Swanand Kirkire on Creating Bandwaale, Playing Robo Kumar: 'There Are People Like Him Who Exist'
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Swanand Kirkire, the renowned lyricist and actor, has taken a step further with his new show Bandwaale. In an exclusive chat with HT, he talked about creating the show and the inspiration behind it.
Kirkire marks his debut as a co-creator and co-writer of the show, alongside fellow musician and creator Ankur Tewari. He also stars in the show as Robo Kumar, an orchestra singer. From actor to now a creator of a show, does Kirkire see this as a natural progression for him as an artist?
He agrees and says, "I always wanted to direct a film, which has not happened yet, but becoming a creator is a step forward towards that. It is a much-needed progression because things quickly become stagnant and stale. So, I wanted to do this show."
Talking about the journey of writing and scripting the story, Kirkire adds, "Very initially we thought of it as a film, but when we pitched the story to Amazon, they liked the idea and suggested that it can also become a web show. They were ready and we thought why not? Let's go ahead because a story is a story. So we changed the format really, and the biggest learning from that is the fact that it is a mammoth task. It is not easy. A good show or a bad show, everything takes a lot of blood and sweat."
"Even if they fail, and that is okay… the best part is when people like it, they will pick it further, and if they don't, then they will discard it in a second. So yeah, it was a big task," he adds.
Kirkire adds a lot of heart and humour into his performance as the orchestra player Robo Kumar. He is a little delusional, but he never means harm. The actor said, "I always wanted to create this character, and there are people like him who exist. They derive things from cinema, and they are not aware of what's right and wrong. But if you tell them the difference, they understand it! It is not a big deal."
Bandwaale is set in Rathlam, Madhya Pradesh. The show is peppered with so many interesting characters from a small town, but also has a specificity to their language and a desire to be modernised. Kirkire says that Rathlam was the one choice that fit the bill for the show.
He says, "From what I know, the best way to tell a story is to set it in a milieu that you really know. I am from Indore, and since childhood, I have seen Rathlam. It is a railway town established by the British, and so there are still many Anglo-Indian families living there. Even the main protagonist of the show is a Syrian Christian living in Rathlam who composes poems in Hindi. That is the reality of a place like Rathlam, too, and I am always so fascinated with these facets of a place."
Kirkire believes that there are many more small-town stories yet to come. He says, "I do not think it is saturated at all. India is so vast. If I put the love story of Bandwaale in another small city, it would be totally different. The characters will be different, the problems will be different. I will give credit to TVF for this, because they were the first to start digging up stories from the land."
