Jaideep Ahlawat who impressed the audience with his depiction of a negative character in the film “Khatta Meetha”, has gone from strength to strength. The Film and Television Institute of India graduate has subsequently been seen in films like “Gangs of Wasseypur”, “Commando”, Kamal Haasan’s “Vishwaroopam” and this year in the Akshay Kumar-starrer “Gabbar Is Back”.
For Jaideep acting is a serious business and he considers that an actor lives a thousand lives in one life. Describing his Bollywood journey as “so far so good”, he feels that an actor is never satisfied and always hungry and greedy for something new. “They say thoda hai thode ki zarurat aur hai and I think I have a lot of zarurat apparently. I just want all the directors and the actors who I wish to work with, to have faith in my acting and I hope they cast me soon,” he quips.
In an interaction, Jaideep shares his thoughts with The Hindu, about his new film “Meeruthtiya Gangsters”, his role in it and acting.
Excerpts from the interview:
Tell us about your character in “Meeruthtiya Gangsters”.
I am playing a character named Nikhil Chaudhary who is basically a ‘Gang ka Chaudhary’ and leads six men. He plans everything for the gang while the brothers execute them. He’s the smartest of the lot and is more experienced in terms of fathoming life’s philosophy, society and crime. The character is a little off beat who keeps his group intact.
Nikhil wants to accomplish something great in life to make his parents happy, so in order to do so, the shortcuts that these youngsters take, take their lives to a different tangent and they indulge in wrongdoings.
Did you have any apprehensions about audience accepting you in a negative role
When somebody presents a good plot, you intuitively feel like doing it. For instance, when I first read the character of Shahid Khan, I just wanted to do the role. I take upon the responsibility that if I do not do justice to the character, it would spoil the plot of the movie. As far as the audience is concerned, I feel that they want to see good acting and as long as I’m able to do justice to the role, my audience will appreciate me.
How will you define acting?
It’s pretty simple, if one can really feel and connect to the character while portraying it, then that is how I define acting. The moment when you play the role and remember it for a lifetime, then that’s where you’ve really acted. There is a scene in ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ where Shahid Khan fights with those who killed his wife. In those 30 seconds I felt like I am Shahid Khan in reality and I forgot my real identity so that’s quite magnificent. Acting is reliving different things, different people at different point of time.
Hailing from Haryana how do you manage the accent in Tamil films?
Well, I guess my training has been done quite well (laughs). Studying in Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, I came across students from across the country belonging to different strata of society and speaking different languages. When I did ‘Vishwaroopam’ with Kamal Haasan, I also dubbed the movie in Tamil and along with everyone else was surprised how I pulled off the Tamil accent so flawlessly. Then I realised that studying at FTII with Tamilians I had picked up their accent. If you keep your eyes and ears open, it’s easy to grasp everything.
If not an actor, what would you have been?
II wanted to join the Indian Army but I couldn’t crack the SSB exam. When I failed I was devastated but then theatre happened. That was a turning point in my life. All the anger, the frustration that I felt, I converted into positive energy and that was reflected in my theatre. My two years at the Institute were the most important years of my life. I found my identity and now I’m happy with whatever I am.
