‘It was a dream cast to work with’

Are you glad you accepted the role in Maharathi?

It was the decision of the director and the producer to come up to me and say that they wanted me to do the film. And when I heard the narration and the cast, it was a dream cast to work with. I was sure I was not going to miss out on this movie.

Maharathi is adapted from a Gujarati play. Have you see the play?

I have not seen the play. I think it is very essential for an actor to characterise the role on their own, rather than seeing what other people are doing to the character. It won’t have been fair on my part; I wanted to give a fresh look to the character. And when I had a chat with Paresh Rawal and Shivum Nair, the director, they were like - do what you think is right for the character.

Tell us about Paresh who has been with the play earlier.

It was quite bizarre because he has been with the play for so long. He knows the characters so well. He would know my lines, Naseer’s and Boman’s line. He has done the play so many times and also rehearsed for it. His knowledge about the play is great; his knowledge about cinema as such is really good. It is always great working with him.

What about Boman and Om Puri. What are they like?

I have worked with Boman earlier too, he is a friend. I have worked with Om Puri in Chup Chup Ke and Singh is Kinng. So, they always treated me with a lot of care. It is an entirely different setup. It was serious when we were working otherwise it was a lot of fun.

You are working on very selective scripts getting an image make over from a sexy raunchy actor to a serious actor.

I am glad that people are asking me this question. They see me growing as an actor. After a point you become conscious, for how long are people just going to look at me? It took me a bit long to reach this position to help people understand that looking good is not what I am all about.

Which are the new projects you are working on?

I am doing Papu Can’t Dance Saala with Vinay Pathak, which is a romantic comedy. It is directed by Saurabh Shukla.