I am the only one in my family to get into acting.
I am a huge optimist.
On the sets of the movie 'Manto,' I found that one of the challenges of embodying real-life stories is the mixed medium of facts and imagination, and how one's collage of experiences colour ones representation on celluloid.
Every time a medal is won on the national or international platform, our country really enjoys winners but we don't appreciate the effort that goes into creating winners.
It's a big responsibility to play an icon like Sunil Gavaskar.
How you carry yourself is how people perceive you.
I have been part of really good projects which I'm extremely proud of and 'Chhichhore' will stand tall among my body of work. This is my first Rs 100 crore film and I know I will cherish this moment always.
Chhichhore' is the toughest film that I have done.
To play the role of a sports champion, I first needed to break my body and become supremely fit to convincingly look like a college athlete. Along with acing sporting disciplines, I also had to balance the emotional graph and light heartedness of a college drama while competing in varying sport! Combining the two drained a lot out of me.
We grew up climbing trees, playing outdoors and cycling.
I think an excess of anything is bad, be it mobile phones, social media, private tuitions or watching television.
It is important to experience everything. If you haven't travelled in life, if you haven't had friends, if you haven't been a Chhichhora, then you haven't done anything in life.
I internalise every role that I do and my creative process sees me immerse myself with the setting and the character that I have at hand.
When people see me as Gavaskar on screen, I want them to feel that they are looking at the person that they have known and when I play on screen, it should remind them of how he played.
As actors, that has been challenging for us to pick up the nuances of the living legends we are playing.
I virtually grew up at Air Force bases, and when I was younger, I'd dream of wearing a uniform like my father and grandfather. But when I turned 10, I felt theatre and acting were my calling.
I want to explore diverse genres.
My only criteria while selecting roles is that it should be a lead part in an interesting story where the character has depth and layers.
I was an above-average student who excelled in basketball and theatre.
My focus are only films. There is something special about films as when it is being played in a dark theatre, the audience is watching only you. Whereas in TV there are a lot distraction.
