Actor Chirag Vohra, who plays Mahatma Gandhi in the series Freedom at Midnight, recounts how he lost 15 kg for the role at the behest of creator Nikkhil Advani
A still from Freedom at Midnight
Playing Mahatma Gandhi can be both, an opportunity of a lifetime as well as a huge responsibility. Surprisingly though, Freedom at Midnight creator-director Nikkhil Advani had only one demand from actor Chirag Vohra—that he shed weight. “When I met Nikkhil sir, he said, ‘Whether I cast you in the character of Gandhi or not is secondary. The first thing that you need to do is lose 15 kg,’” recounts the actor, who weighed 72 kg at the time. “I told sir, ‘If you cast me in the show, I will do whatever you ask me to do.’” With the aid of a dietician-approved meal plan, Vohra lost 16kg in approximately six months, before he reported to the set in January.
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While Advani was strict about the actor’s diet, he gave Vohra a free rein when it came to bringing Mahatma alive on screen. The actor, who is joined by Sidhant Gupta and Rajendra Chawla in the period drama that revisits the events leading up to India’s partition and independence in 1947, says the creator had immense faith in him as an artiste and let him do his own homework for the part. “Nikkhil sir worked on the show for four years with his writing team. Before going to the shoot, we actors also prepared a lot. But once we reached the set, sir said, ‘Let’s forget all the preparation. Let’s feel the moment and let the magic happen.’ From that, an artiste’s [instinct] emerges and it always goes in the right direction.”
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