Every knows that Sushant Singh Rajput is a method actor who likes to dig deep into his roles. Now we have come to know EXCLUSIVELY that the hardcore, non-vegetarian actor will turn strictly vegetarian when he begins shooting for Abhishek Kapoor’s Kedarnath. Not just that, if you drop into his apartment today, don't be surprised if he whips up a decent vegetarian meal of daal-rice-sabzi as he has learned how to cook – all thanks to the film. The Kedarnath unit, including the director and producers Prernaa Arora and Ekta Kapoor begin shooting in the strictly vegetarian town of Kedarnath from September 3 and the actor (and the unit) will be turning vegetarian from then till the time they complete the shoot in December. Sushant plays a pithu in the film.
To do justice to his character (who ferries luggage and the old and ill on his back), Sushant is living like a pithu and learned the basics of cooking, including vegetarian food. The actor admits frankly, “I don’t debate those things – like these are things I normally don’t do in my life but instead I think I should be doing them. It’s just that I have to do what my character does and that’s non-negotiable. A few days back if you asked me if I know how to cook I would have said no, it could have been different but now, yes, I can say I know the basics of cooking (laugh). I can cook everything – like daal, chawal and roti to sabzis. Recently I went to meet the CRPF jawans at Manipur for Jai Jawan for August 15 and I made some nice, perfectly round, thin rotis there for them and you know that someone who can make round rotis can make daal-chawaal too! Now I can safely say I have the basic instinct to survive and how.”
Talking about turning vegetarian from September, Sushant says, “Yes it’s true that I won’t be eating any non-veg food for the three months I am shooting there. As far as missing it is concerned, I feel as actors we are supposed to do some things which we don’t like doing which we wouldn’t be doing in our normal lives (laughs). Anything that you do, which you are not used to doing, it helps in convincing yourself that you have changed and it goes a long way in portraying the character.”
Rajput has even been spending long hours at the gym with a heavy sack on his back to build stamina. Sushant says, “Yes because in the north the surface is rough and not plain to walk on and the incline is steep. When you are trekking upwards it’s about 45 degrees, then there’s a weight and you just can’t afford to let the yatris fall. If you go there, you will see the yatris sitting on the backs of pithus on chairs etc and getting tired but those pithus when they reach the top after walking six km or more, they are not tired. Their stamina is amazing! The guy who is sitting but the guy who is carrying the weight is not tired. It defines the character. I will lose weight to become lean for this role as pithus are lean and strong. I am going through a certain diet and workout regime for that. I have been working out on an incline, at a stretch of 6-12 km and holding weight on my back at an incline of 45 degrees as that is exactly what the pithus there do and that’s how their bodies become by walking like that.”
He is known to be an actor who loves to get into the skin of his characters. Has he visited Kedarnath? “I haven’t gone as yet but I will be going there a few weeks before shoot commences. But I know each and every nook and corner of the town because I had sent my team there with a GoPro, still camera and dictaphone and got me every kind of information from the topography to climate to the roads in the town. It is not that each and every research that you do will translate into something great on screen if you are thinking of just that Friday but I am not. All I am saying for these number of days that I am working with one of the directors closest to me, he and I should feel that I am that character so I should know each and everything that my character should know, have a good time shooting the film and then whatever happens will happen.”