Jimmy Shergill is all set to play an intense character in India's first war-room drama web series titled Ranneeti: Balakot & Beyond. The series that will soon start streaming on JioCinema has the backdrop of Balakot airstrikes that followed the Pulwama attack. The trailer showcased the intensity of the war-room and is an ode to the unsung heroes who may not go on the field but play pivotal roles in the war-room. In an exclusive interview with us, Jimmy Shergill spoke at length about the series and even shared interesting character details. Check out the excerpts from the interview:
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Basically what happens is that normally what you've seen in movies and web series is when it's got to do with the events like this is that they show you what happens in the battlefield or elsewhere wherein all those things you have somehow also seen on the news channels but behind the scenes is is something that not everybody knows about. The unsung heroes who are who are behind the scenes who strategize the whole thing who are very much a part of the action as much as everybody else is and I think that is what makes the web series very different. When I read the script, I normally read it like an audience or like somebody like an outsider. I don't read it like an actor. I just read a script whichever script comes to me I read it as a story like I would read a book and then finally once I finish it is when I see how much of an impact has this script made on me. So when Ranneeti came to me, it was an eye opener for me. I was like oh my god this all goes on behind the scenes and I did not know about it.
I met Santosh Singh for the first time when I was given the script. I read it and then I had a meeting with the director and the moment he started telling me what all he had in his mind for this particular character, I was like blown by it. I was so happy that there's this young director who's like totally into the script and he knows every part of it and he's very clear as as to how he wants the scenes. Adding those small touches which made the character so much more layered is what really excited me. My character had gone for some particular mission and over there in the action that took place he kind of became a little unfit. By unfit I mean that he lost his sense of smell and taste. He has been working on for a very long time but it's just not coming back you know what I mean and he's meeting doctors and he's doing things so these small touches that are added to the character is I feel it makes the character very interesting.
The toughest bit was the war war room scene. And that was a long schedule, I feel, about 15-20 days of shooting. And at times we went almost from 24 hours to 48 hours non-stop kind of a situation. And you were charged because the moment the sequences would come, I mean, you would feel what those guys were feeling. I mean, we would have had our own reasons to be doing that. But then it was amazing. When we look back today, we kind of say, oh, my God, how did we do this thing? And the way the set was made, I mean, it was not like a set. It looked like a real war room. Like you had the footage playing in front of you and not just have a green screen over there, like normally we do in other films and all that we do. It was real footage playing over there. So if we were talking about a particular place, which is supposed to be taken over or whatever and everything like that, the real topography, the real shots of the topography were going on over there.
I am 100 percent sure about the impact. I mean, there's no doubt about the fact that it has been made really well. It will arouse the kind of a feeling within you when you're watching it. You feel good about it. You feel sad about things that, oh, my God, you know, these people do so much and they won't get nothing because they are as much a part of the battle as anybody or any other soldier. And at the same time, when you look at the martyrs and what happens to them and their families. So it deals not just with one thing, it deals with a lot of things. It's not just about one thing that's going on. That's the beauty of the show. It's it's very extensive. It's also dealing with the lives of the martyrs. It's also dealing with politics. It's also dealing with behind the scenes what's happening in the war room. It's also dealing with what's going on the other side of the border. So my character is also dealing with his personal life, what he's going through right now and whatever. So it's like it's not just a bit. It's quite a deep thing and is made really well because it's a massive budget. They've done justice to it that much, I can tell you.
