Exclusive! Shoorveer actor Regina Cassandra: Playing an inspiring person is much easier than playing someone with more vulnerable side

Regina Cassandra, Armaan Ralhan and Aadil Khan took on the mantle of playing tough-as-nails military personnel in the new Disney+Hotstar show, Shoorveer. The military drama revolves around the tale of the three pillars of the Indian military, the army, the navy and the air force, coming together to form an elite task force to protect the country. Regina, Armaan and Aadil essay the roles of Flight Lieutenant Avantika Rao, Squadron Leader Viraj and Squadron Leader Salim Kamali respectively.

The three stars joined OTTplay for a chat about their new show, speaking of what attracted them to the series, the prep they had to do for it and about their characters in the series. Excerpts from the interview:

What attracted you to Shoorveer and the characters you essay in the show?

Aadil: First of all, the script. The show is written beautifully. It is not only visually appealing, with a lot of action, but it also has a strong storyline. It’s exciting to be a part of a show that had a lot of performance as well. Overall it came across as a fantastic package to be a part of.

Regina: I have to agree with that. I think when I was approached by the makers to do it, I was pretty surprised, as well as happy and excited. Once I got down to meeting the team, meeting Kanishk Varma and Mayank, I knew the project was in good hands. I saw Kanishk’s excitement about the whole thing and the way he wanted to portray things. He gave me an in depth presentation about the way he wanted to portray things and what we were going to do. Even though I’m not someone who is very familiar with gun language and ammunition and the like, it felt very interesting to be put in that world. Although it's not real and we were stimulating the whole thing it felt so exciting to be a part of it because it was the first time I was playing someone from the armed forces and it was something I definitely wanted to do.

Armaan: The same for me. First and foremost it was the character and the story that intrigued me. I loved Viraj’s story and arc. What Kanishk wanted to do with the show was really something new and different and unique. The scale of it as well. They tried to keep the emotions intact too, and it had style as well as substance. There is a lot of depth in the show, and it was exciting. When I saw some of the visuals, it felt like a childhood dream coming true.

The show being a military drama, in addition to the acting side of it all, did the preparations also involve a lot of physical training, and combat as well to really get into the skin of military personnel?

Regina: Okay so before either of them answers, let me just say that when I first saw Armaan and Aadil, both of them looked pretty fit and pretty perfect for the role. I’m sure they put in effort to do so, but they really looked the part from day one when I first saw them.

Armaan: But that’s because she saw us when our training was done. The prep stage was very tough because I’m naturally very lean and getting that frame up was very difficult for me, gaining weight and muscle and all of that. I gained about 10 kilos, worked out really hard and there was also the mental side of the prep as well. We had some sessions where we did combat training. We had large folders of information sent to us by Kanishk as well. So it was a combination of all those things, individual prep and the things we did together as a unit as well.

In any kind of action drama, finding the right balance between the plot of the main mission and the emotional parts of the story is a hard task. In Shoorveer, was the focus more on the relationships (personal stories) between the officers or was the show more action-heavy with focus being given to the serve and protect side of the story?

Armaan: The cool part about the show is that when you’re seeing all the action, you’re not just seeing it as an action set piece. Each character has been so well developed and has such a rich backstory, with everyone having their own personal struggles. You see that in them. Its not just actors who are doing physical stuff, its characters that are going through it.so what they've done so beautifully is that they’ve made characters that people can connect with and relate to at a personal level. Of course the army, navy and air force side is a different thing, but its hard for an average person to relate to it. The personal side is something I’m sure people can really relate to. Its a beautiful blend of both these things coming together and the credit goes to the writers, directors and showrunner.

Aadil: I think a lot of credit for this goes to the way the show was written. The way the characters are designed and then put together in the story is fantastic. Because the writing has a very good approach towards the human value of that character. They’re not just somebody who wears the uniform and is sent to doing their duties. Their human emotions are also explored very well in the show. You know how you see the trailer and it looks like this fantastic show which is full of action and fighter planes as well as human emotions. When you end up seeing the show you realise that all of these have been very well balanced in the entire story.

Regina: Also there’s a bit of fiction as well in the whole thing they’re put across and they tried to make it look like something that happens in the real world as well. The special forces in the show might be something we might have in the future sometime. The way they brought the two worlds together and also it was a perfect balance because each character had a backstory and it was the perfect portrayal of having action, drama, emotion and everything else. Each of us have a conflict, each of us is trying to overcome something.

Armaan: Also this entire concept of best of the army, best of the navy, best of the air force getting together and forming one team, the whole concept is so interesting. The moment we got to know about it we were like ‘wow, this is something we’d want to be a part of’.

In Shoorveer, your character, Flight Lieutenant Avantika Rao, seems to be written as someone who prides herself on her excellence in what she does, and seems to be the ideal soldier, in terms of her dedication and strength, as her character promo suggests. This seems to be quite different from your characters in your previous two web series, Finger Tip and Anya’s Tutorial, as the latter two saw you essay characters with grey shades. Was it a refreshing change to essay a character who is more on the right side of things morally, or do you prefer to play characters who aren't all morally idealistic which also has its challenges?

Regina: All the three characters you mentioned are very different from each other. As much as I love playing strong characters, someone who is focussed, positive, someone who you can learn something from and is inspiring, I also love playing flawed characters. Characters who are vulnerable and so into their own emotions that they don't see the outside world for what it is. As an actor, the fact that I get to play all of these roles is challenging and exciting because you have to get into the minds of these characters.

At the end of the day playing an inspiring, righteous and focussed person is much easier than playing someone with a way more vulnerable side. I wouldn't club them into categories like ‘negative’ and ‘positive’, because that’s not how I look at the characters, it is probably the perspective of the person from the outside and how they perceive the characters. In Avantika Rao’s case, she’s someone who comes with a lot of baggage. She’s out there to prove something, with her own agenda. She’s someone who follows rules to a tee and does not deviate from that, which is not necessarily a very good thing also. But she’s someone you can depend on and you cant help but listen to. It was very interesting to play the character.

Aadil, in Special Ops 1.5, you’d played a RAW agent with antagonistic hues. Your character in Shoorveer seems to be a complete flip of Mahinder Singh, although the two share a combat background. Did you find yourself comparing your roles in Shoorveer and Special ops?

Aadil: No I don't think there is any comparison between the two characters. As an actor my perspective towards approaching a character is the belief that the character has in that particular situation or that particular story. And that makes the character very different from each other. Having said that its amazing as an actor to explore so many shades. I think that this is the best part of being an actor, in this one life you get to live so many other lives. I also believe that every other person has many other people in them, and as actors we learn how to take out what is needed out of us only. For instance the character I played in Special Ops 1.5, I obviously don’t agree with the things he did, but I could definitely understand why he did them. The understanding towards why the character does what they do is very needed. In Shoorveer, I play Salim Kamali and I understand and relate to a lot of the things the character was doing. He is hardworking, he has the attitude of a winner. He cannot compromise on being number one. There’s grit in him, and at the same time he has a lot of love for his family. Its a different shade he has in him. So overall, bringing Salim Kamali to life was a very interesting process. Because he’s not just about action, he’s not just about being a hardcore go getter. It's also about the human that he is. So that made it very very interesting.

In an earlier interview, Armaan, you’ve spoken of how the series will show the Indian air force in a new light. Could you expand a bit on that?

I mean of course the show predominantly involves bringing together the army, air force and navy, but since I play an airline pilot, my viewpoint was from that perspective. I don't ever think it's been depicted like this ever before. You get a good insight to what the personnel are dealing with in the show, both at a personal level and a mission perspective as well. It also explores how they work together as a team and how methodical their approaches are. Everything has to work like clockwork for them and decisions are taken in fractions of a second. So they had to have a lot of trust built among themselves. That part of it was a very cool thing and I’m sure it’ll be a fun experience for people to watch also, the way this kind of unit comes together. So to my knowledge, the air force depiction in the show at least, is something that has not been done in this way.