Shivam is making his debut as an actor in the Amit Saxena directed film ‘Nasha’. Playing the protagonist, his character is a young high school student, and the story deals with his infatuation with a new teacher, because of which the character goes through an emotional journey and eventually comes of age, rediscovering himself. An accomplished street dancer, Shivam is known in the underground dancing circuit as 'Evolution', or Bboy Evolution. His journey of dance began at age 18 with his hip hop crew, "Street Soul Dance Crew", which is one of India's most respected hip hop dance crews, and arguably also the best. Shivam and his crew from HR college have won major dance events across India, many times even 3 years in a row in college fests like Kshitij, Malhar, Kaleidoscope, Umang, Waves (BITS Pilani Goa), Bruha (Sydenham), Mood Indigo (IIT Bombay) and many others. They also won India's biggest college festival ‘Indiafest’ in 2011, and the "International Dance Festival" held in Pune in 2012. Acting as a career was not an easy choice, but when it happened, Shivam took it on as a challenge.
Q. What kind of character are you playing??
Shivam: The character I play is an extremely emotional, vulnerable guy. 'Sahil', is not very expressive. He gets infatuated with his teacher and the story is about this emotional connect, with a woman he cannot have, yet a woman he cannot help but desire. And, as is the case with desires unfulfilled, they turn into obsessions. And yet, every obsession is a lesson learnt; an experience gained. So that, in the course of coping with his unrequited love, the boy requites a lot more. And both he and the woman come of age.
Q: Any interesting incidents?
Shivam: One night we all were celebrating Diwali in Panchgani and everybody was high and inebriated. One of my friends, Rohan, who is playing my best friend in the film, has a habit of jamming and improvising music. He suddenly grabbed a guitar and came up with a song which happened to be a funny mash up of Hotel California, and he sang it in a hilarious South Indian accent. The director Amit Saxena loved it so much that he made Rohan and my other friends come up with an improvised song on the sets during the shoot, which would be relevant to the film’s script and story. Amit sir shot it, and the song is now there in the film, and is looking great!
Q: Since you are an ace dancer, do you have this talent also showcased in the film?
Shivam: Amit sir never knew that I am a dancer. It happened on the same night of Diwali, when my friends asked me to dance. Dancing is in my blood and I've so much discipline over my moves, that even after being crazy high, my sense of balance is presentably good. So I gave this short dance performance, and it got such a major positive reaction that Amit sir added a dance section into "the Goti song". It was shot exclusively after shoot was done and it is real fun, punk song. There's a long shot in the song where the entire concluding 1 minute dance sequence was so complicated and difficult to execute, that it took 17 takes to wrap up, and I must've run atleast 1-2 kilometers in the process. And finally it was all done!
Q: It is said that you danced inspite of injury?
Shivam: Its part of the game. Yes I danced with an injured hamstring on painkillers and muscle relaxants. It happened just a day before the shoot during rehearsal, also I was on ice packs all the time. But as it was "my" song so I had to kill it regardless of my injury and dance with flying, swinging, jumping, flipping and singing!
Q: How did the ‘Goti’ Song happen?
Shivam : Just before the song is a scene, where Poonam – Our Professor tells us about doing a play and she says it'll be a spoof on famous lovers like Laila/majnu, Romeo/Juliet. Idea was to go totally opposite of the belief that they never had happy ending. Instead we were supposed to imagine a scene where these lovers never tragically fall apart? They got together and happy ending ensued? So one of us says "Goti jaam ho jaati"... and thus we come up with the song where exactly the protagonist is trying to convey this thought with his friends via a song. It’s a fun song.
Q: Your comment on Poonam Pandey?
Shivam: She is a fine person. She was really impressed with my dance antics on Diwali celebrations. I was very impressed with her final scene in the film, where she breaks down in front of me, right before the final ‘love making’. But honestly speaking Poonam has surprised all those who were skeptical about her skills. She is a real good performer, and under right direction she is really good on screen presence.
Q: What would you say about your director Amit Saxena?
Shivam: Amit Saxena is a fab Director!! He actually promotes talent, highlights it well. He's pulled a very real performance out of me too and he has upgraded Poonam's image majorly in the film.
Q: We heard that your real life friends are playing your friends in the film as well?
Shivam: Yes, We friends in the film are basically great friends in real life too and much before the film. We all got cast together, because we're a solid group. It was only me that took a month of auditioning because I had to do the lead!!
