Uttarakhand residents recall Kedarnath star as a man dedicated to his craft

DEHRADUN: Residents of Uttarakhand who worked with actor Sushant Singh Rajput during his month-long stay in the state for shoot of the 2018 film “Kedarnath” recall an easy-going person and an actor dedicated to his craft. Rajput spent more than a month in Kedarnath and nearby towns and villages, and spent good time with residents of the hill state who contributed to making of the film.
Dehradun-based theatre artiste Pratap Singh, who played a small role in “Kedarnath”, said, “I spent 10 days at the shoot (of “Kedarnath”). My scenes were shot around the Triyuginarayan temple. We stayed with the cast and crew at a hotel in a nearby village. Rajput would put a lot of effort into his scenes. He hardly had any airs or tantrums you usually associate with a star. He would have his meals with us. For a particular scene, we had to act in artificial rain at 5am. All of us struggled and complained about it, except Rajput, who did the scene without flinching.”
Anuj Nautiyal, who owns a tourism company in Dehradun and arranged for stays of the film’s cast and crew, said Rajput was an accommodating person when it came to working with the limited facilities available in the hills. “Rajput was fond of going to the gym but we didn’t have one on the set, so we gave him a bicycle instead. He used to ride it along hill roads for several kilometres,” Nautiyal said. “ We spent six months with the team of “Kedarnath”, from March to September 2017. Rajput arrived in July and during his stay, we had a lot of sessions with him and director Abhishek Kapoor. We had to recreate the market of Ram Bara village, which was completely destroyed in the 2013 floods. For that, we had to carry a lot of equipment from Rishikesh to construct the pre-flood set. Although, the actual flood scenes were shot in Mumbai. I arranged several horses for the film and one of them was selected to be Rajput’s steed. They named him “Rustom” in the movie,” Nautiyal added.
Abhinav Thapar, a local resident, who does coordination work for Bollywood films shot in the state, said, “Rajput’s death is a big loss for the film industry. He was a talented actor. I had invited him to visit Uttarakhand again and shoot another film here, preferably around Tehri Lake, as it is a picturesque spot. He promised to come.”