Chandu Champion fame actor Nitin Bhajan was seen in the Swiss film And Tomorrow We Will Be Dead, which was released in 2021. This was his debut international movie, and he said that the movie was quite unique and required a different acting approach.
The movie is based on the true story of a couple, David and Daniela, who were traveling along the Silk Route in 2011 and were kidnapped upon crossing the Pakistan border by a small terrorist group. They were held hostage for almost eight months.
Speaking of his role in the film, Nitin said, “I played a terrorist named Manora in the film, part of a gang led by Omara. Our group, consisting of 4-5 members, kidnaps the couple, and the story then follows what happens next. This film was a unique experience for me because it was a foreign film, requiring a different approach to acting and meeting various demands. It was an important project for me.”
“The characters were crafted to create a significant impact while doing less. This was especially true for my role. Since we had to communicate with the Swiss or German characters and didn’t speak their language, our communication was minimal, yet effective. Within our group, we spoke Pashto, as we were playing Balochis who kidnapped the couple in Balochistan. We had a Pashto coach who taught us the language, and we used it in a few scenes, even though our dialogue was limited. The visual impact and the way we carried ourselves were crucial. We portrayed realistic, hardcore criminals and terrorists, creating a sense of fear,” he added.
He was very happy to be a part of the project and said that he will always cherish it because it gave him the opportunity to play a cold-blooded terrorist in a subtle and nuanced way. “Each of the four terrorists in the film had a distinct style of dealing with the couple, which was well-executed and added depth to our characters. After kidnapping the couple, we sell them to a larger terrorist organization like the Taliban. The characters we portrayed were completely unemployed, uneducated individuals with no jobs, no education, and no real sense of community or purpose before the events of the film. They live in a timeless state, disconnected from the progress and civilization of the outside world,” he said.
“We did an acting workshop with a famous coach to bring out this timelessness in our characters. These characters were just working for money to survive, with a sense of time slipping by them. We aimed to portray this sense of timelessness and the rootedness of these characters to their environment,” he added.
The film explores their captivity, how they survive, and ultimately how they manage to escape from the terrorists and return to their country. It’s a very thrilling film, the kind that keeps you on the edge of your seat with its intense drama.
The movie featuring the couple in their initial days was shot in Switzerland and Germany, while the parts that depicted parts set in Pakistan and Balochistan, mainly involving terrorists, were shot in Udaipur.
Munjya fame Abhay Verma, too, was part of the movie and played a local guide who was actually a terrorist in disguise. Nitin called him a very good friend of his and said, “Abhay Verma played a local guide in Pakistan. He was basically our guide, though he was a terrorist. During the film shoot, Abhay and I became very close friends and enjoyed each other’s company immensely. We had great chemistry and spent a lot of time together, especially when we weren’t shooting.”
“There were many fun moments throughout the film, with both the guide and the terrorists speaking Pashto. We rarely spoke Hindi, even off-camera, as we were always practicing our dialogues. Despite usually being a serious person, I discovered a humorous side to myself when I met Abhay. We both enjoyed each other’s humor a lot. Abhay is a wonderful, charming person, and we shared many innocent jokes and had a great time together,” he added.
