Showhardo: I wrote a biography for Samad before playing him

We all know that the great Robert De Niro is one of the greatest living method actors of our time. But did you know, for his 1976 'Taxi Driver' role as Travis Bickle, he obtained a taxi licence, worked 12-hour shifts, and even changed his appearance to really adopt a taxi driver look? 

But how is Niro important to our discourse in Ali Wahab Showhardo's story and more importantly, what is method acting? We'll get to all that.

Young actor Showhardo, a third-year student at Shahjalal University of Science & Technology (Sust), has recently played the protagonist in Binge original web series 'Agochora', directed by Siddiq Ahmed. 

'Agochora' was inspired by Mohammad Nazim Uddin's crime-thriller book about a young man drawn into the world of politics and crime, set sometime in the 980s in Old Dhaka. Fazlur Rahman Babu, Zakia Bari Mamo and Intekhab Dinar act in lead roles in the web series.

"I was raised in puran Dhaka. So, I've experienced the puran Dhaka lifestyle sitting in the front row," Showhard said. Getting in the skin of a "Dhakaiya" was not a task for him – which by the way certainly felt the case for the rest of the star cast, as their Puran Dhaka accent sounded really off. 

But that is not, particularly why Showhardho shone the brightest in his role. "I've always been into method acting and I prefer to get under the skin of whichever role I think I have to play, for a considerable amount of time," he said.

He went on to talk about Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, the pioneers of method acting. Niro is his favourite method actor for his mind bending performances in 'Raging Bull', 'Taxi Driver' and so forth. But other monumental method actors, the likes of Daniel Day Lewis, Marlon Brando, Heath Ledger and others, were also spoken of. 

Childhood

"I was born in Netrakona but moved to Puran Dhaka soon after. However, the rivers from my hometown moved me deeply. I still visit rivers whenever I can," he added. 

Study-wise, he had the most illustrious journey. After schooling at St. Gregory High School & College, he got into Notre Dame College, then to IBA-DU, before finally settling in SUST. 

"I was never into business studies. I took the IBA entry exam as Baba requested me to. I got in but wasn't feeling it. So, a year later I moved to SUST," Showhardo said. 

But how does acting fit into all this? Acting chose him, it was just in his stars.

His first acting "gigs" were mimicry. "I used to mimic my teachers for fun. Even they found it funny and asked me to mimic them in front of them. I also used to reproduce dialogues from movies," Showhardo said. 

This in turn pushed him to take acting seriously. At grade 8, one of his teachers asked him to participate in a school play. After that, he got into a theatre troupe and honed his acting skills further. He even learned to mime by watching French mime artist Marcel Marceau on YouTube. 

"Since starting Notre Dame College, I was determined to stay with performance art. Not to learn acting but because I enjoyed it as an art form," he said. He performed on stage in lead roles in over 25 plays with the Notre Dame theatre group. He later performed in Dhaka University, Viqarunnisa, St Joseph, Scholastica, etc, and brought home best performer awards.

"On the stage, there is zero room for error," he said about acting in plays. "Years of this intense practice led me to acting with never breaking character!"

From stage to screen

Showhardo first met 'Agochora' director Siddiq Ahmed on a radio show. Both being writers, they were guests on the radio show in late 2019 to promote their books. Showhardo's first book 'Metamorphic Nishithe' was set to come out in 2020 Boi Mela. 

In the show, Showhardo did some mimicry, again, and was quickly recognised by Siddiq as a talented actor. "If any of my books are adapted into a movie or TV series, you'll act in it," he quoted Siddiq as saying.

In early March 2022, he actually got a call from Siddiq, and the rest, as they say, is history. He also became a part of the screenwriting team. 

"As an additional screenwriter, I spent a lot of time with the book. From theatre practice, I knew how to memorise scripts. The screenwriter role, along with that, helped me dive deep into my role," he added.  

For 'Agochora', he shared the screen with acting veterans like Fazlur Rahman Babu, Mamo, Dinar, and others. "This made me a little nervous but I pulled it off anyway," he said. 

"The character I play in Agochora, Samad, is a very plain and introverted one, but I tried to apply method acting in it. I wrote a long biography for the character and isolated myself for around four months to really get into character. I tried to bring out his nuances and subtleties through me." 

Samad's favourite poem is PB Shelley's Ozymandias. Through the course of the series, he subconsciously develops a persona that refers to itself as Ozymandias. "The scene where he finally embraces this violent alter ego has been hugely appreciated by the audience," he said excitedly.