Mukul Dev is one of the most popular faces when it comes to both the TV industry as well as the film industry. In fact, not just in Hindi movies, he has also been a part of some regional films in Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and others. Not many know that Mukul is also a trained pilot from Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udaan Akademi. Some of Mukul’s most popular appearances in movies include the likes of Yamla Pagla Deewana, Jai Ho, Son Of Sardaar, R Rajkummar, Jai Ho and many more. Recently, Mukul was seen nailing the character of real-life terrorist Zaki-Ur-Rehman Lakhvi in ZEE5’s latest successful show, ‘State of Siege’. When IWMBuzz asked Mukul about what separates his portrayal of Zaki-Ur-Rehman Lakhvi from the rest of the shows on the same plot and what makes his portrayal more ‘realistic’, he said and we quote,
“Well I met Abhimanyu (Producer) and the team and we discussed a lot of things. I had written Omerta and because of that, I had done a lot of research on characters like Zaki-Ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar. So, that definitely helped me a lot. Then, I met the director and I told him that I want to keep the character as real as possible. But I must say to his credit that they were very cooperative. At times, he would not even make me feel that he is shooting me. He would sometimes just record the rehearsal and if it was alright, he would just go ahead with it. As a director, he is very sensitive to the mental need of the actor. So it was a two-way thing mutually decided and done.”
When asked more on what are his real memories from the time 26/11 attacks were going on, he stated,
“I was in Delhi at that point in time when my brother informed me of what was going around here in Mumbai. Initially, I thought it was some underworld activity but later when I switched on my TV, I realized that it was something seriously wrong. Add to that those handlers instructing the gunmen to conduct more damage so that even the media can get to see and all, it was scary. It was a bad experience.”
How did they bring freshness as the concept has been depicted multiple times in the past?
“Well, I must say what worked in our favor we were showing what was happening on the other side of the border. Another challenge was to make it look real. But at the end of the day, we also couldn’t forget that it was about the quintessential hero-villain game so we had to keep that in mind. If you see, there are many scenes and sequences where I am not dressed up like how the character has been depicted earlier. Obviously, we all have a certain image in mind and we like to show that, but it was about getting the right balance between reality and fiction. Looking back now, I feel very happy with the kind of appreciation coming our way as together as a team, we have achieved our goal.”
