GOODWILL HUNTING

SOHUM SHAH CONFIDES IN TANISHA BHATTACHARYA THAT HE'S SURVIVED IN THE INDUSTRY THROUGH THE KINDNESS OF FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES. HE OPENS UP ABOUT HIS JOURNEY AND MORE IN AN ALL-HEART INTERVIEW

- TANISHA BHATTACHARYA

SHSOHUM made his debut with a film called Baabarr (2009), where he played a dreaded gangster. He acted alongside actors like Om Puri and Mithun Charaborty in the film and charted it off as a learning experience. In 2012, he essayed the role of an antagonist in the National Award-winning film Ship of Theseus, which got him much appreciation. However, having spent more than a decade in the industry, the one film that endeared him to the masses was Tumbbad (2018). The film, which he also produced, was his labour of love and took as many as six years to complete. “I clearly remember the last day of Tumbaad’s shoot. It was May 13, 2015,” he reminisces “The early morning of, around 4-5 am, when we were shooting the Hastar scene, the flour was in the air all around and the atmosphere was foggy, and we heard a voice that said, It’s a wrap. And a tear rolled down my eyes because Tumbbad’s shoot was tough. It felt like we were in a war, and today the war had come to an end. Now the film can be edited and released.”

The immense recognition received by the film has made way for a sequel. According to the industry lore, sequels are tougher to make than the original because of the weight of the expectations that straddle the neck of everyone involved, like a giant albatross. There is fierce pride in his eyes when he says that his team is more than a match for the challenge of mounting a sequel to the sleeper hit. “To answer your question, how do we up the game for