 oh are you can you hear me we're him oh hello hold on thank you so much for coming on man we wanted to talk to you uh for ever you might actually be the actor from india that we've seen most i believe actually i think we've seen 14 14 films of yours i think wow yeah we really have you it's either you or your fund one of the two those are the those are the two actors i think we've seen the most but yeah we've wanted to talk to you for a long time because uh we've appreciated your artistry and the fact that you're such a brilliant actor you're so versatile you just everything you want an actor we see in you and so that's i thank you so much for talking to us we've really been a long time coming to be able to talk to you yeah thank you and i've been watching all your videos i think you guys make some great content and the way you review films it's so much in detail and it's exactly how i feel about films so thank you for doing what you have thank you so much thank you thank you well first off let's talk about your new film yeah uh i don't know why i wanted to say article 15 it's not the first case i apologize um tell us a little bit about that film we saw the trailer it looked awesome we haven't seen the original but let us know obviously i know you don't normally do remakes but what drew you to this project was it more the character was it the overall story what drew you to this one well hit the first case is a thriller so it all started during lockdown when the pandemic and just started and we all were in lockdown and anyways i watched a lot of content and i was at home watching a lot of film series and these guys you know contacted me and they told me that they want to make this film in Hindi and i had no idea as you said i'm not really too fond of remakes um i said why not let me just watch the film you know anyways i've been watching so much of so many of films so i ended up watching it and i was totally hooked i think it was a great story brilliantly written screenplay uh one of the best thrillers i saw uh in recent times um and i love the character as an actor i i thought it's such a great potential in that character to just so just to experience that journey uh so i contacted the director i spoke to him and i really i think we just instantly got connected and i loved his vision what he told me was that he wants to make it in Hindi because he wants to take this story to a wider audience and also he wants to have a fresh take on the Hindi one like it doesn't want to take too many things he just he just doesn't want to copy paste things which i thought was great but there's no point just copy pasting every shot and every costume then then we don't need the same guy anybody can make it but he wanted to change a lot of things in the screenplay because also it happens you know when you make it once and whatever mistakes you've done in that one you can actually rectify those mistakes when you make it again yeah that's exactly what selesh my director did and that was his debut film he's a scientist he's a phd he was working in Australia but he was always passionate about cinema and films and he never assisted anyone he just came to India he met nani the actor and he produced hit for him and hit work wonders for him and now of course he's a buddy i i have immense respect for him as a filmmaker he is very very passionate about it and that's the reason i said yes to it i said you know i wanted to explore this character because i love the graph i love the arc that you're given to this guy Vikram in the film and we ended up making it it looks like from we noticed this immediately from the trailer correct us if we're wrong but you it looked like you had bulked up a little bit for that character is that something that you really did yeah was that intentionally done it was it was also i think as you guys uh i saw your review of the trailer as you guys said i was also any visible for badaido and that was the first uh somebody asked me to bulk up because badaido was the guy to which uh i was needed to be in that shape because he was somebody who was into bodybuilding and wanted to be mr rindia uh he could not his dreams got scattered but he continued doing it any which ways so i was already in that shape but for but for hit the first case i i didn't have to be like you know six pack uh physique but i wanted him to be slightly broader so i changed my regime i changed my workout and got into this shape for Vikram is there anything that um scares you with doing a remake like is there anything that that you want to make sure like obviously you said you don't want to do cut and paste but is there is there any like fear with doing a remake nowadays in the hindi film industry uh only scare would be if you're touching a classic yeah yeah i heard they wanted to remake a non which would be really i don't think so i don't think we agree you know uh as as as you i don't know if you've been to florens but if you see the david made by michelangelo and the replica of it you can make out the difference replica would always be yeah more change few things here and there and if you want to have like a fresh take and not just copy paste it i think then that's the only fun so i think i don't think so we should really touch classic especially like if somebody would come with me with a story of the godfather and say you know i want to make it in hindi i would say no i'm not doing it right yeah i think one of my favorite films uh unless kapola comes and says you know raj i want to make it in hindi i was like sure why not but yeah there are there are stories which are universal and you know there are some uh stories which haven't which have been like told in a great way but for some reason they could not reach out to a wider audience if there are such stories and you want to remake them then i think that this should not be an issue sure sure now without giving any spoilers away i think it's revealed in the trailer but it's my understanding that vikram is is a man who's suffering from some post-traumatic stress disorder correct and i i know and i will i'll ask you in a minute some specifics about your process you may give us some answers right now but i was wondering what was the process in this particular role for you to get in his headspace without giving any spoilers away what was it you needed to do to be him as a post-traumatic stress disorder man also i think another thing which got me attracted towards vikram playing vikram was usually when we see actors playing police officers especially in in hindi films we see them playing always playing always playing it with a lot of heroism you know they're all macho and they would always be in a shape they would be you know kicking out 100 people at a time which is a different all together yeah with due respect to that genre but i think what made him human was all these things what you just mentioned you know he can he can be a police officer but still he there there can be some trauma in his personal life yeah so as vikram he is somebody who's carrying a lot of baggage from his past yeah he's going through this trauma and that keeps getting triggered because of his professional life i think that's what got me attracted because you know he is so vulnerable at times and about the the whole of mental illness thing about ptsd about anxiety attacks i had no experience at all so i needed to do some research so i read a lot about it i spoke to a couple of experts i watched a lot of interviews of people going through these things and it's not easy at all it is not easy and then i saw some reference videos and also selish also did his own research he's been writing this script for almost three years so he had a lot to you know offer so all this together really helped me in edging out this in etching out this character yeah i assume you've worked with so many of our doses actually now which is so wonderful to say you've worked like a lot of legends that we absolutely adore in the industry and now obviously i'm afraid i apologize for getting uh sania moho yeah sania right yeah okay i don't want to i'm terrible with names i apologize uh she's the first name yeah sania uh love her she was in love hospital earlier this year it's the most recent thing we've seen so i love love that movie but is that something that's important to you in looking when you're looking at a a a script uh or a project to be attached to do you look for people also attached to first or is it character first then it's uh who who else is it well it is always these it's hi you guys oh yeah uh what's it's always the story first the screen yeah sure yeah it's good it's always the story first uh the screenplay everything and uh then my character and then i think it's it's a blessing if you get good co-actors with you because yeah i think with that that way you can really create something magical on screen you know for me also as an actor i'm not somebody who's always saying what's written i'm i'm i'm constantly improvising i'm constantly looking for searching for the truth in a scene and when you have someone like sania who's who's equally passionate about what she does and she is brilliant in what she does it really makes our job easy you know you don't have to because it's acting as you know acting is all about reacting it's nothing it's two people just reacting to each other uh in a given situation so when i have a good co-actor when i look into that actor's eyes i see truth and that that makes it so easy that makes it so much of fun to do what i do yeah but then you're then you can just let us be then you can just leave us anywhere give us any situation and we will create something uh you know of course uh following a director's vision uh what it's beautiful when two actors you know uh you put them together who are genuinely actors what they can do for the scene is is not like everybody can do agree agree completely and speaking of actors that you've worked with this is a two-part question about the same actor so i have heard that the if not the inspiration one of the biggest inspirations for you to become an actor was after you saw minosh bhaj pahi acting is that correct one of them yes yeah so then my next question would be what was it like the first time you got to work with him and be on set and be acting with him yeah yeah so manu sir is one of them so i grew up in virgao which is like a city next to delhi and when i was growing up there it was actually a small town now of course it looks like singapore but at that time it wasn't like that at all and i started doing theater i decided when i was a kid i want to act in movies i want to be a film actor and i was on one side i was watching mr sharokhans films and on the other side i was watching you know shul and satya one of my scripts so i think i got i got something from both of them maybe that's the reason you know i can i i love commercial films as well and also i love dramas intense stories and biopics thanks to these guys they really influenced me they really inspired me for different reasons yeah and when i met him for the first time even now when i meet my idols i like every day i i want to learn something new when i meet somebody who's a senior who spoke i've really admired for a long time i asked them so many questions because i want to grasp as much as i can because i don't know what i would opportunity again so we did a film together called cheetah gong in 2011 uh it's me navaz jedi pehlavad manu sir a lot of people are there vijay varma uh so i would just i should just sit with him and i would just ask him question about how you did that scene in and satya and what was your process during shul and he was very kind he is now of course he's a dear friend but he was very very kind to just share everything and you know that's what i love you know acting is something you can never say i i know it all every day every day you're exploring something new you're pushing yourself and if you can really learn something from someone then why not yeah yeah um so obviously we're both actors and so as as i'm sure it's the same with you because i've talked to many many actors and this is this case when before your career starts and you're thinking about getting into acting often actors will imitate their favorite artists right uh and try to be their favorite characters or the favorite actors obviously mine was like johnny depp characters or i think yours was uh uh stalone robin robin it was robin williams recombination of robin williams and daniel de lewis and obviously before oh yeah yeah obviously before you realize that oh i need to be myself and actually create my own stuff right where the people for you was it manoj and shower con characters that you kind of imitated before yeah exactly exactly that's how it all started i used to i really used to what shower con characters everything so as a kid i was a very i was a filmy kid any film i would watch and for next two weeks you would see me behaving like like that guy right when i saw the lj and my name is raj like raj kumar raj when i saw dd today uh dil wale dunyaan le jayenge i became raj for two three weeks right people would call me raj kumar and i would correct them i could totally relate it's amazing yeah so whatever film i would see i would just be that guy and i would start mimicking that character for a while when i saw you know satya i became hikumath re when i saw gulam i became that character that amir sir did so i think i was just i was so amazed by these performance that i just started living them i think that's a beauty of cinema i really it can really touch you it can really touch you in beautiful ways did you ever recreate the manoj iconic line uh in satya the king of mumbai i think it is mumbai mumbai got king con victor yep yeah so me and my friend when we when we when we came to mumbai this is exactly what we were doing we were just going by the beaches and just seeing these lines yeah yeah yeah that's awesome now when you started out acting like i think most actors do this they they begin with imitation because it's the highest form of flattery and then at some point they learn incarnation and i was wondering at what point did that become a reality for you was imitation ever a part of your process is it still a part of your process or did you really quickly learn i don't want to try to be srk in this role i need to be me in this role i'm interested in the beginnings of your learning acting yeah yeah well you know i was i was imitating when i was a kid when i didn't even start doing theater but when when i started doing theater and i got serious about my my work then of course everything took a back seat because then i i wanted to explore characters i wanted to ask my teachers a lot of questions about acting them or different methods beats stanislawski be it stellar addler uh you know or or breadth um i was doing all that i started doing all that i took it very seriously then of course imitation took a back seat and then when i went to my film school uh which is fti in punay one of the best films in all over asia there i think everything got changed because before that i didn't have um access to a lot of international films the only english language film i saw was titanic and and maybe mission impossible yeah okay yeah film school gave me a new life uh you know it suddenly i was open to italian cinema to daniel del luis to robertineiros of the world to alpachino philip simmer hoffman i was and i was zapped and and then i of course i started learning about their process and sorry about their process and the way they prepare their characters and what all they go through and that really inspired me and i decided you know this is my journey this is who i would like to be and not anybody and of course that's like you know like you find you find your own process you can learn whatever you want but eventually you have to create your own process whatever suits you but these people these all these greats meddles tree you know they really really inspired me with their amazing filmography yeah absolutely and i know you act you haven't played a ton of i guess india calls them negative characters but you have obviously had played played some like in uh yeah it's not shahid it's the other one oh martin martin yeah uh it's a different characters like that um and would love to see you actually playing like really intense villains so hopefully one day we get we get some of that but do you ever find it difficult to not judge your characters ever oh well when i read them uh it's it's very human i think it's very impulsive to judge judge them once you know just whenever you read like how can somebody do this uh like when i do umerta and i got to know about umar shake of course it's very inhuman you know being a terrorist is something nobody appreciates yeah right but once you start with umerta it happened to me once i started my my research my homework for the character and i started going deep into him into his psyche and and started you know adapting his internal uh process his uh his mindset then things changed for me i i i started feeling like him i was scaring so much of hate and so much of anger for a couple of months that it started it literally started disturbing me i genuinely wanted to get out of that film yeah his app because i yeah i was not comfortable in that skin because it started uh you know i started feeling like him i would see someone and i would start thinking what umar like how umar would think yeah it was a very very dark space for me sure yeah but but i have a something to share you know i i saw your trailer review me and patra leka we were in italy we were holidaying there and we saw your review and there also i think you mentioned that raj should uh you do some negative characters and exactly what patra told me she's like you know i even i would love to see you playing these negative characters and personally as actor i'm sure you would agree playing a negative character is so much fun enjoyable so interesting yeah it's the best interesting because you have the whole playground you don't play by the rules yeah you can do whatever you want you know play like a simpleton like a sweet lead boy from a small town it's nice but it gets boring after a point right right yeah and you've got very clear objectives your why is extraordinarily clear when you're the bad guy um there is there's a lot more you can do and usually get away with and like go ahead please no speak please yeah yeah no i was gonna say that and the depth that you have demonstrated i mean we we it didn't take us 14 films not to to recognize we like thankfully we're able to recognize as i'm sure you are actors can recognize actors like we watched when we first saw the nasirid and shah it was in the the Debra we call it the Debra movie it's it's made a nom name Debra the Rithik one the Rithik movie in Parpanaktar right that's the first place we ever saw him and when we saw him in that small scene he has playing dad one scene we both were like that's a fespia and we we called nasirid and shah the Debra dad for a good while yeah but why Debra did it that's the only thing we knew it from we think we knew we're dumb this is stupid uh the name of the channel i i bring that up in that we had the we had a similar response when we saw you and that was the immediacy of recognizing the caliber of actor in the moment who is incarnating and who is believable and is uh just pretty much just being the character at every moment in every frame and the kind of actor that no matter the film the film may not be enjoyable but the actor is always enjoyable and we found you to be that that kind of actor my last question i had about just your process is that over time like you said earlier that actors discover their process how would you describe your process now would you describe yourself as being method or as shia libuff has said he's method adjacent and how much does that change film to film sometimes is it the you feel it in the costume sometimes it's the backstory you've worked on yeah well it totally depends on the the kind of film i'm doing uh you know when you do a film like Shahid or an omertha like intense dramas uh which are too realistic in nature then of course the process is very different like i of course i i do my homework i make the backstory for all my characters because that really gives me a lot of clarity about the guy and i have friends like actor friends and we do this thing where we ask questions after i'm done with my backstory so we we just ask questions like if as raju would ask me anything i would say where were you brawn what are your favorite colors what film do you like so we do that we do that exercise they ask me questions about my character uh and it's great because you're exploring you're exploring then and there uh that what what doesn't work i i do that exercise quite a lot actually uh but yeah making a backstory certainly helps me uh finding the character and uh and then of course my relationship with the other characters in the film i work on that you know you we behave differently with different people you know you behave differently with your parents and with your best friend and your love interest right so how how it changes how it shapes so really the working on the relationship is another important factor for me in a film yeah what can we share in a film so a lot a lot actually isn't valid it keeps changing film to film but when i do a film like three or a body but then it's mostly about getting if it's it's set in a region so i try and get the accent i try and invite the accent the language or from that region and then it's more about just being in the moment yeah you know and just have fun just have fun with the scene because it's a comedy uh you need to you can't really take it seriously of course comedy is a sweetest business and oh yeah yeah it is it is and the kind of comedy i like is where it's it's very straight face you know you're not really physically trying to make people laugh no you're just reacting to the situation and writing plays a very important part in comedy i have to have great situation funny situations put them put them in some really stupid situations and let them react i think from comedy comes out from that yeah airplane has has taught all of us you know the way he used to perform uh he would always be stuck somewhere but we would be laughing on his tragedy right exactly are great are wonderful yeah i think you're keep shifting homework uh backstory relationship with my other characters uh this question answer session with my fellow actor friends uh and sometimes i i like with newton if i need to change something physically then i try and start doing that before we start filming uh like newton you know i did something that there was a twitch in my eyes and i wanted to be a part of my personality and not just do it right so i started doing that before we started filming like a couple of days before that because i wanted it to come very naturally to me not really close and not really planned that i'm gonna do this thrice in this line and then do it yeah i didn't want to become a shtick exactly no you cannot you cannot plan these things how long did it take to break that habit the specifically like the blinking for newton did it take you a while to come out of that habit yeah oh yeah it did yeah i figured it yeah it's a powerful personality right yeah i think because but because it's all muscle memories you know right your muscle starts behaving that way yeah it took me a while to come back consciously i had to put in a lot of effort that you know oh wait i'm still doing that i can't right i can't right i figured i'm so interested in all your character's favorite films um what what what was newton's favorite film the newton's favorite film well newton really doesn't watch too many films but uh he doesn't he doesn't show it but i think he's somebody who's very fond of romantic films internally he doesn't show it though what about your character and but i do but i do he loves me of course he loves watching wrestling a lot between two for more reasons than one yes and this character in this character and hit what's his no he doesn't he doesn't okay doesn't watch he's too doesn't watch him he's he's too busy he's too and gross in his own world he doesn't watch he doesn't have a tv at home i love that i love that um yeah what what um what inspires you what inspires me uh actually i'm i'm always i'm always in lookout for inspiration it can be a quote that you must have seen in your instagram reel oh yeah oh yeah it can be a performance and i follow a lot of handles which talk about acting and cinema and sometimes they put in some great content which is which is highly inspiring uh but i think seeing someone uh seeing a great performance always inspires me like i saw king richard and i saw mayor of east town last what i remember or dope sick these things these performances really inspired me also you figure out that there's there's so much to explore whenever i whenever you know people around you tell you that you know wow great job blah blah blah right and then i think about daniel de louis and i watched some clip and i figured out what a small actor i am everybody is compared to daniel de louis that's not a good one to compare to when you're not acting what are some of the things that you enjoy doing the most in your spare time i just love hanging out with my friends and and just laugh out on really stupid things really silly things which nobody else understands it's just between us otherwise i love traveling but i think mostly i think and that's what you know people around me especially patulika was known me for 12 years now she says you are you were always meant to be in films because you love cinema i really love films i love watching films i i can talk about cinema 24-7 discussing actors and i i genuinely love it even now like now i'm a professional actor like you know i i'm working in films even now if i'm going somewhere in my car you know i if i see lights if i see you know some set and some vanity vans and trailers i get really excited the the the kid in me from gurgaum my my hometown is still very much alive right there i still get excited oh shooting who's shooting who's filming who's actor who's the actor what's happening i think yeah i i just love making films yeah it shows in your work and it's also i think the of a hallmark of really great film makers of all ilks like the time we spent recently with with anurag half the time was spent talking about have you seen any of the new releases have you seen this film have you seen this film and that excitement that you get and it the love that you have for the craft shows in in your work because it embodies everything that you do and i i wonder is is there anything that you've yet to do that you're really yearning to do whether that's genre or maybe it's a classic piece from the world of theater you'd love to see turned into a motion picture well my all-time favorite work from literature is hamlet oh yeah i think you too man after my own heart yeah what a character i wish somebody someday i could play that you know somebody can adapt it and although vishal sir vishal bhargwaj he made a film called heather which we know we know yes actually i recreated the entire monologue um that she did in hindi i don't know hindi i just learned it specifically for that i would love to see that where is that i'll send it i'll send it to you but yeah i don't know hindi i want to make that very clear i do not know but yeah we love that film absolutely adore that so i yeah i love now are you would you like to do a word for word rendering from the shakespearian uh i'm not sure i think you need to need years of training to understand that language you know it's it won't come naturally to me so i would rather do do it in either in english or in hindi you know somebody will have to adapt it yeah sure so you've done to my knowledge three lgbtq films um which is a lot considering there's not that many in indian cinema really um it's so is that something that's important to you uh to tell these stories that don't often get told or is it something that you just saw the character they just happen to be an lgbtq character uh just one i think uh with aligar and bahay though i was very happy with the fact that it talks about lgbtq i community uh and and talks about the community in this way uh with kiko deca also again i was very happy with the fact that you know somebody's somebody like like sonam who's a commercial big star uh has agreed to play uh you know um uh that character lesbian girl uh and i i try and whenever i can i try and do films which can also you know bring in some change in the society which is which is important you know if art can contribute in that uh it's the most beautiful feeling and with bahay though that happened with bahay though we i like all of us all of us in the from the team got so many messages on our social media handles and and otherwise personal messages and voice notes where people were so thrilled and people who because it's very easy to come out in front of your families i think it's so it's the sorry it's it's not it's very tough to come out in front of families it's the yeah but but bahay though and i knew i know you guys keep saying but i do it's but i though sorry yeah it's okay not your fault it'd be the first time we've been else to move from india it's absolutely i am just correcting you so that now you can say but i know though yeah though yeah uh so yeah the kind of reactions we got that people were come that our film gave them strength to come out in front of their families and loved ones which is great i think you know if if your work and yeah if your work can inspire people and give them courage yeah that's what you know that's why we do what we do you can touch if you can touch someone's life with your work that's the most i think beautiful reward you can get absolutely easily are in the top two to three films of the year absolutely easily yeah it really was and felt that very much felt i can't imagine yeah i was very small i was very small yeah something something shared so for bahay though the last of course the 15 minutes when my character comes out in front of his family yeah and in the whole film he's somebody who's so scared of coming out right you know uh when when bhumi's character when she was caught and her family found out the first thing he does was he calls her and he tells her you know do not tell them about me right is when i read that as like you know it's amazing and and my director harsh told me that a lot of actors actually and even this other like makers told him that you know you need to remove this line because no actor would agree to say this line because it makes him a loser and i was like oh you have to keep this line because when this guy who's so scared comes out that's where i think the winning is that's where for him that yes you you were such a big you know such a power you are coming out so yeah anyways so that scene you know that was the one of the most of course difficult scenes for me to to portray to play but by the time and luckily we shot the scene towards the end and these guys keeps keep telling me you know oh that monologue will shoot that day that monologue and i kept telling them kept correcting them can we not call it a monologue please i don't want to treat it like a monologue right i want to have a conversation with my family right this is a talk between each other's family so because when you when you start you know psyching yourself out like i have to do this monologue monologue i think it really it can really hamper you somewhere you start thinking about it differently yeah if you see it like you know it's it's another scene it's a conversation between two people i think that that that really i i felt very comfortable when i started thinking like that and when when we stopped calling it a monologue yeah that's why i wanted to treat it and i with me so i don't rehearse i i really don't believe in too many rehearsals especially scenes like this where it's all about being in the moment and yes yes please see what happens because you can't plan i never plan my my scenes my performance and i'm i'm very glad that happened you know i that scene uh and when we saw it i came out and i and the terrace scene uh you know after that where i have my mother it was so surreal we of course they said cut it took me around you know five seven minutes to come out of it and then i turned around and i saw my d.o.p was crying my director was crying my chief eddie was crying my sound recordist was crying just by listening to the audio and we knew that you know something beautiful happened oh yeah it should it should touch the accord with everyone yeah and it it did that does not surprise me that's one of my things i always think of i would love to know what was going on behind the scenes in that moment and that that terrorist moment that right after that you had just said is is such a beautiful special precious moment and it doesn't surprise me that you don't want to rehearse because you can discover something in the rehearsal and then you don't want to try to replicate it because then you're imposing something on the material that's fake it's not believable and in the moment it's already you're doing it because it worked before and yeah i great have you ever had a moment where you looked at the shooting schedule and you thought oh no because one of those pinnacle quintessential moments was early and you really hadn't been in the character yet luckily no that doesn't happen that's great i really appreciate stays the same way yes i know if i you if i ever do that also i'm gonna request my director to pre-shoot that scene yeah please because yeah because also i think you're exploring you know it it it takes you around two three days in the beginning to figure out what's working because you come with your whole preparation but then the different surroundings the different actors and maybe sometimes the other actor is not on the same wavelength you need to then you know change few things in there yeah i think yeah if that ever happens i'm pretty sure i'm going to ask my director you know what listen that scene now i think now i'm all prepared mentally yeah so we've often said you're one of the most versatile actors we've seen you can do great comedy and you could also do ridiculously good dramatic work um then that's why we call you young pankaj a lot uh because we we also think he's as good at both of those things and you both also have this i don't really know what it is this innate quality about you that is something that's every character you have there's something so endearing about them is that something that you feel you bring to it or is that just that's who you are and that just happens to flesh out into the character yeah yeah it's it's god given i think i agree i agree it comes from you it's something to do but that's why i love doing omeritas of the world because you know that's where you get a chance to just break everything break every mold that whole uh you know he's so vulnerable he's so lovable no he's scary that's why i love i would love to do more and more negative characters yeah yeah like i would be interested to see i'm assuming you have seen gangs of new york oh yeah of course i would love to see you portraying a character like bill the butcher you bet oh yeah bill the butcher is is awesome man what i got one stone yeah absolutely well even even stuff like the noises like raman raga sure absolutely there's i don't think there's anything out there that you you actually couldn't play um you're that i think you know my all my you of my actually a couple of them my favorite negative characters would be heavier about them from no country for old man oh yes yes oh man what a performance so scary he's not doing anything not doing much actually there's so many there's so much of silence in his character in his performance yes that is what it's scary because you don't know what he's thinking and what he's going to do next it's all in the eyes which is so scary or or heat ledger in of god the dark nights where again he is so goofy he's always moving around it's so it's so physical the performance but again on the one side you have how about them who's so quiet and then you have you know the joker who's always jump and and doing something but both are brilliant yes agreed agreed so if you could go back if you could go back 20 years to talk to yourself what's a piece of advice you would give yourself if you could talk to you 20 years ago uh so 20 years ago i was i just started theater yeah i just started yeah i started working towards my dream right and i was you know i didn't have a life so uh like we were never really very lucky with money like financially uh but but i was very passionate about what i was doing so i was i was cycling from my hometown to delhi to do theater almost 70 kilometers up down every not every day but but so many days yeah i was very happy because i was going to do something which i was i still am in love with so i would just tell myself you know i know of course you're working hard but okay it's fine you know just just take some time out for yourself also you know go out i like i didn't have a girlfriend i was so focused for five six years i was just not doing anything i was right wanted to be the hardest worker in the room and and just and just learned as much before i i decided before i go to mumbai i have to be prepared i didn't want to go there you know under confident that you know i'm right here also because i was not the most good-looking guy and i was very aware with that fact uh of course now i look slightly decent uh but at that time thank you you do it's true agree yeah because now now there are people there's a team who somebody does so when you're on a film set right how soon maybe you don't know because you have so many amazing films how soon do you know that this is not working in terms of the film well i think second or third day well first day you get the impulse but then you uh give it a you know you just benefit of doubt that maybe it's not that day maybe it's one of those days but second or third day you're sure and i've done some i've done some weak films i'm i'm very aware with the fact i'm a very honest critic of my work and my films and i and i and i say it very openly of course i don't name those films because it's not fair to them of course yeah what's the point yeah yeah yeah but i'm i'm very aware of the fact some people some films might be very popular as well but i know you know they are weak could have been uh have been much much better but yeah by second or third day you know that you're you're in it now you can't really step out uh so just enjoy the work i still i still give i still give my hundred percent to that character and and try and you know uh make the best out of it uh but you know because eventually whatever you do whatever set it done cinema is a director's medium yes right you can do whatever you want in your performance but it's not it's never about only your performance right more involved yeah so on being critical of yourself what do you feel is your biggest weakness as an actor my biggest weakness uh as an actor uh if you think you have one of course of course first i i think i get too involved in the whole making process you know in the whole filmmaking process yeah the post production but on set i want everybody to give their hundred percent and i get very disturbed if i see two extras you know not being involved in a scene um i don't it's a good thing or a bad thing but but that's how i behave i want everybody to give and yeah and also i think uh i still haven't i i got it has happened with a couple of characters but i still want to as you know you like we all love daniel de louis and this process and we trapped i got that chance with omer da with shahid uh with newton city lights a couple of of them have done that but with trapped i genuinely wanted to live in that apartment with those many because i thought this is the chance for me where you know i am in that space throughout yeah and i'm going so deep down in that character that i would i would just live that life and i wanted to live that life of course but the production said you know it's well they were not feeling comfortable with the idea that i would stay there in an abandoned building and right yeah because i want to figure out where would i shit where would i pee there's yeah but that's what you have to do yeah exactly and and and not eating for 16 days how would it feel you know because yo once you on the set you are there mentally physically right but then you go back home in your comfort space you switch on the ac and suddenly subconsciously you may be in that character but physically you're in another space you know you're you're interacting with other people you're in a comfort zone and i wanted i didn't want to do that but luckily if we ever make track to that is my plan so i think these are the few things i still want to do i haven't done and about the weakness uh i think i uh i've done a lot of like uh comedies but i still want to explore some other you know funny side of me yeah i uh sometimes i feel that you know because few things work and few gestures of an actor we do that you know that you know that i would do this and it always works so i don't want to be in that trap i think it's very scary uh it can really kill you as an artist yes so i'm very aware of the fact that it has maybe happened in um two three films in few moments in the whole character but i want to get away from that yeah understandably and so in addition to obviously hit is is opening very very soon and then it's also our understanding you have some other things coming up that we would love everybody to know about like for example guns and gulabs is that how you pronounce that yeah guns and gulabs yeah yeah yeah looking forward to that one yeah very much looking for thank you it's fun it's so much fun it's riding dk at their best yeah well we love them obviously from family man that was our first wasn't that our first introduction that was our first introduction yeah and so you have to i don't know if you guys have seen go go are gone uh not yet no you have to watch rajdk have made some brilliant films and they are the creators of three as well they were the writers and the producers of three yeah go go on i think you would really like it's crazy to another level brilliant performances by so my dear friends kunal and all and what such a quirky film it's about zombies set in goa as the name suggests but you have to watch the film it i think it is available somewhere on some otd platform please so what do you what do you think is harder comedy or drama oh it may be different for different people but i think for me uh drama is harder really yeah because i think i've been i've been goofy and funny all my life so some of the things i think come very naturally to me but it depends like you know drama it depends how involved you are as i said you know like like omarata and trapped it's very taxing comedy is is tough as well i'm not saying it's easy to be genuinely funny and not really overdoing it it is tough but i think once either you know it or you don't know it you know there are some actors who are just naturally funny and some can really work on their on their art form yeah and then learn how to be how to do comedy but some are naturally born funny yeah it's true yeah i think but drama is something you it's a very thin line in drama and it can get very very physically and mentally taxing with comedy with comedy that doesn't happen yeah yeah very true very true and was that was would you say omarata was probably the most taxing role you've had to do for yourself to that you just you said you wanted to get out of it was that the most difficult one for you you think well mentally uh i would say yeah and you know physically i think it was both a web series i did in 2017 yeah i wanted to see that one i haven't seen it yet yeah you you must i i gained some 13 kgs i went half ball for that uh it was also because it was a biopic of one of our greatest freedom fighters from our country subhashan the boss uh so it was a huge responsibility yeah and trapped i think physically these two films were very very tiring and now hit even hit i think was mentally very tiring yeah because there are a couple of sequences in the film where he's getting these attacks these anxiety attacks and it's not easy it's not easy to be to be in that situation for almost you know of course the shot is just for five minutes but you do not do three times but before that you take your time like i i really want to be in that headspace be in that zone so i asked my my director you know give me some time i need to be in that in this mind space i yeah i take a lot of help from music music really yeah really so that gets your head in the right space yeah yeah yeah well uh i want to thank you so much for talking to us man it's been so wonderful i want to end it off here with a little bit of rapid fire because that's fun to do uh and he's going to be more stupid than than good questions so just be aware um is cereal a soup cereal or soup no no is no is cereal cereal actually a soup so you come again you both are talking going to hear you uh is it cereal is cereal milk and and cereal yeah yeah yeah is that a soup no okay do you notice favorite alcoholic beverage if you if you partake i don't really drink alcohol so i would know but but a lot of my friends they really are in they are having a lot of fun with jen these days jen's a fun very nice i like uh in the summer most underrated indian actor most underrated indian actor oh con conas in shama yeah uh what other job if you weren't an actor would you be doing on a film set uh i can't be a really good uh chief eddie um you know uh or i love everything i i i sit with my my sound team as well i sometimes i handle the equipments because in a film school you know you get to learn everything but yeah i would maybe love love to direct one day uh there are no plans as such but a lot of people have been telling me these days that you know you are going to direct we can see it that would not surprise me at all at all yeah what is your wife's favorite role of yours but really because favorite role is uh but i do and trapped um most overrated film in your opinion most like just in general oh this can be controversial i don't know i let me let me come back to it i really have to think about uh favorite hindi curse word so i i i don't know why it's called me no no why it's called me a motto when we interviewed him so so i don't really as i said i don't really uh i'm not really abusive in real life but for guns and gulabs i got a chance to you know use some curse words uh but being from delhi i think my favorite curse word would be uh and there's a way you say it and you know how it changes the language changes every time but in delhi you say uh bhen ke lode i've said it after so many years man it sounds so weird if you could play one avengers superhero what would it be hulk i love hulk and especially i think it's because of mark rafello's performance yeah you know that's a good actor you know i i remember it so clearly in it's such the climax is going on in the end game or infinity wars and i think somebody tells him and he's going to you know be hulk he's going to change himself and somebody tells him you need to be angry come on get angry and mark rafello was such a beautiful artist he just turns and says i'm always angry without underlining anything without giving it you know giving any stress on i'm always angry nothing right not right just throwing the line away yeah most underappreciated role on a film set uh the production boys people who are serving you know water and tea to everyone yeah uh favorite shahrukh khan film it's for these you know yeah great one favorite for sure who should play shaktimaan who should play shaktimaan you should play shaktimaan no i didn't i know of them and i know they're making a film who do you think now who can play shaktimaan shaktimaan was actually one of our first indian superheroes uh a lot of people wiki can play shaktimaan i think really well wiki kaushal yeah yeah of course and uh best villain in indian cinema history there are a couple uh gubber singh in sholey of course um who else i think ashutosh rana in i don't know if you have seen sangharsh what were you saying uh so mugambo of course i was coming to that mugambo from isranilia ashutosh rana in this film called sangharsh okay long back uh a couple of my favorite uh yeah valence well thank you so much i'm still thinking about the overrated film i think i'm going to message you i'm not sure okay that that you do send some message i think it's like titanic my opinion i i hate that but it could be whatever um but i want to thank you so much for chatting with us we like i said we wanted to chat with you since probably i i don't i don't even remember what the first film of yours is we saw i think it was new was it new i think it was i love it was very early on yeah i love the view um but we uh we want to talk to you for so long because we know and we could tell and it's evident from our conversation that you are you are a thespian through and through you love the craft you take it so seriously but but also not seriously because you're so good at what you do um but those people like yourself are favorite people to talk to because you thank you like essentially essentially you can talk shop and it's it's our favorite thing to do you're one of the most talented actors acting today and that's that's throughout the world uh and i mean that from the bottom of my heart and i want to thank you so much for thank you godmother great yeah i i consistently have a word that i think i made up i don't know if it exists in English language but i i elevated artistry where it's it's artistry that is taking the art forms particularly with storytelling and film theater and acting and and doing things with them that are not only honoring to the art form itself and what it's intended to do but taking it to the highest levels that we can that we can see right now and when people do that it it's always excited us i mean for years we've been talking movies and shop because we're actors in our hearts and it's it's we're like you we love movies and oh yeah you genuinely yeah you genuinely are the the kind of actor that we want everybody to watch because when people watch you in my opinion that is what elevated artistry is all about that i i can find no finer actor doing film right now in the world anywhere and everything you do we want to watch so just thank you for being who you are and and don't change a thing keep loving film and keep doing the process you do because the results are absolutely beautiful thank you so much thanks a lot guys and you know there are very few people that i follow on youtube and you guys are certainly right up there thank you so much thank you so much we keep doing everything as i said keep keep making these videos because it's it's very inspiring to you know see two actors talking so passionately about what they love which is movies yeah thank you and again if you do if you do come to la please let us know we would love to see you yeah and everybody else watching please go watch hit the first case uh and subscribe and subscribe to our stupid reactions guys thank you so much and subscribe to our stupid reactions guys