Shor in the CityRaj and DK had made the short film by the name of Shor. I had just passed out of the FTII and they auditioned me and cast me in the short film. Based on that they offered a small cameo in their film 99, an interesting role nevertheless and then Shor in the City happened. Since I had then known the makers for over three years, the concept and the character was very clear in my mind and that helped immensely in the portrayal. Upcoming ProjectsThere is Alaap by debutante director Manish Manikpuri. It is a musical based in Chhattisgarh, about four engineering students who did not want to be engineers in the first place and how they are making music as a rock band and attempting to win over the Maoists with their music. Then there is Joker by Shirish Kunder with Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi, Shreya and Minisha Lamba. Am also doing Dibanker Bannerjee’s next film, Shanghai, with Emraan, Kalki and Abhay. I want to take it slow, post Shor in the City, I declined approximately 10 films as they were offering the same Mumbai tapori role. I need to push myself as an actor to do different roles. I guess that is the challenge for most actors, to not get stereotyped, yet what is expected is a recreation of an earlier successful role.Shirish’s JokerI got the role over the phone. Shirish had seen my work and wanted to cast me in Joker. I was shooting in Chhattisgarh forests and when I came back to Bhilai after the shoot, I saw some messages on my Facebook wall stating that Shirish wanted to meet me immediately. But I couldn’t meet him due to my prior shooting dates in Chhattisgarh. Later I sent some of my footage to Shirish and he saw them and called me up. We spoke in detail about the role over the phone and everything was finalised. My character in the movie has a ‘hunch’. My look in the whole lot is very different from what I’ve attempted before, on stage or on screen. Variety in RolesI entered the industry with minuscule roles. However, I am glad to have reached a stage where I now get opportunities to play significant characters. I am also doing theatre with Ila Arun. Our play Marichika was recently adjudged as the ‘Best Entertaining Play’ at the Big Entertainments Award in Mumbai. Honestly, there are no differences in working for a commercial or an art house film. I have developed a taste for all kinds of films...it’s just that I don’t want to be typecast.
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