Berlin Cast Interview: Rahul Bose, Aparshakti Khurana and Anupriya Goenka Get Funny | Exclusive

Action! My choreographer has seen my work and he's gone. Atul gave me lots of money. I've been a huge Rahul Bose fan to be honest. There's no accounting for bad taste in this world. Does the outside world know about the rugby story? Shouldn't she pay you? I thought you would have already given him. You've been paid so much. It rarely happens that Rahul Bose can stop talking. Shilu, bring the gun. Sir, let me finish. I want to say something. Hi guys, welcome to Midday and many congratulations for this wonderful trailer. I've been hearing good things from my journalist friends about the film. But I absolutely love the trailer. And I think the last work that Atul did was Jubilee and that was also so beautiful. So, of course, there's a lot of excitement. So, Apar, I'll start with you. You narrated Berlin on the sets of Jubilee while working on it. First of all, Priyanka, thank you so much for all the love and wishes on the film. Actually, Atul sir and I didn't meet much on Jubilee. When we sat for the first reading for Jubilee, he had already seen my audition for Jubilee. And by then Berlin's talks had started. So, he in a way casted me looking at the audition of Jubilee. Not in the entire process of Jubilee or after watching Jubilee or while shooting Jubilee. So, that's how the journey started. But I must say, the moment he narrated, I remember that very moment I asked him for the script and I read it the same very day. There was a very different feeling because it was a world which I had not heard of, not ever read before. I mean, totally unseen. And the way he has woven everything, it's difficult to imagine. And the other characters he has casted and the storytelling has to be carried forward through sign language. You know, this type of storytelling is very different. What about you, Rahul? How did this really pan out for you? What did you really like about the script? Or was it the narration, the part that really interested you? Atul gave me lots of money. Zee5 and Zee Studios. Congratulations. I have given so much money to Rahul sir for this. That's it? I am very driven. You can see my career. I am just driven by my greed for money. I am so happy Priyanka that you get his sense of humour. Because sometimes people are like, How does he do this the whole day? His one-liners are fabulous. At every opportunity, he comes up with those. He doesn't leave an opportunity. Rather, the stress is that, to be honest, Anubhi will also say that it becomes difficult to guess when he is joking and when he is serious. So, it's difficult to guess that. It's a great character. It's very well written. The interiority. The silences. The slow burn. All of that is very reminiscent of the John Le Carre novels. Smiley's People, Spy Who Came From The Cold. They have been made into a film. You should watch the 2012 Gary Oldman in Smiley's People. Watch it. It's the same world. And so here, it's not about good guys versus the bad guys. Here, it's about everybody seems to be on the same side-ish. Who's black? Who's white? Who's grey? What the hell is going on? It's not driven by a plot. Somebody is trying to dominate the world or blow up the atom bomb of atom bombs. No. Something is just happening. You don't know who to back as an audience. Who's the person? It's very shadowy. Loved it. As far as the character goes, what's not to love? He's just propelled by a desire to win. At all costs. And you find him at a particularly desperate point of time in his professional career. He has to win. He cannot lose. And for that, he's prepared to bring anything and everyone down. That's so interesting. Anupriya, of course, in the trailer, we see just glimpses of yours. And if there is a mystery around you, who is this woman? And tell me, when you read the script or you spoke to Atul, was the mystery around what you were about to play that really spoke to you and got your intrigue? I think the first and foremost was that I love Atul sir's work as a director. I've been a fan since Powder. And I didn't want to lose a chance of working. That's been my thing. If I like a director and I've always somewhere been very intrigued by him, I don't want to lose a chance of working with him because you never know when the opportunity arises next. And secondly, the idea that my character did not have any dialogues, that kind of had intrigued me. At that time, I had thought that maybe each scene will have many shades for my character to exhibit on screen and without dialogues, and that would be interesting. It turned out to be a little different in terms of the execution later. But nonetheless, it's a very special film. The world that it's woven in. I had Apar and Rahul and Ishwak to work with. I've been a huge Rahul Bose fan, to be honest. I know, it's amazing that you know. There's no accounting for bad taste in this world. Seriously, like I've been saying this before. I've been a huge Rahul Bose fan. Again, as I said, you don't know when you'll get a chance to work with that director again. I didn't know when I'd get a chance to work with him again. And since childhood, he's been a Rahul Bose for me. You make him feel old, right? No, I mean, I don't. I say since childhood because from school, childhood days, when I never even thought of being an actor. I always loved the cinema that he did with Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Chameli and all. One of the profound actors and the kind of cinema that he represented. I think that's what was the main reason. Not having dialogues, working with Atul, working with a fabulous cast. And for both of you, if I have to ask you that, you know, like how Anupriya very rightly said that she's been a huge Rahul Bose admirer. I think everyone has been. I mean, even before the time when we would discuss about quality, content-driven, you were doing that. You kind of started your career with that. And I feel, I wanted to ask both of you that when you are in the frame, same frame as an actor like that, of course, there's this camaraderie, there's comfort. But there's also, there could be a nervousness in a performer himself or herself that, okay, I'm working with Rahul Bose. I better deliver. Was that there? So, for Pushkin Verma, the character, it helps. I need to be nervous in front of him. And, but having said that, I must say that the kind of learnings, the kind of stories, the kind of experiences, situations, I got to know from his life stories are amazing. They're just so mind-blowing. There's so much to learn from there. There's so much to grasp. And I don't remember the last. And to top it all, he's a mind-blowing storyteller. But these were not about I did this on that day. No, no, no. Is that humiliating? No, no, self-humiliating. Yeah, yeah, utterly degrading, extremely funny, where the butt of the joke has been me. Okay, so it's not like you must be thinking sit down, sit down. In 1997, I did this. And then, he said, Rahul, you're the greatest. So then I said, don't be silly. 70% of them, 70% of them have been extremely funny. 30% of them have been extremely inspiring, I must say. Tell me one story then, like one biggest learning just being in his company then. Does the outside world know about the about the rugby story? But that we can't say. Yeah, we can't. It's long and it's also not. Correct, correct. Tell me, tell me. Give me an appropriate story. Okay, I'll give you an appropriate story. Shouldn't she pay you? Sorry? Yeah. I thought you would have already given him. You've been paid so much. Love it Priyanka, superb. Wow Priyanka. You're great, you're great. Rarely does it happen that Rahul Bose can stop talking. Can stop talking. Shilu, bring the gun. And I love the hearty laughter, you know, she laughs from the heart, it's fun. Okay, so Priyanka, there are some stories, like she has a friend, you know, Akbar and Naz. I think what she asked, no, no. And then after that, let the heart beat, it's a choreography story. That's a great story. Please, yeah, I would like to know that. It's a long story, but tell me. I'll make it short. Oh, let's go, let's go. Ready? Are you all ready? Galla guliya, rehearsal. Mirrors, dance hall. Anil Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Ranveer Singh, Shefali Shah, Rahul Bose. Bosco Caesar sitting in front, in front of everyone, personal choreographers. Okay? That whole thing, right? Rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal. Ready? Okay, everybody. We're going to go for a final rehearsal. And there are whistles, God is right. As if you can't hear. One, two, three. Action! Cut! Everybody's like. And everybody is, you know, talking to the choreographer. So I looked at my choreographer, and my choreographer, you know, it's never happened to me in my life, but supposing, somebody shoots you, how will you react? My choreographer has seen my work, and he's gone. So I said, hey, come back here. What? It was perfect. Everything was perfect. And he's there, he's like this, he's like, then this is exactly what he does. No, it'll be fine. I'm like, what the hell? Bosco has come down, the steps, with tears in his eyes, and he's come and said, buddy, buddy, buddy. I'm like, wasn't I amazing? He said, buddy, you were amazing. I said, I'm a black man in a brown man's body. I've gained my limbs. And he said, now what should we do with you? I said, what? Why are you taking me away? Don't take me away. He said, no, no, come, come, come, come. Took me away from all those people. That's when the staircase thing was planned. Otherwise, there was no staircase. He made the staircase, that's why. You have to come down the staircase. In the con room, I'm seeing that choreographer on a stretcher is going to the ambulance. Now tell me. Must have been a blast working with them. You've just heard the first story of 70%. They're all. You need to shut the camera. And I'm telling you, you'll be sitting here for three days and you'll die laughing. Especially the Akbar and Nas story. Which one is this? He has two best friends called Akbar and Nasir. Akbar and Nas have a hospital story. They're laughing themselves when they tell the story. But we can't start that right now because it's too long. On that note, then tell me, are you also kind of writing your next? Yeah, written. Written? 18 drafts written. Wow. I have my agency that represents me. Love it. The greatest compliment I got was from somebody. They said, you couldn't have written this. I said, why? They said, it's really funny. I said, so? It's also very mainstream. It's very commercial. It's a riot. It's mad. It's impossible. It's not from you. You've taken it. I said, no, it's me. They're like, then where is this Rahul? We've never seen this Rahul before. So, ladies and gentlemen, in 2025, in a world plagued by seriousness and intellectual nonsense, here comes and in slow motion, I'll be running. Wow. Will you be directing it? Yeah. That's great. But Anupriya, tell me, has OTT really shifted the game of opportunities, of characters? Do you feel as far as the substance in a role is considered? We used to see, we used to have cameos, of course. We still keep having in films smaller, shorter appearances. But I sometimes feel a series still give even a character with a very short duration that sort of substance that can have a lasting impact. I think that's that's also because of the medium, right? You have 10 hours or 8 hours to tell a story as opposed to one and a half, two hours in a film. So, obviously, things have to be more rushed and you can have more fleshed out characters in a series. So, that's thanks to the medium too. Yes, of course, the writing is much better. And I think because you the number game is less in terms of it's not a Friday to Friday success. It's more word of mouth. You can experiment more with the subjects. It's not formula-driven as opposed to being on the main screen on the big screen. Plus, your P&A budgets and all are different. So, basically, because there's not so much pressure in getting your weekends. You can also play in casting. You can also You can play with characters. You can try different concepts. And now, I think it's a beautiful time in the entertainment space wherein both the main big screen content as well as the OTT content they're all kind of cinema content and OTT content are all taking away and feeding off each other I feel sometimes. You know, there is a lot big, nice unsaid sort of camaraderie that's happening between the two and they're both trying to up each other. Which is great. And having said that, I still feel maybe we have a long way to go. There is a fear in me sometimes I get into the number game even on the OTT space wherein, you know, we start fleshing out the same kind of content a lot of thrillers and a lot of dark stuff. I just feel and I think I'm not an entity to authority to really talk about it because there's a lot that we don't have. Maybe as a producer I would have been able to understand better. But I just feel I wish we had in pre-prod. We could have given it more time. You know, in writing we could have involved more actors in it. There would have been one more amalgamation of everyone's point of views. There could have been something even better with the kind of effort we are putting in now into writing. Right. You know, Par, I have to ask you of course, the last few years have been kind of game changing. It's Jubilee, it's also I think when a Jubilee hits you know, it just makes the actor, the whole audience in the industry wake up to an actor's potential. You know, it's like, he's not just a funny guy. You know, we can experiment with him. Do you feel and I have to ask you this that as a funny man, as somebody who's so good at comedy, have you seen this difference in people, especially industry's perception towards you as an actor? Abhi tum serious actor ho gayo. Now we can respect you, you have a credibility. Pehle toh tum you know, you're also a hero's friend, you're a funny man, we can, okay we can fit you somewhere but now you have substance. Have you felt that shift? Yaar, koi aake aise kehta nahi hai lekin the kind of scripts you get, aapko pata lag jaata hai ki yeh isse izzat badhi hai thodi si shayad and there is better cinema, better scripts, better people, better production houses, jin ke saath aap main aur cheezein kar raha hoon, aur better space mein kar raha hoon. Having said that, I mean, it was never, I was never in the space of mind that I want to prove a point to someone. When I was getting all those, you know, all those films, all those parts in, you know, a comic role or a hero ka dost, as you say, I mean, I respected them as much as I respect, you know, my part in Jubilee or Berlin. So, and that's how it should be, you know. I absolutely love playing those parts and if at all kabhi aage chalke bhi koi aise cheez ho gaya, I mean, and if overall situations, you know, fall into place, I would love to do that as well. I have to ask you, Rahul, that, you know, when in the beginning we were talking, Anupriya was talking about your craft in a way that how you've been doing these films which are today, I feel, really feel today's generation even revisits, you know, as to, okay, we want to, we revisit Chameli and we see, okay, you know, these were also the men that were created on screen and you've played Every Shade of Man, you know, but I want to ask you today the kind of cinema that Hindi, like Bollywood is making, both OTT and big screen, do you feel today finally we have those characters which perhaps you would have also wanted to do mainstream? You feel we have those characters in the mainstream? Do you feel that? I don't know, honestly. Are you referring to something which I haven't seen? I just wanted to, I want to ask you, I want to follow from you, do you watch stuff on OTT, do you watch stuff that comes out from? I don't watch a lot of mainstream cinema. And the kind of scripts that you are offered, do you feel there has been a shift, there has been a transformation in that sense? No. I think it's a bit of the good, the bad and the ugly. It's been that way. The only thing that has changed between today and maybe 30 years ago, even I think television wasn't 100 channels at the time, or maybe they were, is the demand for better writing. They've understood now, unless you are two or three of the most charismatic superstars of the past this generation, the past generation, who can carry off something that might not be superbly written, nobody else can. It has to be written. So the writer, thank God, is getting primacy that he never had before. That has changed. But the representation of men in cinema, I mean Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Chameli, and Pyaar Ke Side Effects, the women are very strong characters, whether it's Kareena, whether it's Konkona, Malika, and I never had a problem. Because your characters were also very, I mean, there was a sense of equality between the two. No, in Chameli, Kareena's role was far stronger, and it's great. I had zero problem with it, because I serve a movie. I don't serve myself. Or then don't take the movie. Correct. True. If you're taking the movie, serve the movie. And that was the movie. It's called Chameli, it's not called Chameli and, right, it's called Chameli. So you know exactly where that's going. And I was fine with it. So I think that those characters, perhaps you're suggesting that there are many more of those characters being written right now, I don't know. I haven't certainly seen any wave of that happening. I would love to add to that. I think what you're trying to ask is that what they were doing as a parallel cinema at that time, if they feel that the same content is being made in now. Maybe it's becoming more inclusive, is it? Definitely more, like the likes of Apar, Ayushman's work. Even Raj, I feel. And similarly with the actresses like Bhoomi and Taapsee and the kind of work they do. There has been. Radhika. There is. The attraction on the box office for women, for empowered women. There has Which is now in that realistic and commercial zone, which is financially commercial but viable but it's realistic. But I think the flavour of the kind of movies that Rahul had done, Mr. & Mrs. Ayer, Chamele, Bombay Boys, it's still, for the lack of a better word, it's still more niche. Rather rawness, the rawness in Mr. & Mrs. Ayer, or the soothing of Jhankar Beats. And here, probably Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na would be a film which was very commercial but its flavour for me was like Jhankar Beats. I know what you're saying. So those simplistic, real films are still not being made that much. We are going into a thriller zone. There is still that gaudiness which we those kinds of films. If you think about those films, you'll remember Chameli but you wouldn't be able to think of a parallel in today's time. But in the depiction of men and women, as you were suggesting, I don't think there's been a huge change. Correct. I agree. That's why those roles are also iconic. Like Chameli's role or Konkana's role in Far & a few in between. And Tabu's role in Andhadhun that defies all gender stereotypes. Page 3 kind of movies. We haven't really developed it as much as we should have by now. That's why Shyamana ma'am's work or Smita Patil's work is still different than whatever we've seen now. And I think that's the hope that with every film, there's an attempt to push the envelope. And I think with Berlin, I definitely feel the story, the storytelling. Because I was really, really thrilled by the trailer. I can't wait to watch it. So sweet of you. Zee 5, 13th September. Yes. I liked Atul's earlier work. So very, very excited for that.