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‘BNA built my base as an actor’
The journey of actor Nalneesh Neel, who was seen in ‘Fukrey’ and ‘Chichhorey’, to Mumbai has been a long one. Coming from a small village near Bisalpur in Pilibhit,
The journey of actor Nalneesh Neel, who was seen in ‘Fukrey’ and ‘Chichhorey’, to Mumbai has been a long one. Coming from a small village near Bisalpur in Pilibhit, Neel, who was last seen, as the speech impaired servant of Big B, in ‘Gulabo Sitabo’, recalled he was interested in performing arts since the beginning.
“I started doing theatre in Shahjahanpur before joining the Bhartendu Natya Academy (BNA) in Lucknow. I have realized that if I would have not gone to BNA I would have not survived in Mumbai. It built my base as an actor,” he said over phone.
“I come from a small village and grew up in the rural belt of Shahjahanpur at my maternal grandmother’s home. I dabbled in many things since beginning. I learnt martial arts and to dance too. I also sang at ‘jagrans’, handled rented VCRs in nights and did videography in marriages as well for a living,” he recalled.
Neel said that he had shifted to Shahjahanpur to learn nuances of acting from actor Rajpal Yadav’s mentor Dalip Anand of Coronation Art Theatre. He remembers Dalip telling him that ‘not everyone can become Rajpal Yadav!’ “But, I was determined. I started doing ‘nukkad nataks’ (street corner plays), did ‘Godan’ and other plays in Shahjahanpur, Bareilly and Pilibhit,” he recalled.
Neel wanted to go to National School of Drama (NSD) but got selected in Lucknow’s Bhartendu Natya Academy (BNA) instead. That was in 2008-10. “I learnt under Suryamohan Kulshresthaji, Jugal Kishor sir, Urmilji (Thalpliyal) and others. I started doing plays and then came to Mumbai with Rs 18,000 that I had borrowed from someone,” he said.
Recalling his role in Gulabo Sitabo, a film whose story is based in Lucknow, and in which he played the role of a speech impaired servant, he said, “To act with dialogues is easier but to express without words is very tough. Shoojit da (Sircar) had hired a sign language trainer too so that we get it right. Actually, I had also played a mute character in ‘The Smoking Barrels,’ a short film,” he said.
He bagged the role in Gulabo Sitabo after Sircar watched him in the upcoming flick ‘Bhor’.
“I am among the three main leads in the film Bhor which has already been to many film festivals and would soon release on OTT. Shoojit da was impressed with my role and called me for the audition. Initially, my character had dialogues though later it was decided that the character would play the role of a speech impaired servant,” he said.
Gulabo Sitabo is his second project with Big B. He had done an advertisement with him earlier. Neel has also done an international film ‘The White Tiger’ which is scheduled for release by the year end on OTT.
