Rupinder Rainer had the opportunity to catch up with Parmish Verma to talk about his upcoming movie Tabaah.

Welcome Parmish Verma to Simplybhangra.com. Firstly, congratulations on the release of your new film, which is releasing next week.

Thank you, thank you for having me.

Having a look at the trailer for this film, it's quite different to the other Punjabi films. Even your first film with Rocky Mental, that was quite different. And now Tabaah. Where did you get the idea of this film from?

The script came to me, so the idea wasn't mine. But I was certain that I wanted to do something like this. I wanted to do a character which was unlike Parmish. I felt the roles that I was being offered, they were basically the same role, but just a different name. And, there was different variations of the same character.

I understand that's how industry works, because once you become successful in a certain genre, people want to make similar style, to make money, because that's what people like. But as an actor, I felt that I'm selling myself short. I haven't fully showcased my talent. You know, there's more to an actor than just playing a romantic comedy or action role.

So this, I felt as an actor, it was a different genre. This was a different character. Ambar is somebody who's very unlike Parmish. I wouldn't deal with heartbreak or tragedy the same way Ambar did. So as an actor, that was the challenge. I really enjoyed performing someone who I couldn't resonate with.

Some might say that's quite similar to the movie Kabir Singh, the Bollywood movie. What would you like to say about that?

That it's not. Only because drinking and smoking in our film is a coping mechanism. This film isn't about drinking alcohol or this isn't about smoking cigarettes. I feel in Kabir Singh, the Kabir Singh character had an opportunity to vent out his anger. But Ambar, on the other hand, is simmering in his own sorrow. So every heartbreak is different.

Drinking and smoking is just plain coping mechanism. Even if I wanted to copy a film, I wouldn't go for something that big, that successful. It just came out two years ago. So, I knew this from the very first day, the first day we posted the poster. We knew that people would think this is Kabir Singh simply because it was a shot of smoking and drinking. But that's a conscious call that you take as an actor, as a producer and as a director.

In your role, you changed your physical appearance quite a bit, so what did you have to do to get into that shape?

I just had to eat a lot and not train. It was ideal. It's just that again, it shows my commitment and it shows how driven I was to play someone who was unlike me. To play a character which had more detail and actually show the trauma that this character has been through.

This film isn't about drinking or smoking or losing weight. That's where I'm getting to. This film is about that individual's emotions. It's about his sorrow, it's about his grief. And the putting on the weight, drinking alcohol, everything just came with it.

Did you have to stay away from the gym for a while?

Yeah, that was the hardest. If I ate more and kept training, then I would just gain size. I'd still be fat, I'd still put on some fat. But the muscles wouldn't stop pumping if I was training every day. So I wanted to show how this individual deteriorated by drinking alcohol. I had to stop training so my arms, my shoulders deformed from their original shape. T

hat was hard because you're taking 3-4 months off training for somebody who's always trained. It was just annoying. Because you don't fully feel awake when you're not training. You just need a lot of caffeine in order for your body to feel that you're fully energized. And with all that more weight added to your body, you feel more lethargic. The way you stand, the way you walk, everything's affected. Your breathing isn't the same. But that's what we needed for Amber.

Because in order to perform differently than what I've done before, I needed a different breathing pattern. I needed a different speaking pattern. And that all changed automatically when I put on the weight.

You probably needed a new wardrobe as well.

So the good thing about Tabaah was that I produced it. So what I did was, I found a lot of clothes that were worn by my friends or my dad. They were old clothes that I’d find. So I pulled out some of those. And I know you've been following my work for the past many years. And I'm sure you will find a few outfits from my old music videos too.

Somebody like Amber who's asking for money to drink alcohol. He's obviously not going to wear brand new clothes. So Amber's outfits were part of the creative process.

So as soon as shooting ended, you must be like, right, I'm heading to the gym now.

Not even the shooting. I think the day I gave my first shot without my shirt. From that moment I started training.

And where was the film shot?

The film was shot in Patiala. Chandigarh, Patiala mostly. So, there's not many locations. It's shot locally. Didn’t really go abroad or anything. It was all in India. Also, I think it was a conscious decision as well because they wanted to make a very realistic film. You'll feel that the locations and the characters, everything is very real.

You were supposed to release it earlier in the year. So how come there were so many delays? Three times?

Yeah, three times. I've been super honest with this. And you know, there's no two ways about it. I produced the film. I directed the film. And you know, when you invest all your money from your own pocket, you know, you want the best, and your name is out there, as a director. Then there's a lot of responsibility as well.

I didn't want it to deliver a product which was half finished. And during the filming my wife was pregnant. We were expecting a daughter towards the end of the filming. So the first delay happened because I just wanted to be with my family.

The second delay happened because I felt the film was incomplete. So instead of rushing the film release, I redid the whole background score for the film, which took me six months because I was doing shows. I was traveling between my family, India, and then any extra time I would get, I would work on my film.

The third delay happened because the film was ready, but the team wasn't ready to promote the film. Everybody had different dates locked.

So the last delay only happened for a month and a half. So we just basically joined hands and we found the best releasing spot so everybody could take time off and promote the film. And hopefully that's happening.

Like you said, you produced it, you directed it, but you also acted in it. How did you balance all your work?

It was super hard. I won't lie to you. It was a very tiring process because as an actor, you need some extra time to prepare for your scenes. All that extra time is shared between your director responsibility and anything that's missing is also your fault and your responsibility because you're the producer as well.

But then I feel sometimes in life you have to work harder. Sometimes in life you have to sacrifice a part of you. That could be taking 10% away from your performance, taking 20% away from your direction and share it in other departments only because if I don't do that, I would have to go back to filming the same films over and over again. I didn't work for three years because I wasn't getting any scripts where I could perform where I would get characters which had more layers to them.

So I would rather make a film once a year and sacrifice a part of me and still be happy with the 70-80% instead of doing a film where I'm not satisfied at all.

But I'm so happy with the final outcome. So that's where it's all worth it. At the end of the day, when you see the final outcome of the film, when you see the final result, everything was worth it. The two years that you put in it, they were worth it.

So I'm really looking forward to release on the 18th and I can't wait for people's reactions, good or bad, because I'm sure that there will be some people who would still have comments about my performance, comments about the story and I'd be more than happy to take that feedback and come back with a better written, better performed, better executed film. It's a process. When my audience would join that process, I think I could do better next time.