Masaba Gupta believes Saiba and Parth from Modern Love India wouldn’t still be together: Interview

In an anthology of wonderfully layered Vishal Bhadwaj rom-com and an achingly sensitive Hansal Mehta story, Dhruv Sehgal made a film for me. Sehgal makes his directorial debut with I Love Thane, a chapter of Amazon Prime Video’s Modern Love: Mumbai, an adaptation of the popular US series which offers fictional retellings of real love stories found in the popular New York Times Modern Love column. (Also read: Modern Love Mumbai review: Dhruv Sehgal, Hansal Mehta’s beautiful stories are worth going through anything)

Written by Sehgal and Nupur Pai, I Love Thane follows Saiba (Masaba Gupta) – a 34-year landscape designer on the dating app circuit, wading through men who range from dull to demeaning to dominating. That is until she meets Parth (Ritwik Bhomik), the audit officer she’s coordinating with on a new project. In each other the two find a comfortable connection and strike up an escalating situationship.

As Saiba, Masaba Gupta offers up the rare, lived in performance that requires an actor not to do, but rather to be, guiding us through a story that seeks to find the magic within the everyday-ness of life. Over Zoom, Masaba spoke to me about finding Saiba, the art of crafting compelling chemistry, and where Parth and Saiba would be today.

Edited Excerpts:

I have to start with the obvious question – how did you come to be a part of I Love Thane and what was your first reaction when you read the script?

When I first read the script, I didn’t understand it. It’s because I don’t come from that world, I’ve never been on a dating app. I know friends who are on them of course, but that world was very alien to me. When I read it I thought “why are these people speaking like this? Who’s going on dates like these? Who is this girl? What’s wrong with her?”

But I loved Modern Love and I really like Dhruv Sehgal’s work and I was dying to do something in the fictional space. After I met Dhruv, I understood the world and Saiba a lot more. The one thing he said about her that really drew me to her was that she’s hopeful and that was something I could really relate to.

In terms of how I was cast, apparently Dhruv hadn’t seen Masaba Masaba. He said he actually approached me because he saw YouTube interviews of mine, and he said “people just like you and this character has to be very likeable. You have to root for her”.

So, I went for it and through 10 days of shooting I honestly had no idea where we were headed. But I had a lot of faith in Dhruv’s ability to tell a story for what it is. And now here we are.

It’s interesting that you say you didn’t fully understand her at first because, from an outsider’s perspective, there are aspects of her that felt similar to you. The fact that she’s also this independent woman who runs her own business. In terms of creating her, how much of her was already on paper and did anything about her evolve after you came on board?

No actually she was set in stone on paper from the start. In terms of finding her, I did a workshop with Pooja Swarup, who’s a theatre artist, and what I loved about that was she had me look at pictures of flowers and colours and she asked me “if Saiba were a colour, which colour would she be?”, and I picked a soft pink. When I looked at the flowers I said I think she’s this really beautiful lush flower but one that’s also a bit sad.

And she’s not a physical person in terms of showing how she’s feeling. She’s never overdoing it or over-reactive. She’s just still. Even in that scene with Prateik Babbar’s character where he’s being nasty, she’s just like “f*ck you” but she’s never screaming.

The word I associated with her most was therav (stillness) and that’s also a word I associate with myself.

Speaking of being still, yours was also one of those rare great performance where there wasn’t much to do. You had to just be. There were no grand dramatic scenes or revelations or much activity as such. It was just you inhabiting the small nuances and stillness of her life. Was that tough? To just be?

Oh my god yes, because I’m a very animated person. I have a temper and I do react and I feel the need to say something about everything. I remember there were many scenes where we had to do multiple takes, especially the tough ones like when Parth and I are sitting by the lake and I say “I like hanging out with you”. It’s because I couldn’t overdo even the smallest thing. You know how you have personal trainers who make the smaller muscles of your body stronger? That’s what Dhruv did for me. He made me use the smaller nuances of emotion and play with that. But it was really hard because I was worried I’d come across as dull on screen.

Even when she’s conversing with someone, it’s internal. All the dialogues in the film are the characters’ internal dialogue finally coming out. That’s what we always said – the dialogue is Saiba’s inner dialogue that she’s finally okay speaking out loud. That absolute shedding of her guard and feeling the freedom to speak her mind.

Was there a specific moment or scene during the shoot where you felt “I got her. I know who Saiba is now”?

You know, interestingly there’s a whole scene that’s been cut. It was another one of the bad date scenes and it was by far one of the toughest scenes I’ve ever done. It’s just this guy who’s obviously a prick and I’m tired and exhausted and he’s humiliated me and I was like ”Dhruv you have to let me scream!” And he was like “you can’t. You’re not going to let him know how you’re feeling or give him the satisfaction or knowing he’s upset you”. That’s the moment I felt i got her, and when I felt like I cut the chord between myself and Saiba and I became her.

Parth and Saiba have such a wonderful, understated connection. It’s just those few comfortable conversations with chemistry that’s bubbling beneath the surface. What’s the secret of creating that easy chemistry with a co-star? Can it be manufactured or is it more – you either have it or you don’t?

You know if it wasn’t for Ritwik and who he is as a performer and person I don’t know if Saiba would have been able to be Saiba. My mum once told me that you can have chemistry with anyone but the other person should be on the same wavelength when you’re trying to create a scene or emotion. But the chemistry with Parth was interesting because I did a reading with every actor except Ritwik before shooting. I actually met him for the first time when we were shooting the lake scene. We were very nervous because we’re so different and we were still trying to find these two people.

There’s also that scene where we’re eating Misal Pav and in my mind I was thinking it’s a date and when we shot it, I became a bit bubbly and excitedly started asking Parth all these questions about himself and Dhruv was like “no this is not a date. This isn’t the typical girl and guy trying hard to impress or charm each other. You have to gradually break it open bit by bit”. And I think that’s what you see. With each walk and interaction we’re breaking each other open a little bit more.

But I think that chemistry was just comfort. And often times that’s what chemistry is – the comfort of knowing that you’re with a good, kind man. And that’s the thing right, all of us girls are looking for that cool bad boy that we want to change (laughs) and we ignore all the wonderful men who are wanting to give us exactly what we deserve and I think the honesty of Parth’s character that appealed to her. That and their stillness. It’s the stillness of Parth and Saiba that brought them together.

Where do you think Saiba and Parth are today? Are they still together?

It’s funny you ask me that because I was thinking about it today and honestly, I don’t think they are together anymore. I think the pressures of the world or the addiction of being on an app would triumph. At the risk of sounding like an old lady, maybe we’re all addicted to finding the next best thing that gives us attention. Maybe we’re just addicted to what’s next and what else could be out there. I call this generation “generation undecided”. A generation that’s really unsettled and still finding its ground. They want commitment but also don’t want it.

I think the thrill Saiba gets looking for that new hope every day on that app, and the idea that maybe there could be more – maybe that causes them to fall apart. Or maybe it’s his need to be exactly who he is and not wanting to put unnecessary effort to try and make something work, maybe that would pull them apart. Because there’s their world and then there’s the real world, and maybe the real world catches up to them.