Adinath Kothare on Nayyi Navelli: 20 days in prosthetics and a Dussehra release

Adinath Kothare says the response to Nayyi Navelli, where he plays the lead opposite Yami Gautam, has left him overwhelmed. He feels a festive family film could not have found a better window than Dussehra, and he says children are enjoying it the most.

The story is set in Meerut, so the dialect took real work. Kothare said he was the only actor on set who was not from North India. On his first or second day, he laughed at a joke Yami cracked, and she looked at him and said, "Adi, this is Raja!" He said that moment pushed him closer to the character.

Prosthetics were the toughest part. He wore a silicone bodysuit from neck to toe, plus patches on his face, forehead and neck, sometimes for 12 hours at a stretch. Getting ready took four hours and taking it all off took another hour and a half, during a May shoot. The set had five large air conditioners with long snaking tubes, and two of them were kept only for him.

In the first days the itching was so bad that the direction team called a break. After two days of trial and error, the fix was a thick coat of dusting powder and a swimmer's suit under the prosthetics. Even so, during one rehearsal with Yami he found the floor wet and realised it was his own sweat leaking through the silicone.

Out of about 50 shooting days, he spent 20 in the suit. Filming began in April, and he said the makers fast tracked it to make the Dussehra release.

Casting director Mukesh Chhabra brought him the part while he was shooting a television show he was also producing. Kothare told him he was free, loved the script on first hearing, and sorted out his dates with the channel heads.

Balaji Mohan directs the film. Kothare also has Ramayana coming up and said he feels lucky to have two films releasing so close together.