Gagan Dev Riar delivered a breakthrough performance with Hansal Mehta’s Scam 2003. Just like Pratik Gandhi got into the skin of Harshad Mehta, Gagan Dev Riar embodied Abdul Karim Telgi character brilliantly and received praises from the critics and audiences alike. The actor has previously showcased his acting prowess through projects like Sushant Singh Rajput’s Sonchiriya and the BBC web series A Suitable Boy’.
During an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, Gagan Dev Riar took us through his preparation process, his physical transformation, his views on why the show became hugely popular upon it’s release and people’s reception to it.
Here are the excerpts:
The second portion of Scam 2003 is around the corner. While you shot for the show in one go, will the new season be as intense and dramatic as the first one in terms of your performance, the treatment and trajectory of the story etc?
It is going to be as dramatic and as intense as the first season. In the first part you saw the rise of Abdul Karim Telgi, how he built that empire and how he pulled off that scam. The second part focuses on the fall of Abdul Karim Telgi , how he was caught and what kind of cases were filed on him, and what he went through when he was actually convicted of the charges.
How did you like the way Abdul Karim Telgi’s story progression was dealt with in the first season? In a way it was quick how he was a fruit seller in one frame and in the next, he was climbing up the ladder of success but then by doing that, a lot about his background had to be omitted out. What are your thoughts on that?
It’s a drama series and it is not possible to give out every detail about his life in a span of 10 episodes. What makers thought that it would be best to stick to scam itself and not delve into other aspects as much. Because that might take away from the fact that he was
a criminal. We did try to humanise him as much as we could. But there are so many facets to the story that it’s not possible to pay attention to everything. We also had to pay attention to the entertainment factor in our mind that it doesn’t get too much into the nitty-gritties of it. But we can give a very well targeted storyline to understand what actually happened in his life.
I had mentioned in my review that you were able to embody the different phases of the character and compelled the audiences to like him, empathise with him, despise hum and loath him, all, just in the span of five episodes. How did you go about doing that? And that too so flawlessly?
I always keep my script as my Bible. I didn’t want to get into the details of how people saw him or how people reacted when he was convicted. Later he was also acquitted. So we don’t know how many people ran that scam, how that scam was actually pulled. His name was in the topmost but he was not the only one. So I tried to keep my honesty to the script, tried to keep it as humane as possible. Even when he is planning the scam or committing those acts, he will not think of himself that he was doing something wrong. Otherwise, he must have stopped much earlier. Different phases also shows the greed. You might start off as a revolutionary but later, what happens to you when you greed takes over? When you can’t control what you started? When you lose your way? This shows that no matter how right he thought he was when starting the whole thing, but later he was definitely marred by his greed and power. That’s how I wanted to play it and I played it to the T with the idea of how the script told me to play it. And when I showed it to the makers, they were fine with it. That’s how we went about it.
Throw some light on the physical transformation that you had to go through for this show. What were some of the initial hurdles and how did you go about resolving them?
The initial hurdles or the most common hurdles that I faced was that I am not a foodie. I don’t like to eat spicy food or items that are rich in flavours.
The weight gain was a little issue for me. But I did have a very good guidance in the form of a nutritionist Pratik. He made a chart for me. And I also used to work out in the morning to activate my appetite. When you exercise, you feel hungry because your body is losing sweat. A sedentary lifestyle you might not want but when you are exercising everyday, your body needs that kind of nutrition.
So as per my chart, I had to eat a 5-6 egg omelette in the morning, with a toast and butter on it. Then I used to have a milkshake which had Oatmilk and Ice-cream and Dates and Almonds. In the afternoon, where I usually take one bowl of Dal, but this time I had to take three bowls of dal. Instead of three chapatis, I had to eat five chapatis. Gagan Dev doesn’t have a sweet tooth so he doesn’t eat Rasgulla, Gulab Jamun. But for this role, I had to eat four rasgullas every night. Later on, maintenance of that weight was another hurdle because of two things. Firstly, the shooting schedules often go haywire and people on the sets helped me maintain my weight and the diet. Even if I forgot to eat, they would come and remind me. But the physical transformation also brought about a change in walk, demeanor, gesture, body posture, way of talking. My double chin had to be visible. All these things were a part of the whole transformation.
The on-screen chemistry between you and Talat Aziz Saab is endearing. As viewers, it never feels that the relationship between the two is contrived. It’s as genuine as it gets. How did you two build that rapport off-screen for it to translate on-screen?
Talat Aziz ji is a very endearing man. As we all know, he is a very talented Ghazal singer and I also have a tendency to sing. I have also done musicals in the theatre circuit. I am not a trained singer and I am not as good as Talat Aziz ji, I do have an inclination towards singing. And off-screen, whenever we used to sit and chat, we would bond over ghazals and old songs. He always loved me and I loved his charisma and his down-to-earth personality. The bonding happened organically and automatically and we didn’t have to force anything on one another. And I think that translates on-screen when we were shooting for it.
Just like Pratik Gandhi, you also recieved the same kind of love, fame and acclaim for Scam 2003. As much as the actors makes this series come alive, what is it about the kind of screenplay or storytelling that gives an actor a chance to unleash their best performances?
I have done smaller roles also in films and TV series. But when you are doing a lead, all the eyes are always on you. So I think the kind of responsibility also becomes more. When you are doing a smaller role, you don’t have to be so critical or alert about everything. And for the number of scenes that you are shooting, you have to constantly keep track of what you shot previously. So your senses become heightened. There are a lot of screenplays which are like this but this one is different as it has a very organic packing. People like Hansal Mehta who originally crafted the Scam 1992, they have a keen sense of how to tell a story of this kind. So a very stable support was given to me, to be able to portray the character in the way I did.
How did Scam 2003 change your life? And what has this show given you apart from widespread acclaim?
Acclaim is for sure. And I am always thankful to my viewers and my fans and creative people who liked my performance. As an actor, you just do your job as honestly as possible and the remaining, it is in the hands of God. I did not think much about what I was going to get out of this. I just hung out there and did everything to the best of my capabilities. I am still sinking bits of how my life has changed. I recently went to an award show where people wanted to take selfies with me. I am not used to that. Sometimes people recognise me at the airport. Because I have lost weight now, my look is completely different now and people might find it difficult to recognise me in public. But I do have those eyes always on me trying to figure out whether this is the same guy or not. I am very thankful for this change. I am getting good offers and I am reading scripts currently and I am trying to make good choices so I can continue doing good work.
What kind of roles would you like to do after this?
I like to do roles that are not similar to one another, as I don’t want to get typecast. In Sonchiriya, I played a dacoit. I had to lose a lot of weight for that and I had to look lean. I had to grow my hair and look a certain way, as someone who is living in the ravines. I had to fire a gun. I had to learn how to navigate through ravines. We had a climbing session, we had a mountain climbing workshop. So in the future, I want to do roles where I am also learning a new thing. In Sonchiriya, I learnt how to fire a gun. In ‘A Suitable Boy’,I played an English professor so I really had to brush up on my English P. I had to work on pronunciations. I had to take diction classes. In this one, I had to gain weight so I had to understand my body in a certain way. And how to be confident in that kind of weight. I would like to experiment a lot and I want to take up roles that require you to undergo new training, learn something new, experiment with my body and my looks and I just don’t want people coming to me saying that ‘you look like Abdul Karim Telgi so we have fat man roles for you’. What I’ll do is to go absconding and change my look in a way that I am unrecognisable.
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