Shor In The City Clocks 12: DYK Sendhil Ramamurthy Had 15 Words In Hindi In His Bollywood Debut

Directorial duo Raj-DK’s Shor In The City, released on this day 12 years ago, pins you down to its brilliant screenplay from the first frame when we see the three waylaid. The film was originally titled Shor. But actor-filmmaker Manoj Kumar had that title.

The characters work both as predators and as victims. They feel the gun gives them the right of way when in fact the traffic snarl of life has got them by their balls. The most interesting strand in the lucid lineup of conflicted characters is the NRI Abhay (Sendhil Ramamurthy) whose dreams of setting up his own business in the city are turned into a nightmare by goons who muscle into his workplace and life with menacing insidiousness.

The interaction between the NRI and the goons is chilling to the core. So real because they are sound so unrehearsed. Abhay’s lapse into a life that he had probably left behind, is charted in a zigzag of humour and irony.

The Indo-American actor Sendhil Ramamurthy, seen recently on Do Aur Do Pyaar, made his Bollywood debut in Shor In The City. It had him speaking in English. In an interview in 2010, Sendhil had said, "My character is supposed to speak a smattering of bad Hindi in Shor. I have exactly fifteen words in Hindi in Shor. Trust me, I've counted them. I tried to get them to cut it down. I had thirty Hindi words to begin with. I campaigned to get them reduced by half. I must be the only actor in the world who has actually asked for my lines to be cut."

Sendhil didn’t see any incongruity in being a Bollywood actor who can't speak Hindi. "When I was here the last time my producer Ekta Kapoor had thrown a party for me to meet the Bollywood actors and actresses. When I apologetically confessed that I didn't speak in Hindi, they said, 'Neither do we.' I've to be realistic about what I can expect from my so-called Bollywood career. I can't play a fluent Hindi-speaking hero. I wasn't born and raised in India. So a full-fledged Bollywood career is just not going to happen. But there're so many kinds of films being made in Bollywood."

Sendhil's second language is Kannada since his father is from Karnataka. "My mother is Tamil. My dad is Kannada. I can barely manage Kannada. I don't know Hindi at all. For those 15 words in Shor, I got a Hindi coach to tutor me and then I memorized them on my iPod, on my treadmill or while driving. I learnt those fifteen words."