22 years after Lagaan, Rachel Shelley returns to Indian production; Kohrra’s Sudip Sharma reveals how he got her on board

In an interview with indianexpress.com, Sharma opened up about the casting of the series, which includes known faces, newcomers, local talent from Punjab and British actor Rachel Shelley, best known for playing Elizabeth Russell in Lagaan.

“The casting of Rachel came from a bit of practicality. I knew I wanted an actor from UK for the part and didn’t want to hire a ‘white actor working in Mumbai’ just because it makes things easy,” Sharma, whose credits include NH10, Udta Punjab and Sonchiriya, said.

The filmmaker said the team was shooting Kohrra during COVID third wave and were on the lookout for an actor who would very well understand–and adapt–to shooting in the country with all its “chaos”.

 

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“Shooting a web series is tough, we don’t have the kind of budgets that’s there for films and a professional white actor, who has done good work over there, they would find it very tough to shoot here, the chaos that’s here. So, part of the reason to hire her was because she had done Lagaan, she knew what madness could be like.

“Apart from that, she is also a great actor and I had seen a bunch of her other work in the West. So, it was almost like a jigsaw puzzle when you are doing your casting. So much of it is gut and then of course your casting director, who will keep pushing the boundary.”

Sharma said Kohrra’s casting director Nikita Grover was “phenomenal” in getting the right actors, for which she spent “more than three months” in Punjab.

“She had also done the casting of Pataal Lok, acted in it, and has done casting for season two as well. She has in fact also acted in Kohrra. She understands the world we are trying to create, and it is always about going out there and finding those actors. She spent a good amount of time in Punjab, going to these pinds and kasbas to find these very real actors from there. People who have never acted before or those who have only done theatre, and Punjab has a very vibrant theatre scene. She really tapped into it,” he added.

Kohraa is produced by Clean Slate Filmz and directed by Randeep Jha. It will release on July 15.