Jaideep Ahlawat: Living in another skin

The Covid-19 pandemic's break-out star has made playing against his physicality his trademark

In his 13-year-long career, Jaideep Ahlawat has made a habit of playing men who are somewhat uncomfortable in their own skin. Whether it is Kuber, the deadbeat traffic policeman with an expensive girlfriend in SonyLIV's new miniseries Tryst With Destiny; Sudhir, the adulterous friend caught between an assertive woman and her embarrassed husband in Netflix's Lust Stories (2018) in the segment directed by Dibakar Banerji; or Hathi Ram Chaudhary, the loser police officer who finally earns his own self-respect in 2020's breakout streaming hit, Paatal Lok, Ahlawat, 41, is always in the middle of some self-detonation.

It's a tentative masculinity that is at odds with his physicality. It is what makes Ahlawat such a joy to watch on screen. His characters never do or behave in the fashion expected of them. Take his Babloo in the Netflix anthology Ajeeb Dastaans (2021).

The mofussil monarch

Here is a man who seems aggressive, tough, every inch the mofussil monarch. Yet, it's not his seductive wife he covets, but the man she is seducing. Or his enigmatic spy in Meghna Gulzar's Raazi (2018). Is he a good guy or a bad guy?

Says Gulzar: "Khalid Mir needed to be a chameleon. He was gentle. And he was ruthless. But you should never be able to guess what he's feeling or thinking. Khalid Mir needed to be nondescript. Jaideep's (Ahlawat) name came up in team discussions. I was very excited at the prospect as I admired his craft. Plus, we needed someone who didn't have too much previous character identification."

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Gulzar says she casts her characters instinctively. The actor needs to visually suit the character, first and foremost. She met Ahlawat and instantly felt he was the perfect fit.

"When we began our look and costume trials, I pondered over his moustache. He had rarely been seen without it. We decided to experiment. We'd make him shave his moustache as a test, well before the shoot. So that if it didn't work, he'd have enough time to grow it back. Jaideep changed into a costume and went into the restroom to shave. And Khalid Mir came out," she adds.

A method actor

Such elements are things Ahlawat brings to his character. It could be the one-shoulder slumped walk he borrowed from his father for Hathi Ram or the habit he has of furtively looking around in Tryst with Destiny. Palomi Ghosh, his co-star in the segment, 1BHK, says few co-actors are so completely present in the scene and so giving of themselves. She thoroughly enjoyed playing the ambitious girlfriend to his ordinary traffic policeman who clearly wants more than he can earn.

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