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Making a humble debut as Rajkumar Rattan Singh in Jodhaa Akbar,Dhaliwal bagged lead roles in lesser known films like Gurbir Grewal’s Coffee House and a few south Indian films. His latest assignment is as second lead in Sunny Deol’s The Man.

“My role as Rajkumar Rattan Singh was a chunky one,but unfortunately it ran into trouble with the Rajput clan and Ashutosh Gowarikar had to edit it,” rues Dhaliwal. The silver lining is that Gowarikar has promised him a role in his ambitious project,Buddha. Dhaliwal,meanwhile,has kept himself occupied,starring in Punjabi films like Manmohan Singh’s Ek Kudi Punjab Di and Mohali-based director Pankaj Basra’s debut film,Virsa,for which Dhaliwal is in town.

“Virsa is a film that works at various levels. It talks about Indo-Pak relations and how the communal divide becomes irrelevant when people live abroad. It focuses on the plight of elderly parents suffering at the hands of their children in foreign lands. It brings to light the importance of family,culture,tradition,love for the elderly,and most importantly,our connection to roots,” explains Dhaliwal,who as Amaan Ali,is the best friend of the character that Arya Babbar plays. “It was pretty inspiring,” he says.

Back home in Mansa,Punjab,Dhaliwal,who is also a trained classical musician and tabla player,plans to use his medical education and open a hospital for the cancer afflicted. “Mansa has a huge number of cancer cases due to lack of health infrastructure. I want to open a hospital that will provide free treatment. Hopefully,if my career does well,I’ll be able to do more social work,something my family is into,” he says.