Taher Shabbir who is playing an antagonist in Disney+Hotstar 'Kaala' said that playing an antagonist is a bit difficult but when one preps well it becomes easy.
Disney+Hostar is coming up with a new investigative thriller 'Kaala' that deep dives into the world of 'reverse hawala'. It is created and directed by Bijoy Nambiar and has Avinash Tiwary and Taher Shabbir as the leads. Taher is gearing up to play the negative part in the upcoming crime series. He is playing Naman Arya.
Outlook India recently had a conversation with Taher where he spoke about 'Kaala', his character and breaking the image of a goody-to-shoes guy to playing a negative role.
In the trailer of 'Kaala', we see the parallel economy of converting black money to white money and then to black through the process of reverse hawala. Asked Taher if he is aware of it, the actor said, ''When I was growing up white money used to be very less. In Kaala we have taken it to a whole other level where the reverse hawala is helping terrorism, arms and all that but the subject of reverse hawala is always been there. People used to do that, smuggle cars and all apparently. I have heard stories about it when I was a child''.
He added, ''It is a new concept and will be fun for the audience to explore it.''
'Kaala' is dark. It has crime, corruption power play, and revenge. When Taher was asked if he feels the burden if he is assigned such a role that is so intense, he said, ''If you don't prepare for the character, then it becomes a burden. If you are preparing for any character, it's the same. In my case, when I play a character which I don't relate to because I don't relate to Naman at all obviously. So, it's not harder but it takes time. When you are preparing for the guy and when you start to fight a case of his justification, if you do that well then it becomes easy and it's not a real burden. Yes, it is a little bit hard not in terms of an actor but as a person to start to believe that whatever the person is doing is right. So, obviously, when you are playing an antagonist, it is a bit difficult but the burden you are talking about is the same in any character you play because ultimately you have to prep. If you prep well, it is really easy.''
Taher had earlier played a 'good guy' in most of his previous projects be it 'Naam Shabana' or 'Guilty'. On breaking from one image to another, Shabbir said, ''I am a really simple guy. I don't know what my image has been before. However, I have to say that I have done this little bit of a chocolate boy with 'Naam Shabana' or even it was with 'Guilty'. It was goody-to-shoes kind of a guy. Yes, it was. I come from the theatre. So, for me, the performance of a character is most important.''
He also added that his character Naman will break an image. ''This guy has evil that resides inside him but I do feel like I said I love Naman as much as I love the other guy. Because where Naman stands he is absolutely right and that's the way he is brought up. So, I would defend him as much as I defend Danish Ali Beig (his character in Guilty). I feel stepping into the shoes of Naman was probably more fun than anything else that I have done before this,'' said Taher.
'Kaala' streams from September 15 and it also stars Rohan Vinod Mehra, Nivetha Pethuraj, Hiten Tejwani, Jitin Gulati and Elisha Mayor, among others.