Vicky Kaushal on shooting Jallianwala Bagh scene in Sardar Udham: ‘I had to react to dead bodies and bloodshed’

Vicky Kaushal is all set to be seen as Udham Singh in Shoojit Sircar’s upcoming film, Sardar Udham that traces the life of the revolutionary who was a contemporary of Bhagat Singh. In a new interview with Hindustan Times, Vicky has shared how difficult it was for him to recreate the Jallianwala Bagh sequence for the film.

Vicky said, “Of course, I was prepared as an actor ki mujhe ye karna hai, aise karna hai (This is what I need to do and this is how I will do it), but it was still, so heart-wrenching and numbing as an individual. To be thrown into that reality, almost a reality, to imagine yourself in that space. I had to react to dead bodies and all that bloodshed and bloodbath.”

Vicky Kaushal added, “To then finish it, pack up and go back to the hotel room. Then, again come back (to the sets) the next day, do it all again. All that was physically exhausting and emotionally numbing.”

Asked how he managed to still make it work and not break down, Vicky said, “By not thinking too much and just reacting to the atmosphere. I was just trying to be honest at that moment. I had to find my inner child, the 19-year-old in me and then respond to the situation.” It is believed that Udham Singh was present, attending to the injured after the infamous Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919.

Vicky Kaushal also said that working on the film felt like going back to his theatre days. “That is just the way Shoojit da (Sardar Udham director Shoojit Sircar) works. That is the kind of filmmaker he is. His approach, the way he tells his story are all such. His first brief to me was that I want to get inside the mind of this man. It is his thoughts that made him a revolutionary, not just his actions’, and, that is exactly what we have tried to give to the audience.”

He added, “In our stories, freedom fighters are painted like supermen. We paint them as martyrs and shut them in books. Shoojit da wanted him to be alive and among us. He believed Sardar Udham was a revolutionary, not because he picked a gun and shot someone, but because of his thoughts. People should feel that Udham was one of us. Probably, I have a Sardar Udham in me.”