With a piquant face and a familiar smile, Sonakshi Sinha’s onscreen brother in Dabangg is all set to play Ranbir Kapoor’s best buddy ‘Titu’ in Besharam. As the film releases today, Metrolife catches actor Amitosh Nagpal in a candid chat!
“I was one of those who stood up in his class to say: ‘Sir, mein bada hoke hero banunga’,” shares Amitosh about the time when he was just five. “With time I realised it is better to say that I want to become an ‘actor’ since that was more achievable and later this became ‘theatre actor’,” says the artist who still continues his tryst with the medium.
“My peers said that nobody to date had ever been selected for NSD from Karnal. But I was confident since I had done serious theatre in college.” This despite the fact that his parents worried that their son won’t be able to make a living from this profession.
“Nobody at home wanted me to be an actor. It was only when my parents saw me in NSD productions and witnessed audience members coming in big cars, they felt that I could survive doing theatre alone.” He enjoyed the process but felt ‘cinema’ was calling him.
“The feel of a cinema hall is just too magical. I can never concentrate on a film and start imagining my own story midway,” says the actor whose writing skills will soon be tested in Madhuri Dixit starrer Gulaab Gang and Soumik Sen’s Phirki, for both of which he has written dialogues and the script for Chambal Safari.
Amitosh has also penned lyrics for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and will croon a number in Besharam. “Everything is an extension of acting. In theatre, I used to do so much – which is nothing as compared to what I do here,” shares Amitosh.
“I enjoyed the process of writing dialogues for Gulaab Gang. But once the script is done, I give it to the director to do whatever he wants. I hate it when people ask me to make changes but I am a creative person, not a businessman!”
So far as acting is concerned, he doesn’t mind playing a sidekick. “I would like to play larger characters but the trust in audience’s mind for my acting will build slowly. I got a lot of offers after Dabangg but didn’t take them up. When Abhinav (Kashyap) called me for Besharam, I didn’t know how important my character was but I was sure my presence would be felt since it is the story of one thief and I am the other thief in there.”
Ask him about his offscreen camaraderie with the ‘other thief’ and Amitosh replies with a smile, “Ranbir (Kapoor) is humble and takes you to a comfort level and was honest enough to point out my mistakes and it was magical to have in front of me, two people (Rishi and Neetu Kapoor) whom I have grown up watching on the big screen. I felt, ‘Arre abhi to Rishiji ko dekh rahe the daphli bajate hue aur ab unke saath kaam kar rahe hain!’”