Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh, based on the real life of professor Ramchandra Siras of Aligarh University, will see Rajkummar Rao essay the role of a journalist. Rao’s role is inspired by Deepu Sebastian Edmond who closely followed Siras’ case after the latter was ousted from the university for his homosexual orientation. Deepu was in fact the last person Siras spoke to before he died in 2010.
About his interactions with Deepu, Rao says, “I spoke to Deepu several times and tried to get his accent right. He sent me a few of his interviews and explained to me how he approaches a story. One needs a lot of passion and energy to put forth a story and I learnt this by observing journalists.”
Elaborating on his experience of interacting with an actor Deepu said, “The incident happened six years ago and my Hindi has gotten better now. Rajkummar spoke to me closer to the filming when I was in Ranchi, so my accent had become Bihari by then.” About professor Siras he adds, “I never met professor Ramchandra to begin with. I was in Delhi and had just joined a publication. But yes, he opened up quite a bit and we had a certain rapport. He told me stuff that he didn’t tell other reporters. We bonded over literature. He was not a person who would confide in you. He didn’t like to talk much but skirt an issue. I was in Aligarh when he died and was the last person he spoke to.”
