Saif Ali Khan was stunned by Deepak Dobriyal’s performance in Omkara, asked Vishal Bhardwaj, ‘where he is from?’

“When the scene got cut, Vishal ji and Abhishek Chaubey came to me saying it was fantastic, they were really shocked. And Saif also praised me a lot, saying ‘He is amazing, man!’ and asked where I’m from. I said, ‘I’m from Delhi.’ So he asked, ‘Are you from NSD?’ I said, ‘No.’ Then he was like, ‘What have you done before?’ And I told him I have done films like 1971 and Gulaal, and they are not out yet. And he was completely stunned. He told Vishal ji, ‘He is terrific, man.’” But even in the moment of praise, Vishal Bhardwaj offered Deepak Dobriyal a valuable note.

“Vishal ji told me that this was quite high on emotions, let’s try to tone it down a bit, by like one degree. This one is quite aggressive. So in the second take, I did it very differently. And forget one degree, I went five degrees down. And that’s when the scene truly came alive. That’s when the impact came.” Deepak Dobriyal also shared insights into how he approached building on-screen chemistry with Saif, especially since they had multiple scenes together.

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“Sometimes what happens is that you have the scope to make your own [space], but there what I did was, I focused more on Saif’s role. Because I was sure that he is the star, and if his role comes across well, then mine will automatically make its impact. Because otherwise, if I’m only focusing on mine, then he could have been like, ‘Edit this person’s role out, don’t give him that much footage.’ So I focused more on his role and how it’s coming out. And [on] our tuning.”

Deepak Dobriyal was most recently seen in Jugnuma: The Fable, which is currently playing in theatres.