 What's up, bro? Hello! How are you? Good, good, brother. How are you? How are you, babe? Thank you so much for joining us, man. And I do want to. I'm terrible with pronunciation. Is it Adarsh, right? Yeah, Adarsh. Adarsh. OK, cool. Just wanted to make sure I was pronouncing it correctly. Well, I hope you're doing well. You're having a very busy season right now. Busier than usual, yeah, I have to say it. Yeah, having a good 2021. Yeah. Yeah, so far so good. Yeah. How did that, when you got the BAFTA nomination, how'd that feel, man? I felt like it was a mistake, bro, honestly. I saw my name in the log list, and I said, what? My name is next to fucking, sorry. My name is next to Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins and like, you know, Riz Ahmed and Chadwick Boseman. And I said, well, you know, it's got to be a mistake. You know, I felt like, well, this is an accident, and you know, let's be happy with this accident. And then the shortlist came out. And then I was just in shock. I could read it like a couple of times to make sure that I was reading it right. Yeah. Yeah? Very much deserved. That of all the things we enjoyed about White Tiger, the thing that stood out to us the most, and we said this in our review, was how impressed we were with you carrying that film and the level at which you performed as an actor. We were really impressed with you, as obviously the whole international community has been impressed with White Tiger. You much deserved. We were so excited to see your BAFTA nomination. And then obviously, what about adapted screenplay, brother? What about that for the Oscars? Who would have thought that my first international film that I was part of would be nominated for the Oscar? It's like a dream run, man. I mean, I always fall short of words to express what I'm feeling right now, you know? It's so bizarre. And it seems like some sort of story that I'm reading, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't really expect what to... You can't really anticipate what will come next. And then there's the Oscars, you know, like... It's crazy. It really is. And were you watching for the BAFTAs and the Oscars? Were you watching the live nominations announced? Not the BAFTA. I was watching the Oscar nomination. Actually, when the BAFTA was being announced, I was working out in the gym. So I just finished working out and I saw like a flurry of messages and I said, I think something's happening and then I opened it. I was like, whoa, okay. But the Oscars, yes, I was watching it live, yes. Gotcha. Yeah. Which I don't know how Priyanka could maintain her composure when they announced adapted screenplay for BAFTA. Right? Yeah, she was amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you've actually worked with quite a few massive stars in your career already from Shahrukh Khan to Shredevi, I believe, Nawaz and now Priyanka, Rajkumar and many others. What was it like working alongside Rajkumar and Priyanka and the White Tiger? You know, first of all, I've always been a massive fan of both their bodies of work. Yeah. But I feel that it's such a privilege to get to know them in person and to know the kind of work ethics they have and to see the kind of passion that they still have for their craft and to not become complacent after being active for so many years. It gets very easy for actors to take it easy to just, you know, like, let the fire down and, you know, like, oh, you know, I'm going to become my way kind of attitude. But both of them have this sort of fire going on in their belly and they're just so hungry to do good work. And it's so inspirational, man, just to be around them and to see how present they are when they're doing a scene. And I had the time of my life shooting for it because, like, also Rameen, the kind of director he is, he loves to prepare. He does a lot of homework. He really puts in a lot of effort and, you know, which is why his film looks so natural. So behind making it natural, there's a lot of process that happens and the kind of freedom that he allowed us to, like, sort of improvise with our scenes and play with it, you know. In spite of knowing the script too and through and being an integral part of the book right when it was being written because he was, Arvindad is a bachelor at the university. So in spite of being so thorough with the story, he still gave us the kind of creative freedom to, you know, go and really explore our truths and our interpretations of the characters. And I think it was incredibly graceful of him to do that. And I just had such an insane time shooting for it, man, can't tell you. Yeah, that's very encouraging because when you're doing something that's taken from another source, like a book, the director's tendency might be to not let you do that and say, no, no, no, we have to stick to the text. We have to stick to the book. And I think it's beautiful that you were given that creative freedom. Are you sitting inside a UFO? Yes. Yes? I'm actually up at the space station right now. I'm getting ready for the next Tom Cruise films. Ah yes. Yeah, stupid. So how did you get involved with White Tiger? How did you get involved with that film? Well, you know, I was a test Joseph was the casting director of the film. One of the assistants got in touch with me and I was trying to get an audition test for quite some time and you know I got a call and my only intention at that point in time was just to give a good audition that I would get called for more auditions in the future because even entertaining that thought of oh I could be Balram just seemed so bizarre. So I was like man let's not get there let's just you know let's take it easy once every time let's give a good audition that she calls me for more stuff and then before I knew it I was five rounds through and Ramin went back to New York and told me that you know he wants me to play Balram. That's awesome. Wow. What was your process like because this character which once again you stole the show in this movie has such an arc for a character. Was it difficult playing these many different times in this young man's life? What was the process like for that? It was I certainly felt that the Bangalore version of it once I become the entrepreneur was more difficult for me because I spent about 90% of my time understanding the Balram from the village you know because that formed the crux of this scene. The story is actually about his journey from the village to the time he goes to Bangalore and not so much about what he's how is the story turns out to be one season Bangalore it's about before he goes to Bangalore right. So I was focused on more on that part of the story and you know I went to a village in the eastern part of India stayed there for a couple of weeks and I actually wanted to drive for a wealthy person here either in Delhi or in Mumbai but I was finding it tough to sort of you know find a job like that because who would keep me as their driver with a prior driving experience and you know so then yeah man I mean I came back I came to Delhi four months three and a half to four months before the shoot started and I started working at a small stall where I was cleaning plates and you know keeping the place tidy running small errands for for the owner of the small stall and I used to get paid 100 bucks a day which is equivalent of say like one and a half dollars a day it was like like earning a daily wage and thereafter I you know I used to be present at all the auditions that I mean like he gave me that option that he said hey man like you know I'm going to be casting a lot of actors for the film so most of those characters have scenes with you so would you want to be present at the audition I said hell yeah man I mean this is like incredible you know it's like it's like net practice like cricket right like you practice in the net before you play a game so I said yeah man it sounds like a great it sounds like a great thing to do and you know I went and I was present at all all their auditions and I tried different permutations and combinations with the scene and I actually I actually constructed the Bangalore Balram character entirely out of books I got myself a bunch of books on body language and on how to conduct yourself in a room and how to impress another person and you know like very very basic books on how to speak in English properly stuff like that you know stuff that Balram would have read once he went to Bangalore in order to sort of very carefully sort of you know like build this image that he had built for himself as the businessman so yeah I was actually a little scared about that part I wasn't quite sure about how that would land how that would land or whether it would work but I guess it worked yeah absolutely it did work you're the homework that you did and the freedom you were given on set and all the research that you did everything showed and we were deeply impressed with your performance this is kind of a question most actors don't like to hear but were you happy with the final outcome of the film did you like how it turned out particularly for yourself did you leave thinking yeah I feel good about what we did with that you know I have to be very honest with you this is one of the very very rare times that I was actually happy with what I what I'd done and I can't say that I'd never say that but like I actually was because I knew that I was in I was working with a great director I was working with somebody who was single-mindedly focused and dedicated towards what he does and is so passionate about passionate about films however the only thing that I was skeptical about was the voiceover bit because I had never had a voiceover and never been a narrator and we spent a lot of time recording those voiceovers almost like across the span of four to five months almost we had like 25 sessions where we recorded the whole bit so I wasn't too sure about the voiceover which sound because you know I was like it could very easily slip off into that zone where it's so droning that you'll fall off to sleep listening to my voice sure yeah I was like you know is this gonna work is this not and I wasn't sure about it till the last moment in fact even when the film came out I I would ask people I would ask them did that bother you at all and they said no it seemed fine you know it didn't seem to distract us from the story yeah you you really really carried that film being that I need to work on on that on that front to become like a better sort of because I really enjoy telling stories but I guess I've got to figure a way to make it more engaging and interesting for the people listening to it oh no you were you were you were absolutely perfect in your every single every single scene you were in which is incredibly difficult to say you stole the show when you're in a film with Raj Kumar Rao and Priyanka Chopra the fact that you you were able to carry those scenes with those heavyweight actors is deeply impressive and I know you've said that you we've wanted to act obviously in Hollywood but uh in Indian films as well but other languages and you want to learn other languages so language is not really a barrier for you for you for your acting and you could just do do do what you do what you do like in Malayalam right have you gotten any offers from other from other regions I think so far I actually so I'm I speak Telugu which is one of the south Indian languages there's there's Telugu there's Tamil there's Malayalam there's Canada there's Tulu there's a lot of very very interesting work happening in Tamil and Malayalam particularly and my father actually spent some time in Tamil Nadu back in the 80s and he picked up the language so so I have been taking some Tamil classes from him whenever I find the time honestly the last two two and a half three weeks it's just been such a mad ride that I've not been able to spend enough time doing my homework and you know learning the language but it's definitely something that I want to learn and master both the languages Tamil and Malayalam yeah yeah yeah do do you also see yourself now I don't know if you felt this way before white tiger and now it's just expanded but the film obviously has international attention and with Priyanka who is an international star and has both feet firmly planted in Indian cinema and American cinema is American cinema and television something that you very much want to see as part of your overall work that you do why not yeah I'd love to I'd absolutely love to in fact I'm working on my American accent for the last during the entire duration of the lockdown I was I just went through a bunch of youtube videos and you know whatever free stuff that I could lay my hands on because I wasn't making any money so I couldn't afford to like get a diction coach or language coach so I just like you know all the free videos that were out there on youtube I just like went through them all and you know I spent around five months doing that so I just did for two hours every day got myself a coach by September and did 15 sessions with him so I guess I'm about 65 to 70 percent there and the rest of the 30 percent journey I feel will happen once I am in America physically in person and interact with people there because you know I don't wanna I think it's very unrealistic and foolish to sort of like I feel it's very important for me to be there physically to understand the culture because through my understanding of the culture will I be able to portray the people that I'm going to be playing because you know right now all my references are from pop culture and from things that I've seen I mean of course emotions in the vessel and people are the same across but you know culture plays such a significant part on how you present yourself and how you talk and all of that right so yeah I'm hoping that I get some time to sort of I have that luxury to come to America and spend some time there and really invest in understanding the place and you know understanding the people there absolutely you seem like a very well read and you like to do your research in study and stuff have you taken a bunch of or have you read a bunch of acting methods do you have a favorite one that you subscribe to mostly or is it just a combination of all of them yeah not really you know like I went to drama school for a year and that is that is pretty much the place where I got my preliminary understanding of different kinds of techniques I did some animal study I did some life study I studied some basics of Stanislawiski but I can't say that I've studied anything in depth to really adapt that what I do is just a combination of different things that I feel works for me yeah yeah absolutely well it's good it's working it's definitely it's definitely working and what speaking of working are there other projects that are coming up that we should know about or you can talk about that we could let everybody know you're involved in yeah there's there's something exciting that I'm part of that starts from November which is an Indian project they haven't they haven't released an official statement yet so unfortunately I can't speak about it but you know it's they're probably going to release a statement on it in the next couple of weeks and you know like I'll be able to speak about it more often but I'm already training for it it involves a physical transformation so like you know I'm hitting the gym hard I'm following a diet and physical PT is like you know physical training is something that I've never I mean I believe in keeping myself fit and I always work out I go for runs and all of that but to work out with weights and to work out with a trainer is something that I haven't really done so it's a very new experience for me I'm doing some kickboxing I'm doing calisthenics so it's exciting really that's awesome and so you probably gotten asked this quite a few times but I haven't heard the answer what was it like as a young child working with Shahrukh Khan on on my name is Khan well never met him you never met him oh never never mind it makes sense considering that you were him so he just never there okay so what about on did you what was it like working on mom was that your first real big project when you worked on mom yeah that was my big first big commercial project I had worked on Rukh before that which was um which was which was a smaller project in terms of skill but equally enjoyable but mom was definitely a bigger project I worked with three ma'am I worked with Nawaz sir on it and um yeah man it was it was incredible like Ravi Udiyawar the director of the film is I think he's a visionary he studied arts from one of the most prestigious art schools in India called JJ school of arts so he has a very aesthetic way of looking at things and like you know um like the way where Sanderson like you know all his frames are very like beautiful to look at I think even Ravi Udiyawar's frames are like that you know they're very aesthetic looking he brings in a lot of art influences that he's had over the years and I had a great time working on this I mean I had a few scenes with three ma'am I had like what they seem which were which were phenomenal for me like you know just to be around her and she she she she's a reserved person she didn't really speak a lot but um my experience of working with her sharing screen space with her was incredible yeah now a lot of people get to say they did that yeah absolutely yeah and uh so now that you've got some like a claim to you and you can start kind of almost choosing what roles you wanted to you what attracts you most to your roles that that year um I would say there are like three or four things and all of them have to come together for me to be like really excited about it yeah um I think first and foremost is the story and the script um the director who is basically responsible for executing it yeah the dialogues are written you know it's very easy for dialogues to appear like dialogues unless it's intentional uh you know unless it's like a Shakespearean thing where you want it to sound theatrical um but otherwise I feel like you know uh films should be like it's a very intimate space you know it should feel like you're listening to a conversation and not something that's made up right yeah so I think that that's very important and of course the producer because he's responsible to present the film and like decides the scale in which it'll be presented and the kind of reach they'll have um yeah man so I'm just I'm I guess I don't know maybe it's foolish of me to sort of look for all these four things in projects but like I really believe that I work for myself I was you know I don't um I just want to be happy myself when I do something I want to be consumed by it and really affected and engaged by it so who are some of the actors that you look up to and have inspired you throughout your life that are like your favorite whether they're male female Indian-American doesn't matter sure um I think uh Merrill Streep um Daniel DeLewis Joe Pesci uh yeah in Phoenix um Tom Hanks um yes I do to Caprio Christian Bale um yeah we we we would get along we would get along just right yeah just named like all of our favorite yeah um I don't know this how did sir Anthony Hopkins oh yeah yeah did you see the father the goat I have actually seen the there's you know there's a play that was made in India it's actually a french play right so it's an adaptation of that french and there was a play made in India on it with where Naseeruddin Shah played the played the oh that would have been amazing to see it blew my mind I can't I can't tell you how amazing and how intense that performance was I haven't seen the film I'm probably going to watch it tomorrow um because I haven't found a decent print of it so I want to get like a good Blu-ray print of it before I can watch it absolutely yeah and so I I don't know this how did you actually get started in the industry uh completely by accident I never intended to be an actor I wanted to be I was trained in Hindustani classical singing and I wanted to be a playback singer oh and yeah and I was just singing for a stage show where somebody asked me if I was interested in acting and I said yeah why not because now I'd moved to Bombay two years before that with my family this was 2008 and it just felt exciting to be on TV I guess you know for a 13 year old brain that's how it functions and you think that oh it'll be exciting to do something but I get to come on TV that was honestly my biggest motivation at that point in time and I started auditioning from 2008 yeah great I got into it what's it what's your favorite thing well I guess there's two things what would be your favorite thing about being an actor and what's your least favorite thing about being an actor um and it could say more than one thing it doesn't have to be one of each sure I think my favorite thing about being an actor is that you get to you really live so many lives in one life by like really putting yourself in somebody else's body and mind and soul completely you know I feel acting is a very psychophysical process for me it's not just about reading a script and understanding what the writers trying to say but also allowing my body to experience the way the character is written and whatever the character is going through because you know the mind can dispute and knows that it's lying but the body can't dispute the body will take what you give it so I love doing that I think that's that's my favorite part about being an actor about actually I enjoy shooting a lot but I also really enjoy living the person before I start shooting because there's no parameters there are no boundaries I could do whatever I could improvise in life go wherever do whatever and get away with everything you know there's no there's no consequence absolutely and are you are you interested in um tv shows ott platforms stuff in the future yeah I think that's a way forward right everything is happening everything is gonna come on digital yeah absolutely I think you'd be great on on a couple like mezapar you you'd probably really go to mezapar in what so I'm sorry the series with yeah oh yes yeah we always must pronounce it sorry least favorite thing is probably I don't know probably like um I'm not sure like you know I don't feel very comfortable with attention um also because like the beauty of being anonymous and of doing these things that you want to do as an actor um it gets sacrificed at the cost of vanity and at the cost of becoming like popular and famous because then you can't really feel like a spy and do whatever you want to yeah right yeah yeah I guess yeah that that's something that I'm still struggling to deal with yeah sure sure absolutely well uh I do want to thank you so much for for chatting with us I'd like to end this off with a little bit of a rapid fire questions here man uh just stupid questions uh so like coffee or chai which do you prefer coffee black just favorite hollywood film favorite hollywood actor oh sorry oh man how to choose you you kind of went through it before um so yeah your favorite Indian film any region um favorite Indian film it's a tough one guys love it uh you'd be fantastic in any on your adkashi up film uh what are some of your pet peeves pet what pet peeves what annoys you things that things that annoy you things that annoy me um when people don't come on time absolutely favorite hobby besides um I think I really enjoy singing and I really enjoy working with animals hmm hold on I I love to run as well you love to run I love to run I love to go out and run on the road fair uh let's hold on somebody tell me the favorite breakfast favorite thing to eat for breakfast favorite thing to eat for breakfast um I love like a good smoothie bowl hmm acai bowl delicious yeah like a good smoothie bowl with lots of fruits and lots of seeds and some good greek yogurt yeah who's your favorite who's your favorite director I have so many but if I had to choose Stanley Kubrick Alfred Hitchcock David Fincher and Anurag Kashyap great choices wonderful uh and uh lastly who since you're you trying to be a classical singer who in your opinion is the best classical singer oh I don't know like there's so many good classical singers I really like to start Rashid Khan excellent I just wanted to put you on the spot there so thank you so much for answering that we we we actually we actually interviewed um uh Shreya Gosho uh and people were upset that we didn't have her sing on the channel uh so uh we I could have had you sing on the channel looks like a nightingale bro she's she's got such a sweet voice she is wonderful she is but thank you so much for for talking to us man you are you are you're a wonderful wonderful actor we are so excited for everything that you're going to do in in Hollywood in Indian cinema all over because one you care so much about the craft uh and and you're so so talented and so uh we're very much looking forward to uh to any projects that you have coming up and so thank you so much for talking to us Rick yeah the exact same thing like I said in our review the standout thing for us in the film was you and we became really excited about the prospect of watching you continue to work and we immediately we wanted to talk to you because as being actors ourselves we love talking process we love talking about the craft and we love getting to know actors and you are exactly what we had anticipated based from your work you are an extraordinarily articulate intelligent insightful self appreciating and examining for yourself and we really are not only excited about the work you're gonna do but we believe in you we we really believe that you are one of the most inspiring up-and-coming talents that not just India but that the world of film has right now and that great things are really in store for you and we're just going to be happy to watch you do it well man you'll make me cry now bro thank you 100% from the heart well thank you you have a great rest of your night man all right yeah thank you so thank you so much have a great night bye