Prateik to play Benarasi Romeo

After My Friend Pinto, actor Prateik will metamorphose from a lovable Chaplinesque tramp to a killer Romeo in Shailesh Singh’s adaptation of the Shakespearean play.

After My Friend Pinto, actor Prateik will metamorphose from a lovable Chaplinesque tramp to a killer Romeo in Shailesh Singh’s adaptation of the Shakespearean play. Issaq, which flags off next month is set in Varanasi. And for the same, Prateik is going through Banarasi Hindi diction classes, doing riyaaz (taking music lessons) and spending hours in the gym working on his body.

HT Image

“The character I play kills to survive, so he needs to be lean and agile,” explains the actor, who studied Shakespeare in school, but had no clue then that one day, he’d play a Romeo from the hinterlands.

Adds the young actor, “We’ve retained the gist of the story about forbidden love and a family feud, but it’s not an exact remake. Director Manish Tiwary has crafted a clever adaptation that weaves in the Naxalite angle.”

Prateik, who was seen in Prakash Jha’s Aarakshan recently, admits that the social film on the government’s reservation policy was a learning experience. “I’m sure Issaq will also offer an insight in to how people in small towns think and behave,” he says.