How did you come on board for ‘Shehzada’?
My character Raj has a big scene in the climax of the film and I auditioned for the film with that scene. But when director Rohit Dhawan saw it, he told me that this film is a Bollywood, masala commercial film and that’s the kind of acting needed. But the work I’ve done so far is in the OTT space. I’ve played characters that are a part of everyday life. But this cinema is larger than life, so the characters also had to be spectacular. So, I did the scene again and then after a few weeks, I got a call from Rohit directly who said, ‘tu yeh bhi kar sakta hai’. So, we started chatting instantly and I came on board.
How did you break the ice with the entire team and how was it working with actors like Kartik Aaryan, Paresh Rawal, Manisha Koirala, Ronit Roy?It’s been such a privilege to be in this kind of cinema. It was quite a big adjustment for me. Before shooting, Rohit called us for a blocking rehearsal. I was meeting Manisha Koirala, Ronit Roy for the first time, they play my parents in the film. Even Paresh ji was there. I had prepared a lot for it. Everyone was doing it quite casually. But I did the whole scene the way I would, if we were shooting that day. Suddenly, everyone realised that I could act and they developed respect for me. I got a bit of their respect that day and I already respected them a lot. That sort of broke the ice and started the conversation. It helped a lot because when you’re working with a team, the equation should be as co-stars. It can’t really be like you’re a fan.
What has been your learning when you work with such experienced actors in a set-up like this?
Actually, my learning came in long before, when I had done a film with Naseer Sahab (Naseeruddin Shah) called ‘The Tashkent Files’. I asked him if he had any advice for me. He told me that, ‘I wanted to be a leading man but when I got those, I was still playing the kind of roles that I was playing in the more serious films.’ So he told me, long story short, ‘you have to always perform for the genre. You have to act in the genre of the film. That learning helped me a lot in ‘Shehzada’ too when I had to adapt to this genre.
You’ve been a dancer as well. Share your thoughts about collaborating with Ganesh Acharya for this one.
I’ve seen his dances since I was a child and being able to collaborate with him and do a movie with him has been a privilege. He did it with me when I wasn’t getting some steps right. I started off as a dancer and he has a strong understanding of how dancers think, so we were very much connected throughout. It’s a privilege to work with him because he’s contributed so much to Hindi cinema. Even if it was not my shot, I would still sit with him on the monitor and see how he works. And he had so many stories to tell me about actors like Govinda.
With cinema also changing and OTT opening up more avenues, do you believe there are more opportunities for actors and people from every department?
Obviously with the coming of OTT, there’s so much more work happening that there’s a lot of opportunity than we had before. My thing is, what is the right type of work for me? That changes from every chapter of my life. Right now the kind of cinema that is being made, there are plenty of opportunities for me. More than that, there’s so much talent in our industry. I’m not at all worried about whether the right opportunity will find me because they’ve always found me.
You also are quite active on social media and have a great fan following over there. How do you see that as a medium?
I have fans on social media who appreciate my work, because of which I am able to do movies. I have my own life to lead but I know there’s a tool for me to connect to them, so I’m grateful. It’s tough sometimes to figure out how much you want to share about your personal life on social media but I appreciate that I’m able to share things with my fans and have a direct connect with them, because that makes me who I am today.
Tell us about your upcoming projects.
‘Undekhi’ season 3 is going to be starting soon and there are some more things happening which I won’t be able to talk about at the moment.
