Kapri’s uncle went from a family gathering to the lead role
They spent two weeks together, working on 12 to 15 scenes before Vinod was convinced that he had found his actor. Because i belong to the society which feel that doing film is not a good thing to do,” Vinod recalled, i’m not doing any film. Vinod shared the script with Naseeruddin after actor Vishal Bhardwaj helped connect them. Both Naseeruddin and Ratna liked the story and were keen to be part of the film. However, the Main Vaapas Aaunga actor had a question about whether they would be able to do justice to characters so deeply rooted in the region. Vinod wasn’t sure if his uncle was serious. He had been drinking at the family gathering, and the filmmaker initially thought he was joking. Nevertheless, he handed him a scene from the film, one of its most challenging sequences, and decided to record his attempt on his phone. “I thought maybe he’s drunk. So just to please him, I just gave him one scene. This is the scene from the film. One of the most difficult scene from the film. And my family members, everyone was there. the filmmaker wanted to see if his uncle could recreate it outside the setting of a family gathering While the performance impressed him. The next day, he visited him in the village with an actor from the National School of Drama. His uncle eventually took on the role of Padam Singh, the film’s male protagonist. The woman quickly ran into her village and alerted the others. Vinod and his team then explained that they were filmmakers looking for an elderly woman to play the lead role in their film. As they spoke to the villagers, they heard someone calling out from a nearby field. It was another elderly woman, Heera Devi, who was carrying grass on her shoulder. Having heard that the visitors were looking for a heroine, she walked towards them to find out more. I thought ‘this is just a joke and I was just joking with you’. Her son eventually encouraged her to trust the filmmaker and consider the opportunity. His son’s reassurance finally helped Heera change her mind. She agreed to play Tulsi, giving Kapri the female lead he had spent so long searching for.
“He was so candid about film and a story and he said you know we really wanted to do this film and we don’t want to leave this film because this is such a beautiful script but I have one concern do you think that we belong to that place and do you think we both of us can do justice to this film just think about it,” Vinod recalled. So I shot that on my mobile and the way he performed I was it was completely unbelievable,” he said. “She said no. “He convinced her that mom he’s a nice person and he’s if he’s approaching you and he has chosen you so he might be doing something good so you must do whatever he’s saying,” Vinod said.
