Jubilee actor Alok Arora recalls his experience of playing Raghu Jhalani and why Ram Kapoor had him throw him down on the ground for real.
Prime Video’s new show Jubilee is being praised by critics and audiences alike. The period drama, which brings to life the golden age of Indian cinema, has seen some applause-worthy performances from its lad cast. But even the supporting actors are getting their share of plaudits. One such name is Alok Arora, who essays the character of Raghu Jhalani in the Vikramaditya Motwane show.
Raghu’s character is of a Sindhi immigrant who lands in Mumbai (then Bombay) after Partition. He is initially foe to Jay Khanna (Sidhant Gupta) but later becomes his friend. Talking about how he got under the character’s skin, Alok says, “The character demanded a raw, unpolished body language which was in contrast to my normal self. Also, the gestures had to be different from current millenial times, so I watched couple of interviews of people from that era and also old Hindi films”
But the most challenging part of the role was acquiring a Sindhi accent to make the character seem more genuine. While Alok was told it wasn’t necessary, he felt he needed to do it. And for that, he turned to his friends from across the border. “Though I was told it wasn’t necessary but I felt to bring complete justice to my character I've to work on this. So, I have friends in Pakistan - Sidrah and Waqi, who are based in Karachi. I got in touch with them to help me with the Sindhi accent. I'm extremely grateful to these two beautiful souls who during the Covid lockdown in 2020, used to sit with me over Zoom calls and helped me pick up the accent and the diction.”
The series is set against the backdrop of the golden age of Indian cinema and explores the evolution of Hindi cinema. It stars Aparshakti Khurana, Aditi Rao Hydari, Wamiqa Gabbi, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Sidhant Gupta, and Ram Kapoor among others. Describing his working experience with co-actors, Alok shares, “What really struck me that be it a senior actor or a newcomer everyone had put their heart and soul into the filming. In one scene where Raghu (my character) had to push Walia, Ram Kapoor himself said it’s okay to throw him on the ground. So when you see so much commitment and openness from your co-actors it pushes you to give your best too.”
Jubilee began streaming on Prime Video from April 7 and the final five episodes dropped a week later on April 14.
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 "Ram Kapoor and Alok Arora")
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