Pass out of IMA Dehradun, Afghan Army officer plays bit roles in Hindi movies to earn a living

The Indian Express spoke to Amani, who is in Amritsar shooting for a small role in an upcoming series on Jallianwala Bagh being shot by director Ram Madhvani. Amani is playing the role of a British Army officer.

“I passed out of IMA with the 149th Regular Course in December 2021 after training for one and a half years. I was part of the Poonch Company in the Cariappa Battalion. The then President of India Ram Nath Kovind was the reviewing officer of the parade,” says Amani, who was commissioned into the Infantry in the Afghan Army as a lieutenant.

A journalism graduate from Al Beroni University in Golbahar in Afghanistan, Amani now lives in Malviya Nagar in New Delhi. He has no permanent job and does odd jobs, including movie roles. “I have also acted in a movie of Akshay Kumar in July this year. I played a British officer in that too. A friend of mine got me these roles,” he says.

After finding that he could not go back to Afghanistan and that the Indian Army has no policy for inducting Afghans trained by it, Lieutenant Amani enrolled in Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar and did a one-year course in digital marketing.

“The biggest problem that I and other Afghan Army officers trained in IMA and OTA face in getting jobs is the lack of bonafides. Our visas have expired, the Afghan embassy has shut down, we have no Indian paperwork to prove our identity and this causes a lot of problems,” says Amani.

Amani approached the military consultant of the series being shot in Amritsar, Colonel Bhupinder Shahi (retd), for a letter of recommendation which he may use to establish his bonafides. “I have requested the colonel to help me so that I can get some respectable job,” he says. His Indian Army course-mates who passed out of IMA Dehradun along with him are now about to become Captains and are posted in various parts of the country.

“My family is in Afghanistan. My father has passed away but my mother, two brothers and a sister live there,” he says, adding that he does not wish to return as of now due to the conditions in his country.

Colonel Shahi says many such Afghan Army officers are desperately looking for jobs. “They must be helped to find gainful employment. They are not only trained soldiers but also officers who can lead troops,” he said.

For now, dressed up in a uniform of khaki shirt and shorts, carrying a replica rifle and playing a British soldier is the closest that Lieutenant Amani can get to realising his dream of being an Army officer.