Finding spirited heroes again

Sidhant Gupta, Chirag Vohra and Rajendra Chawla play Nehru, Gandhi and Patel respectively

Casting for a historical drama is an exhausting job, and when the show clashes with another production set in the same era, it becomes twice as hard. Casting director Kavish Sinha spent months staring at a wall full of faces, looking to match figures from the Indian freedom movement with credible actors, as he worked on Nikkhil Advani's Freedom at Midnight. Over the past few weeks, the ensemble cast was unveiled to the fans - Jubilee (2023) actor Sidhant Gupta stars as Jawaharlal Nehru, Chirag Vohra and Rajendra Chawla take on the roles of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel respectively.

Sinha says zeroing in on the faces for the screen adaptation of Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins' acclaimed book of the same name was daunting. But having an understanding collaborator in Advani eased matters. "Nikkhil sir knows exactly what he wants. I had luckily read the book in school. In Rocket Boys, casting was easier because they were scientists people know a little less about. But people have strong references of Nehru, Gandhi, Sardar Patel, and Sarojini Naidu. We've seen their videos, we couldn't have gone wrong," he states.

Kavish Sinha and Nikkhil Advani

Aside from resemblance, the second challenge was language. Sinha explains, "These [leaders] studied in England or Allahabad, so, we had to pick actors who would speak vintage English. They also had to shoot for over 120 days. They would also have to sit for hours to get prosthetics and hair done." He credits the creator-director for trusting him completely. "If I said something doesn't work, Nikkhil sir heard me out. We tested each actor on three to four scenes. It helped that actors want to do historical ventures. Everyone was dying to play Nehru and Patel."

A web series on Mahatma Gandhi is simultaneously in the works, with Hansal Mehta at the helm and Pratik Gandhi playing the renowned leader. That must have added to the pressure of casting Gandhi. Sinha reflects, "There were two things I knew I wanted - a bald actor, who was Gujarati. Chirag Vohra was an instant choice. When I told Nikkhil sir, he said it was a slam dunk! Malishka [Mendonsa] walked in for another audition. When I looked at her, I knew she was our Sarojini."